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/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman – Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) – Introduction (05:54) – Nuclear fusion (23:53) – e=mc^2 (38:20) – Fission vs fusion (43:32) – Nuclear weapons (47:19) – Plasma (54:29) – Nuclear fusion reactor (1:09:50) – 2022 nuclear fusion breakthrough explained (1:30:27) – Magnetic confinement (1:49:36) – ITER (1:54:23) – SPARC (2:08:23) – Future of fusion power (2:16:55) – Engineering challenges (2:35:36) – Nuclear disasters (2:40:21) – Cold fusion (2:54:36) – Kardashev scale (3:04:00) – Advice for young people

Dr. Jordan Peterson chats with fusion expert Dr. Dennis Whyte about nuclear fusion, recreating sun's energy, plasma, fusion vs fission, safety aspects, particle behavior, energy generation, and the potential of fusion energy as a clean alternative to fossil fuels.

Professor Dennis Whyte, Director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, discusses fusion energy in the season finale. Topics include the potential of fusion energy, challenges in achieving high temperatures, transformation of matter at extreme temperatures, challenges of producing fusion energy, and commercializing fusion energy.