Dennis Whyte: Nuclear Fusion and the Future of Energy | Lex Fridman Podcast #353

Dennis Whyte is a nuclear scientist at MIT and the director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Rocket Money: https://rocketmoney.com/lex - MasterClass: https://masterclass.com/lex to get 15% off - InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off EPISODE LINKS: Dennis's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MIT_Fusion Dennis's LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/dennis-whyte-33474a54 Dennis's Website: https://www.psfc.mit.edu/whyte SPARC: https://www.psfc.mit.edu/sparc MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center: https://www.psfc.mit.edu MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center's YouTube: https://youtube.com/@mitplasmascienceandfusionc6211 Commonwealth Fusion Systems: https://cfs.energy Commonwealth Fusion Systems YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonwealthFusionSystems PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 0:32 - Nuclear fusion 18:31 - e=mc^2 32:58 - Fission vs fusion 38:10 - Nuclear weapons 41:56 - Plasma 49:07 - Nuclear fusion reactor 1:04:27 - 2022 nuclear fusion breakthrough explained 1:25:04 - Magnetic confinement 1:44:14 - ITER 1:49:01 - SPARC 2:03:00 - Future of fusion power 2:11:33 - Engineering challenges 2:30:14 - Nuclear disasters 2:34:58 - Cold fusion 2:49:14 - Kardashev scale 2:58:38 - Advice for young people SOCIAL: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman