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You are here: Home / Google+ Posts / Lockheed Martin claims “technological breakthrough” in compact fusion

Lockheed Martin claims “technological breakthrough” in compact fusion

October 15, 2014 by Paul Spoerry 77 Comments

I wasn't expecting a afternoon promo video from Lockheed that starts with a dubstep intro either but that's what their Skunkworks project just dropped on us. Lockheed expects to be able to build a prototype compact reactor in five years. If everything goes well, the design could "be developed and deployed in as little as ten years." If they pull this off then they say we could have truly clean energy, one that we can export without fears of it being turned into a military weapon, and that it could be as small as a jet engine (and literally be put on a jet to power it), as well as scale up to much larger sizes, plug into the existing grid and "The 100-MW unit would provide sufficient power for up to 80,000 homes in a power-hungry U.S. city."

MOAR here: http://aviationweek.com/technology/skunk-works-reveals-compact-fusion-reactor-details

Check this out on Google+

Filed Under: Google+ Posts Tagged With: fusion, Wednesday

About Paul Spoerry

I’m a groovy cat who’s into technology, Eastern Thought, and house music. I’m a proud and dedicated father to the coolest little guy on the planet (seriously, I'm NOT biased). I’m fascinated by ninjas, the Internet, and anybody who can balance objects on their nose for long periods of time.

I have a utility belt full of programming languages and a database of all my knowledge on databases... I practice code fu. Oh, I've also done actual Kung Fu, and have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

I run. I meditate. I dance. I blog at PaulSpoerry.com, tweet @PaulSpoerry, and I'm here on Google+.

I'm currently work for IBM developing web enabled insurance applications for IBM and support and develop a non-profit called The LittleBigFund.

Comments

  1. Frank Merchant says

    October 15, 2014 at 11:25 am

    Yes please!

  2. Thomas Wrobel says

    October 15, 2014 at 1:09 pm

    Fingers crossed. Between this,the higgs, spacex, skylon and (maybe) Emdrive the future seems to finally be coming.

  3. Paul Spoerry says

    October 15, 2014 at 1:39 pm

    Now I want my flying car… Or at least a self driving one.

  4. Thomas Wrobel says

    October 15, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    Self driving in 10 years looks plausible in some areas at least.

  5. Niklas Malmberg says

    October 15, 2014 at 1:57 pm

    Skylon and its Saber engines will be that which ignites the spacemining industry!

  6. shamim mizan says

    October 15, 2014 at 2:23 pm

    Meezan33

  7. mark appleby says

    October 15, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    It's great to see a young man like this, Let's hope nobody with money or power steals, extorts or stifles his progress, like what was done to Tesla. We would already be enjoying free power if he wasn't financially forced down.

  8. Tsarai benard says

    October 15, 2014 at 2:42 pm

    Its nt b lyk that guyz

  9. George Rivera says

    October 15, 2014 at 2:54 pm

    Finally, quick before energy companies get a hold of it and find a way to charge an large chunk of money.

  10. Blanket Dog says

    October 15, 2014 at 3:09 pm

    hi

  11. Paul Spoerry says

    October 15, 2014 at 3:14 pm

    This is Lockheed Martin… nobody is stealing anything from them.

  12. Deedee Smith says

    October 15, 2014 at 3:42 pm

    Cool beens

  13. Deedee Smith says

    October 15, 2014 at 3:43 pm

    Cool beens!:)

  14. ian morrow says

    October 15, 2014 at 4:21 pm

    I know I had compact fusion when I farted before I think that's N.A.S.A. at the front door. What to do what to do

  15. mark appleby says

    October 15, 2014 at 4:21 pm

    That's good

  16. Contessa Nowacki says

    October 15, 2014 at 4:41 pm

    Lol!!! +ian morrow

  17. mariah kelly says

    October 15, 2014 at 4:48 pm

    lol

  18. ian morrow says

    October 15, 2014 at 4:51 pm

    I've let N.A.S.A. in and joy of joys they want my arse to power the next rocket to mars. I am seriously thinking about it. I hear the money there paying is great

  19. Rickey Brooks says

    October 15, 2014 at 4:55 pm

    .

