Helical Fusion CEO on Business Strategy, Fusion Energy

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00:00So tell us a little bit about what you're doing because I know that you just

00:02finished a 15 million dollar funding round just in the summer so you are

00:06trying to put forward this fusion reactor. Yes of course the first that the

00:10fusion is energy of the Sun so the fusion energy is to create an artificial

00:16Sun on the earth mainly for the power generation plants and we have a spot out

00:20from the Japanese you know National Institute for fusion science in Japan in

00:252021 and we are trying to implement the world's first commercial fusion power

00:30plants in the 2030s. So how are you using the 50 million dollars recently raised

00:35and what are your goals and timeline? Okay so we are using utilizing the fund raised

00:41the fund for mainly for the R&D to complete R&D with especially the

00:48engineering technologies like high temperature superconducting magnets which

00:52is one of the components core components for commercial fusion reactors and we

00:57will complete our R&D in by 2030 and then we will move forward to the

01:04construction and operation the first fusion power plants in the 2030s so the

01:10the first power generation would be the middle of 2030 or so. Talking about R&D I

01:16mean this research has been going on for decades but the commercialization has

01:20been difficult so what makes you viable? Yes so there is over 60 years experience

01:28in Japan and all over the world regarding the fusion science and fusion

01:33development and we are now focusing on the main two key components of the

01:39fusion reactors the high temperature magnets high temperature superconduct

01:43magnets and liquid metal blanket which is core components to extract energy from the

01:48fusion reaction and convert energy to the heat to drive the turbine so we are in the

01:55last one mile toward the commercialization. Takei of course the long-running joke

02:03with fusion energy is that it is always 30 years away do you feel that that is no

02:07longer the case that finally that this technology is on the cusp of being realized?

02:12So Paul was asking that the joke is always that it's just a few years away so yeah do you believe

02:22that is in the cusp of realization when it comes to actually making money from it?

02:26Yes of course so as you said it took over six years so far but we are now that's one mile toward

02:37commercialization and because we have already graduated from the scientific

02:41issues like plasma physics thanks to the all on the in the national universities and

02:46national laboratory and so we are sure that we can complete our preparation in

02:51three to four years yes in three to four years how much interest is there then on

02:58investors getting into this field right now and what are the potential partners

03:02that you're looking at? Yes there are a lot of investors in Japan and all the world who

03:09are interested in the fusion technology and the commercialization of the fusion energy

03:13and we have 20 to 30 investors in our companies mainly from the Japanese

03:20Japanese corporates and the Japanese VCs and the interest in the fusion

03:25technology is rapidly growing in Japan as well so yes we expect that there are lots of

03:31and more and more investors or more and more the corporates will join us tell us a

03:36little bit about the industry here in Japan because we know that the new Prime

03:40Minister Takaichi has been an advocate of nuclear fusion are you going to see

03:45more backup from the government side and what conversations are you having yes

03:49hopefully and as I said the miss miss Takaichi the new Prime Minister in Japan is

03:55very supportive to accelerate fusion technology in Japan here in Japan and so

04:01the affected by the stream the many Japanese corporates are very active in

04:08the fusion areas now so yes we expect the much more investors and the

04:14corporates will join us in the accelerate industry in future area is the industry

04:19that you're looking right now still domestic or are you thinking about exports of

04:23the technology as well at the moment they are developing technology and domestically but

04:30because there is some national security or export regulation in Japan and of course in

04:37the other countries but once we complete our technologies and realize the future energy

04:43this could be used in yes of course globally is there a timeline and I know the national

04:49security and economic security these days are very important when it comes to this sector so how

04:54are you viewing that yes so as we plan to complete our technology in the 2030s so

05:01the from the 2040s the commercialization will be the activated globally yes when it

05:08comes to national security again how do you view that sort of balancing act yeah that's a very

05:13very important point and the key point is how to expand a business and protective technology

05:20right so the the secret key is to the integrate the commercial fusion reactor system itself whole

05:30system of the fusion reactors and how to operate such fusion technologies right so this is kind of not

05:37just the hard technology but also the soft technology or engineering an integrated system so though we can divide

05:45such a hard or soft technology and we can you know protect our technology or system integration by ourselves

05:55we continue to see so much focus on the energy sector because of the demand that we're expecting from

06:00artificial intelligence yes are you seeing that interest now and what is the expectation for

06:07that business in the years to come yes the AI or that there's are very important for the demand for electricity and that's why the

06:17fusion is very you know expected to be some potential very huge industry in the world and so and especially in the

06:28region where the number of population is going down like Japan that we have to compensate the labor force

06:35lost lost in the near future and so we need AI or robotics or something like that and that kind of technology

06:44consume a lot of huge amounts of electricity and that's why the fusion is needed for all human beings right

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