#485 – David Kirtley: Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics, and the Future of Energy
November 17, 2025
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Show notes
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:
https://lexfridman.com/david-kirtley-transcript
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EPISODE LINKS:
David’s X: https://x.com/dekirtley
David’s LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4qX0KXp
Helion: https://www.helionenergy.com/
Helion’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/HelionEnergy
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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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