Lockheed Martin Skunkworks - Compact Fusion

[choff]

The other upside would be, given the enthusiasm they've confirmed polywell scaling with the approx. 1 by 2 meter machine.

[rcain]

If this is a two-coil cylindrical machine, maybe Lockheed is using a circular array of their "magnetic beam" devices to block the ring cusp between the coils.

is this patent actually related to the Lockhead claim?

i don't really unnderstand how its meant to work. nor how a patent was granted on such flimsy description.

from what i do read, it seems no relation of Polywell. though i wish them luck with it, whatever it is.

[DeltaV]

The patent has no obvious connection to the Chase talk.

But, assuming it magnifies the field as claimed...
If you drop two opposing arms of the "plus" array, then set a multitude of the modified (now T-shaped) devices around a circle, closely spaced, with the retained arms of the "plus" (bar of the T) perpendicular to the plane of the circle and the "beam" (now "fan") pointing toward the center (leg of the T away from the center), you'd get a convex field that would tend to plug the circle cusp between two parallel, coaxial magrid coils. Or, use two ring- and one washer-shaped permanent magnets, respectively magnetized axially and radially, if they could take the heat.

BTW, patents granted on flimsy, or absurd, descriptions are now commonplace. Not just those with possible classified application. The entire patent system needs drastic overhaul.

[Stubby]

Skunk Works appearing in more and more stories.

[krenshala]

I guess the Skunk Works isn't as black as it used to be.

[Nydoc]

The name Thomas McGuire is in this document:
http://www.ornl.gov/info/reports/1968/3445605130159.pdf
It's not the same guy, is it?

[quixote]

Seems unlikely. This document was written in 1968, and the guy in the photo doesn't look that old.

[MSimon]

Probably this McGuire:

http://ssl.mit.edu/publications/theses/ ... Thomas.pdf

[MSimon]

Here is something I dug up.

Glen Wurden’s Extemporaneous Public Comment FESAC Feb 2012
Ok, what can I add to that? Let me start by saying it is all about the plan. We do not have a
viable plan to fund our proposed programs…that includes ITER…and especially it is driven by
ITER’s (funding needs). We have seen this coming for years, this is not a new thing. In a sense
this (the FY13 budget) is exactly a disruption, without a precursor…..because when you call up
the provost at 8:30AM on the same morning, and tell them at their university that their main
project is going to be shut down. ….this is exactly a disruption. And in fact, there is no
mitigation system for this disruption. And we don’t have a way out of it, without other
consequences. So, …a…people talk about ITER being the “capstone of the American fusion
program”. I do not want ITER to become the “tombstone” of the American fusion program. And
if we go down this pathway, where we can look at the out-year numbers that we need for ITER,
the obvious conclusion is that there is another machine down the road (DIII-D) that will have the
same problem that C-Mod is now experiencing.
I’ve been through the disruption of a program, back when alternates were killed in Los Alamos
in 1990. We lost our machine, ….actually multiple machines, our groups and our entire division.
It took ten years to recover from that, and even then we probably haven’t recovered. We can’t
do this to our human capital. It is our human teams that are the most important thing here. I don’t
care about the $200M investment in hardware (at C-Mod)…that is not the issue. Because you
know, every person has a career plan, every person has an education plan, they have an
investment plan, and they even have a retirement plan if they are lucky. (In the same way) we
should think about our programs too. I mean, every machine will turn off. I have no doubt. I have
worked on many machines. The will turn off (at some point). But you need to do it in a way
where it is not a disruption. You need to do it in a way that you have a plan. And whether it is a
5-year plan, or a 10-year plan mandated by our friends in Congress…..and we must deliver that
plan…..if we don’t deliver that plan there are even bigger consequences to our program.
But it is actually a good thing to have a plan. It is not a bad thing. You can see where you are
going (with a plan). And if you see where you are going, and you have talked about it with the
community….then you can, you can tell your students what the future is. When there are
disruptions, you have no future. And we can’t let our premier tokamak team in this country, with
a premier education mission, disappear overnight. And even when they are told that their
research money is ok for next year at some reduced level …..what about FY14? If their number
is zero, how can they plan? They can’t plan. By the way, my budget at Los Alamos is down
48%, or even more, from $5.3M in FY11 to $1.88M in this god-awful plan for FY13. We can not
go down this course…….(silence)……by the way, a vision without a plan, is a nightmare.
Dr. Glen A. Wurden
LANL Fusion Energy Sciences Program Manager
P-24 Plasma Physics Group

I am way more fortunate than those guys. I have no plan. Which frees me.

[DeltaV]

Lockheed Martin Outlines Plans for Nuclear Fusion Reactor

Note how the upper coil has 8 turn layers and the lower coil has 6 turn layers.



Are those permanent magnets embedded in the lower flange, or is it just the lighting?

[ladajo]

That does not seem to look anything like what was shown in the TED talk.

[choff]

Very different looking, maybe the picture was thrown in radomly, they describe it like Z pinch or Shiva Star.

[paperburn1]

That does not seem to look anything like what was shown in the TED talk.

Its not, that's plan two.
they drop little cans of aluminum, full fusion-able material and crush them in a controlled way to make a pulse of energy. I will see if I can find the references.

[paperburn1]

That does not seem to look anything like what was shown in the TED talk.

Its not, that's plan two.
they drop little cans of aluminum, full fusion-able material and crush them in a controlled way to make a pulse of energy. I will see if I can find the references.

or as they put it ,known as “magnetized liner inertialfusion,” or MagLIF. MagLIF crushes a fuel pellet to achieve fusion energy, as withinertial confnement fusion. However, instead of using lasers, it uses a magneticpulse, as with magnetic confnement fusion. The hybrid approach, researchers believe, will allow them to achieve net energy gain by the end of 2013

[MSimon]

That does not seem to look anything like what was shown in the TED talk.

Its not, that's plan two.
they drop little cans of aluminum, full fusion-able material and crush them in a controlled way to make a pulse of energy. I will see if I can find the references.

or as they put it ,known as “magnetized liner inertialfusion,” or MagLIF. MagLIF crushes a fuel pellet to achieve fusion energy, as withinertial confnement fusion. However, instead of using lasers, it uses a magneticpulse, as with magnetic confnement fusion. The hybrid approach, researchers believe, will allow them to achieve net energy gain by the end of 2013

Assuming they get more energy out of crushing the can than it costs to make the can. And the aluminum does not get too radioactive. And they can find a way in this system to breed T.

I still like Polywell.