The Final Barrier to (Nearly) Infinite Energy

Thanks to Radiacode for sponsoring this video. Use the promo code "PBS" to get an exclusive 10% discount at: https://103.radiacode.com/PBS They say fusion is 50 years away, no matter when you ask. Then why are billions suddenly being pumped into fusion startups? Yes to train LLMs, but there's a reason the technobrats are bullish on fusion in particular. The fact is, the technological challenges have been chipped away and in many cases solved over the past decades, and there's really no one deal-breaker difficulty remaining. One of the final challenges is deciding on the physical vessel to contain our mini artificial stars--and we have some pretty sci-fi options that are nearly ready to go. PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Matt Caplan, Jake Mitstifer, & Matt O'Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producer: Andrew Kornhaber Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2024 PBS. All rights reserved. End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/user/MultiDroideka Space Time Was Made Possible In Part By: Big Bang Wojciech Szymski Bryce Fort Peter Barrett Alexander Tamas Morgan Hough Juan Benet Vinnie Falco Mark Rosenthal Supernova Grace Biaelcki Glenn Sugden Ethan Cohen Stephen Wilcox The Tyacke boys Mark Heising Hypernova Ulrich and Alexandre Francois Spencer Jones Dean Galvin Michael Tidwell Stephen Spidle Massimiliano Pala Justin Lloyd David Giltinan Kenneth See Gregory Forfa Alex Kern Scott Gorlick Paul Stehr-Green Ben Delo Scott Gray Антон Кочков Robert Ilardi John R. Slavik Donal Botkin chuck zegar Daniel Muzquiz Gamma Ray Burst Bryan White Eric Raschke Aaron Pinto Kacper Cieśla Satwik Pani Param Saxena John De Witt Nathaniel Bennett Sandhya Devi Michael Oulvey Arko Provo Mukherjee Mike Purvis Christopher Wade Anthony Crossland Grace Seraph Stephen Saslow Robert DeChellis Tomaz Lovsin Anthony Leon Lori Ferris Koen Wilde Nicolas Katsantonis Richard Steenbergen Joe Pavlovic Chuck Lukaszewski Cole B. Combs Jerry Thomas Nikhil Sharma John Anderson Bradley Ulis Craig Falls Kane Holbrook Ross Story Harsh Khandhadia Matt Quinn Michael Lev Rad Antonov Terje Vold James Trimmier Jeremy Soller Paul Wood Kent Durham Jim Bartosh John H. Austin, Jr. Faraz Khan Almog Cohen Daniel Jennings David Johnston Michael Barton Isaac Suttell Bleys Goodson Mark Delagasse Mark Daniel Cohen Shane Calimlim Tybie Fitzhugh Eric Kiebler Craig Stonaha Frederic Simon Jim Hudson Michael Purcell John Funai Adrien Molyneux Bradley Jenkins Vlad Shipulin Justin Waters Thomas Dougherty Zac Sweers Dan Warren Joseph Salomone