Lex Fridman Podcast

#485 – David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy

Montag, 17. November 2025 · 2 h 45

MP3

Shownotes

David Kirtley is a nuclear fusion engineer and CEO of Helion Energy, a company working on building the world’s first commercial fusion power plant by 2028.

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Transcript:

lexfridman.com/david-kirtley-transcript

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EPISODE LINKS:

David’s X: x.com/dekirtley

David’s LinkedIn: bit.ly/4qX0KXp

Helion: helionenergy.com

Helion’s YouTube: youtube.com/HelionEnergy

SPONSORS:

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OUTLINE:

() – Introduction

() – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections

() – Nuclear fission vs fusion

() – Physics of E=mc^2

() – Is nuclear fusion safe?

() – Chernobyl

() – Geopolitics

() – Extreme scenarios

() – How nuclear fusion works

() – Extreme temperatures

() – Fusion control and simulation

() – Electricity from fusion

() – First fusion power plant in 2028

() – Energy needs of GPU clusters

() – Kardashev scale

() – Fermi Paradox

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