Lockheed Skunkworks Announces Comm. Fusion in 4 years

[IntLibber]

http://www.dvice.com/2013-2-22/lockheed ... four-years

Lockheed skunk works says they'll have a 100 MW, trailer truck sized fusion power plant commercially available in 4 years.

[D Tibbets]

I think this is the same Lockheed presentation from last Spring. My opinion is that this is a reconfigured Polywell type machine. The author of this article is not very clear about the fuel , etc. but at least it is a further spread of the awareness of this approach. Again, the video itself is a good and intriguing presentation by a big player on the World stage.

Dan Tibbets

[mvanwink5]

In the video the presenter said they would use D-T for fuel, so for 100MW net electric, that is going to be one large truck (turbine, generator, condenser, main transformer, cooling towers, etc). Still, it is certainly smaller than a tokamak.

You don't suppose there is a perception of competition developing amongst the alternative small fusion efforts? LM, EMC2, GF, TA, FF(?)

[crowberry]

http://www.dvice.com/2013-2-22/lockheed ... four-years

Lockheed skunk works says they'll have a 100 MW, trailer truck sized fusion power plant commercially available in 4 years.

This topic was discussed a lot in this thread on this forum, so you should check it out.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4273
The amount of tehcnical information releases by LM in that talk was minimal, but everything is basically summarized on this page http://www.fusenet.eu/node/400. Beta equals one, good curvature of the magnetic field, compact size with a 100 MW reactor fitting on a truck sounds like it could be a Polywell, but the picture of the plasma and parts of the coils does not look like a polywell.

[DeltaV]

Torulf's "synthetic" FRC --
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4516&p=102312&sid= ... 74#p102312





EDIT: Repaired censored image link.

[hanelyp]

Torulf's "synthetic" FRC --

fits the available evidence for the Skunkworks design as well as anything so far as I can see.

[mvanwink5]

http://newsdaily.com/2014/10/lockheed-s ... y-project/
Lockheed says makes breakthrough on fusion energy project
sorry, did not see the previous post (new topic created)

[crowberry]

mvanwink5 thanks for that link! The most detailed information is in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5643.

[hanelyp]

Different illustrations of the reactor insides at http://m.aviationweek.com/technology/sk ... or-details

[Carl White]

Reuters is reporting that defense contractor Lockheed Martin claims it has made a technological breakthrough that places us on the doorstep of affordable fusion energy. Supposedly, the breakthrough will result in compact fusion reactors before a decade is out.

But the Lockheed Martin press release that coincides with the coverage says little of the sort. There, the company simply states that after initial work in the area, it expects to be able to build a prototype in five years. If everything goes well, the design could "be developed and deployed in as little as ten years." The "if" in the last sentence, however, is a big one.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/10/ ... ct-fusion/

[Maui]

Contrasting the announcement of the project almost two years ago, worth noting that the target date for a prototype is now also 2 more years out.

So the maxim of fusion development is alive and well. Whatever time period is declared to exist before fusion power is available is forever the time period before it is available.

[choff]

The stories getting picked up by more news sources.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud_KX5m ... AxFmee1oSA

[zapkitty]

You don't suppose there is a perception of competition developing amongst the alternative small fusion efforts? LM, EMC2, GF, TA, FF(?)

Nomenclature: Companies and their associated device names... any additions or corrections?

Lockheed Martin: CFR (Compact Fusion Reactor)

EMC2: Polywell

Tri-Alpha Energy: CBFR (Colliding Beam Fusion Reactor)

LPPFusion: FF (Focus Fusion)

Sorlox: SNC (Sorlox Nautilus Compressor)

General Fusion: ... just MTF?

[Skipjack]

Lockheed now has a website for their fusion reactor project. There is a video too (from 2014) that talks a bit about it. It is somewhat thin on details and rich on marketing fluff. Still might interest some people here:
http://www.lockheedmartin.co.in/us/prod ... usion.html

[KitemanSA]

So, 2+ years into the 4 years and all we got is a website with an old, useless video?

Did anyone expct anything different?