Compact Fusion reactor by skunk works

Just became aware of this technology by Lockheed Martin

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html

Interesting to say the least

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

We'd had a discussion on this before - it dissolved into a few members arguing about the financial viability of an idea and whether or not it should be pursued *shrug*

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Financial viability is a no brainer , it will be

Whether it should be it should be pursued is a non-sequitur conclusion

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

How can you say that having no idea if it will even work, much less how much it will cost or how much energy it will produce?

 

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html

Read again

 

My impression is that Lockheed has announced what they say is a new concept for magnetic fusion confinement, but haven't as yet achieved a self-sustaining fusion reaction with it. If they accomplish that, it will be very big news and will be all over the media. That's when questions about practical applications and commercial viability will start to make sense. They have to know more about what they have first, if anything.

 

Oy. Totally thoughtless.

 

And you believe everything you read?

 

Yes, I recall the recent L&M portable fusion discussion. It all seemed very pie in the sky, lots of wishful thinking - reminding me of the less recent, but not so long ago NASA or SETI or publicity-seeking astronomers who declared they would find irrefutable evidence of extraterrestrial life within the next twenty (?) years.

How can they possibly know this? Is this some 'big science' trend to wow and woo the world back to science? I don't think it is science's place to announce great discoveries (that have not actually been made) ahead of time. A disturbing trend this.

 

Strongly agree. It is a sign the spin doctors are in charge - which means that for the rest of us, trust in the organisation concerned goes out of the window. Very short-sighted to start hyping really difficult physics in this way.

 

some of the comments in this thread are what i like about people who truly love science. they want fusion to happen, they want "aliens" to be found yet don't want bull. we are prepared to slam other scientists when they come out with these claims without evidence. this is what some of the woo merchants fail to see. we are just as harsh with our on kind as we are with them, probably harder.

 

Yes. For the record, I'm a huge fan of the Skunk Works. I've read the book by the director of the F-117 project half a dozen times. It's a truly great American corporate success story. Usually with Skunk Works projects, you only ever hear after them years after they've succeeded. So the irresponsible fusion reactor story rattled me a bit.

 

I don't find it disturbing at all , as a matter of fact I find it encouraging

Could it be that they are preparing us , the general public for better things to come ?

I mean lets face it , they know that the oil companies are well aware now of their product and how advanced their research is in the area

Apparently LM aren't concerned

Or perhaps LM is Hoping the public will be on board !

 

Why would the public have to be 'prepared' to like clean, renewable, probably cheap energy? It's not like we have to accept the rule of alien overlords who can prove it is them who have been created in The Lord's Image and not us in order to obtain portable fusion power. Don't be silly.

 

Perhaps silly , but at the same time , it is the public that is steering wheel of direction towards the development of technologies

Inotherwords it would be interesting to understand the publics view on this tech. And how many know about it in the first place

What mainstream media has announced this tech. For instance

 

Primarily because there are oil and coal companies who will try to make it out to be the spawn of the devil (as they are trying to do now with EV's, solar, wind etc.) It would perhaps be more accurate to say "the public will need better information than oil companies will provide them."

 

It doesn't seem to me that the big, meanie oil and coal companies are bothering Elon Musk, much less Toyota much.

 

Why ?

 

For over 20 years attempts to produce hot fusion reactors have been reported.

Magnetic containers for the plazma have leaked.

Laser implosion when successful has resulted in less energy out than energy put in. Actually the reports of these systems have only included direct energy input, neglecting other energy expended in the process.​

Note that fusion requires collisions between protons. The repulsive forces between protons is approximating 10E37 greater than gravitational forces. For those not appreciating 10E37, note that a one ounce (or lighter) magnet can cause a pin to leap from the surface of the earth.

Fusion takes place in the core of stars where extreme density, temperature, & pressure provides the conditions necessary for collision/fusion of protons.

Without those extreme conditions, only quantum tunneling can provide a mechanism for fusion. Tunneling fusion is an extremely rare phenomenon. Perhpa one event per year in a kilogram of hydrogen. This is a SWAG by me which is only slightly better than a WAG.

For those not familiar with my techical terms: A SWAG is a Sophisticated Wild Ass Guess.

I am sure that I(and others) have posted remarks similar to the above eslewhere at SciForums.

BTW: There is some syntax which provides for subscripts & superscripts. I tried 10[sup]37[/sup], which did not do the job.

 

Because they don't actually have that power. Conspiracy theories about the big meanie oil companies suppressing the 100 mpg carburator (that one's been around for decades) and electric cars (that one's new) are just fantasies.