Topic: Lockheed Martin makes major Fusion breakthrough

[Lieutenant_Q]

According to the article, Lockheed is about 5 years away from a functioning Prototype reactor, and by 2030 expects to have 100 Mega-Watt reactors that can fit on a full sized truck bed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/15/us-lockheed-fusion-idUSKCN0I41EM20141015

Initial work demonstrated the feasibility of building a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet, which could fit on the back of a large truck, and is about 10 times smaller than current reactors, McGuire told reporters.

Lockheed said it had shown it could complete a design, build and test it in as little as a year, which should produce an operational reactor in 10 years, McGuire said. A small reactor could power a U.S. Navy warship, and eliminate the need for other fuel sources that pose logistical challenges.

Compact nuclear fusion would produce far less waste than coal-powered plants since it would use deuterium-tritium fuel, which can generate nearly 10 million times more energy than the same amount of fossil fuels, the company said.

Ultra-dense deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, is found in the earth's oceans, and tritium is made from natural lithium deposits.

[knightstorm]

Fusion power has been just around the corner since the 70s.  I'll believe it when I see it.

[Brush Wolf]

Fusion power has been just around the corner since the 70s.  I'll believe it when I see it.

Very true, fusion power has been vaporware for a long time but this time it is an actual business and not some scientist that probably has trouble balancing his/her checkbook.

[FPF-DieHard]

Fusion power has been just around the corner since the 70s.  I'll believe it when I see it.

Very true, fusion power has been vaporware for a long time but this time it is an actual business and not some scientist that probably has trouble balancing his/her checkbook.

And this is what gives me some faith in it actually happening.  Though funny enough, I know a few liberals that are kinda annoyed this came from a corporation and not a university.

[Sirgod]

I really hope this is so, and that they can get it off the ground.

Recall hearing something about some lab, that had managed to pull off a more power than put in type thing. (one of those supercollider places, I'll have to look it up again.)

The damn thing read like an IMpulse drive from the novels though. Internally metered pulse drive, where a particle, hit another particle, and those hit another set, etc. etc. which caused a huge power output.

I thought it was fiction of course, but who knows. I just hope we have the wisdom to use this new power source correctly.

Stephen

[Lieutenant_Q]

They'll be even more annoyed if it works, and we have limitless clean energy, and they can no longer justify destroying our way of life for the sake of the planet.  Oh some of them were worried about the planet, and they'll be content.  But the head "Green" organizers were really just Communists that were trying to crash our system after the Cold War was viewed to be an inevitable US victory after the election and spending of Ronald Reagan.

But Lockheed Martin has a vested interested in getting this done, they stand to make BILLIONS if this works, and they've apparently already sunk millions into the project.  Businesses don't spend this kind of money if they aren't sure that a) it will get them results, b) it gets them good PR, or c) they can write the whole thing off as a tax deduction.  Given the lack of attention it's gotten and the Federal Government's unwillingness to do tax write offs at the moment, I think they are banking on a.

[knightstorm]

They'll be even more annoyed if it works, and we have limitless clean energy, and they can no longer justify destroying our way of life for the sake of the planet.

The power potential from fusion is far from limitless, and our energy needs will keep skyrocketing until we build that Dyson sphere.

[Corbomite]

I wonder if they will be able to use it to make heavier elements as a free(ish) by-product. They will already have solved the helium problem we face just by igniting the thing, but it might be nice to be able to make anything up to iron without much effort.

[Brush Wolf]

They'll be even more annoyed if it works, and we have limitless clean energy, and they can no longer justify destroying our way of life for the sake of the planet.

The power potential from fusion is far from limitless, and our energy needs will keep skyrocketing until we build that Dyson sphere.

True it isn't limitless but it would be far more power than we would need for a long long time.

[TAnimaL]

gee Lt Q, troll much??

I'm one of them there liberals, and I was purty excited to see this news, though I'm in Knightstorm's camp on believing this when I see it.

[Tulwar]

And this is what gives me some faith in it actually happening.  Though funny enough, I know a few liberals that are kinda annoyed this came from a corporation and not a university.

Lockeed Martin is practically is the government.  Most of the government's high level engineering projects are run through companies like this.  Also, corperate R & D programs are integrated with university engineering schools.  We do the same thing that turned Germany into an industrial powerhouse in the 19th Century.

This is a technological discussion, not a political soapbox.

[FPF-DieHard]

This will work.  It's Lockhead Martin.  It will be late, it will be over-budget, but it will work.

[Tulwar]

This will work.  It's Lockhead Martin.  It will be late, it will be over-budget, but it will work.

I wish I had your optimism.  Nothing that Lockeed has released said anything about solving the intractable problems with making fusion work.  As the government isn't buying fleets of war planes, Lockeed Martin's stock is loosing value.  I fear it is just a matter of making a BS announcement to try keeping their stock values somewhere north of junk bonds.