Is Lockheed’s fusion project breaking new ground?

cosmosmagazine.com ^ | 19 hours ago

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The defence company’s announcement that it is working on a fusion reactor that could fit on the back of a truck was greeted with surprise. It could change the future of the planet, but some are sceptical. Dan Clery reports.

A scientist works inside a fusion reactor. But frustration with the slow pace of big projects has led to small privately funded efforts to find a faster, cheaper process. Monty Rakusen/GettyImages

Lockheed Martin, the US defence company behind stealth aircraft, is known for working on futuristic projects. Even so, its announcement last week surprised many people. The company revealed it is working on a fusion reactor that it says could power a small city but will be compact enough to fit on the back of a truck. At a press conference last week, Lockheed team leader Tom McGuire talked about fusion-powered ships and even aircraft. “We have an idea that makes us very excited,” he said. Fusion researchers have reacted with some scepticism, especially to the claim that the reactor could be ready for commercial use in 10 years.

[Rodamala]

I’ll take the bright red Mr Fusion, please.

I bought the upgrade for my Flux Capacitor at O'Reilly Auto Parts.

[Steely Tom]

Looks interesting. Let’s see how they stop 2.4 MeV and 14 MeV neutrons in something that fits on a truck! Exciting times.

Your comment caused me to think if something that might be done with nanostructures.

There have been some very big breakthroughs in materials science in the last few years, and there are more just on the horizon.

When you factor in the whole subject of Bose-Einstein condensates and really advanced things that have been done with lasers, nanoparticles, etc., it's not hard to imagine that the kind of people and resources that can be attracted by a top-flight company like L-M might come up with something really exciting.

In any event, I can't imagine that the senior management of L-M would put their company's prestige on the line with an announcement like this if they weren't certain it was going to work out.

As someone else noted, the L-M Skunkworks has done the impossible many times in the past. I would imagine that for every time they've done the impossible in a public way (as with the SR-71) there are probably three or four completely secret ways they've done the impossible.

[mrsmith]

The Univ of Washington has a better plan IMO.

Be funny if they both worked- after all these years of setbacks in fusion.

[gaijin]

Interesting, sure, but isn’t this vaporware, at this early point..?

They’re talking about radically miniturizing a device that HAS NOT **YET** BEEN BUILT, EVEN IN LARGE FORMAT.

To me the story is:

1. We have new exciting idea

2. It will involve a smaller version of something we have not built.

What’s the big deal...??

[DBrow]

I am well acquainted with he physics of stopping neutrons, as I said, it will be interesting to see how they do it. I, and you, expect something novel.

Physically, stopping a neutron creates a radioactive atom (n, gamma reaction) and a shower of gamma, followed by the decay of the activation product.

Traditionally, you stop a neutron with lots of hydrogen (like in water or polyethylene) or a combination of poly and boron or poly and cadmium, with a lead or DU backup to stop the gamma.

A newer approach would be welcome!

[Sherman Logan]

Vaporware. Thanks, that's the term I couldn't remember.

Reminds me of the time I moved a thousand miles and took a job on the ground floor of a company that was going national with their new $5M venture capital investment.

I was there a month before I discovered they didn't actually have $5M, they had a planto get $5M in venture capital. Turns out the two things are not identical. LOL

[dynoman]

http://aviationweek.com/fusion

[robert14]

They have not built a test unit yet. I do not believe it. I am surprised that Lockheed would buy into this without a test.

[FreeInWV]

“Lockheed is a little more reputable....”

Reputable? Not at all. I’ve worked with too many LMers to know that Lockheed and reputable do not remotely belong in the same sentence. But they are big enough and shadowy enough to make this happen. Nobody is gonna bribe or threaten them to make this go away. Their greed is what will drive this. If they pull it off, they will be wealthy beyond anything you can imagine.

Did anyone notice that they are personally funding it. No fat government research contract. That says a lot.

[AZLiberty]

I don’t see why you say that. There’s more evidence that E-Cat generates net energy than that Lockheed’s fusion reactor of the future does so.

[robert14]

I have been following the fusion dream for over half a century. Ecat is a scam. All they have to do to prove it works is put a water jacket around the ecat unit and drive a toy steam engine with the heat it generates. No ecat expert has even proposed such a simple test. Same with this fusion device. Either show us some data/test results or keep quiet until you have some results to share with the world. Sorry for the negativity, but I have seen too many fusion breakthroughs in my time that never went anywhere.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I’m thrilled the Magnetic Mirrors Fusion Reactor you depicted is such a strong supporter of breast cancer research. Can I wear a “fusion cancer” ribbon to show solidarity?

[Justa]

Well, you have to give them credit for reducing the fusion reactor wait time from 20 years to 10.

[Nowhere Man]

Why don’t they build a functioning fusion reactor of ANY size?

Then we can talk about the possibility of shrinking it.

Fusion power has been “20 years away” for at least 40 years, and probably more.

This reminds me of the 1958 story where the British claimed they made a fusion reactor but nothing happened. Yeah, there have been some interesting things in this field, to me, most notable is Philo T. Farnsworth's fusor but despite many efforts from the 1930's to now, we have not seen much progress in fusion, the H-bomb excepted of course.

The Skunkworks is amazing indeed, they came up with some interesting planes but fusion is a different path. Until I see proof, because of us being "punk'd" for the last 80 years, I need to see proof. I think fusion is a tough nut to crack, even if the Skunkworks brings aboard a chipmunk, a squirrel, a rabbit and a hedgehog to help out. B-)

Here is an interested article from the 1964 World's Fair GE exhibit on fusion about the problems that need to be conquered:

GE Fusion Exhibit - 1964 World's Fair

[robert14]

In 1960 I understood what a fusion reactor would mean to the world. That was 54 years ago. I might be here in 10 years but I doubt I will be here 20 years from now.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks...Another article there:

High Hopes – Can Compact Fusion Unlock New Power For Space And Air Transport?

[AZLiberty]

You might be interested in this recent 32-day independent evaluation of an updated E-Cat device, particularly the evidence of a large amount of energy being produced from a single gram of nickel/lithium/hydrogen fuel, and the evidence of nuclear transmutations in the fuel without dangerous radiation or radioactive byproducts. Both the nickel and the lithium components of the fuel had significantly different distributions of isotopes before and after, signifying nuclear changes to the material.

For 32 days that single gram of fuel reportedly kept the reaction vessel 800 Celsius degrees hotter than the same vessel under the same conditions without the fuel, an energy equivalent of something like 45 gallons of gasoline from a single gram of fuel.

Unfortunately, the experiment is more complex than running a steam engine, though that would be a trivial extension. The problem is that the current E-Cat still requires electrical input for control purposes, so some energy is radiated without the E-Cat in operation. But the evidence shows that E-Cat radiates far more energy than its electrical input. The electrical input would provide enough input by itself to power a steam engine. The experiment shows that the energy produced by E-Cat would power several similar steam engines.

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the ping Ernie. Obviously to many of us it will be very interesting
to see how these new experiments will work out. If all the work going into this project
ends up providing a actual prototype that can demonstrate electrical energy cheaply.

Of course. We can justifiably wonder. How it would work out for America in
particular. I'll leave it go at that. Other then saying. I doubt it will be cheap.

[satan]

Alien technology finally reverse-engineered from the captured UFO.

[potlatch]

Just checking in to say a ‘hi’ Ernest, haven’t ‘seen’ you in awhile. Appreciate the ping but am too unfamiliar with the topic to post a decent reply, lol. Regards!