  20. Contessa Nowacki says

    October 15, 2014 at 4:55 pm

    +ian morrow you are hilarious…

  21. Frank Merchant says

    October 15, 2014 at 5:43 pm

    Lockheed Martin stands to make billions just in military contracts. Add in civilian and their place in history is set.

    If it works. PLEASE LET IT WORK!

  22. Paul Naugles says

    October 15, 2014 at 7:06 pm

    Interesting.

  23. Jacob Noon says

    October 15, 2014 at 7:11 pm

    Problem is all of the neutrons created after the reaction. They are heavy and basically blow the shielding away after a while. Talked with a professor I have that has worked at ITER.

  24. Deb W. says

    October 15, 2014 at 7:15 pm

    Phyllis fay

  25. Sahil Umar says

    October 15, 2014 at 7:52 pm

    Nothing to say about this

  26. aahhmmaad aahhmmaad says

    October 15, 2014 at 7:55 pm

    سكس

  27. Chill Out says

    October 15, 2014 at 8:20 pm

    +Jacob Noon The blown shielding, that's with the Tokamak design. This seems to be something else entirely.

  28. Jacob Noon says

    October 15, 2014 at 8:23 pm

    +Chill Out my fault. Your right. I got mixed up with another article.

  29. aahhmmaad aahhmmaad says

    October 15, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    +Rickey Brooks سكس

  30. aahhmmaad aahhmmaad says

    October 15, 2014 at 8:25 pm

    سكس

  31. Chris Pohrte says

    October 15, 2014 at 8:42 pm

    You make this work and you won't need to find another job. The next challenge will find you.

  32. Deepak Gora says

    October 15, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    jodha akabar

  33. abhishek crz says

    October 15, 2014 at 10:25 pm

    +Deepak Gora how are you

  34. Abdul wajid says

    October 15, 2014 at 10:27 pm

    nice

  35. Nuzhat Siraj says

    October 15, 2014 at 10:36 pm

    U

  36. Dhinal Dhinesh says

    October 15, 2014 at 11:13 pm

    Supper

  37. ELVIS SUZAN says

    October 15, 2014 at 11:22 pm

    Hello

  38. Thy Thea says

    October 15, 2014 at 11:27 pm

    Hello

  39. ELVIS SUZAN says

    October 15, 2014 at 11:54 pm

    Hl

  40. ELVIS SUZAN says

    October 16, 2014 at 12:00 am

    U look nice

  41. nishanth kunduchy says

    October 16, 2014 at 12:13 am

    +Deedee Smith haiii

  42. Sujeet Singh says

    October 16, 2014 at 12:21 am

    sunset singh

  43. sharad sonkamble says

    October 16, 2014 at 12:42 am

    nice

  44. Rick Bagnerise says

    October 16, 2014 at 12:57 am

    'll mm
    , vcv Lloyds ppl, c vHg x

  45. Rick Bagnerise says

    October 16, 2014 at 12:59 am

    ,no
    Rbd

    L

  46. KING DINGALING says

    October 16, 2014 at 1:01 am

    +Paul Spoerry you WAS being sarcastic, wasn't you? Lockheed Martin F-35 (the most expensive fighter program) stolen by China.

  47. Rick Bagnerise says

    October 16, 2014 at 1:05 am

    R

  48. Mychelle Mandap says

    October 16, 2014 at 1:16 am

    Hi

  49. Mychelle Mandap says

    October 16, 2014 at 1:20 am

    Be carefull

  50. Mychelle Mandap says

    October 16, 2014 at 1:33 am

    Wat

  51. Dhinal Dhinesh says

    October 16, 2014 at 1:59 am

    Hiiii

  52. John Rutene says

    October 16, 2014 at 3:32 am

    nice

  53. Paul Spoerry says

    October 16, 2014 at 7:08 am

    Stealing pieces of a design is entirely different than "stealing something". The J-20's engines can't even be figured out yet and then keep swapping in old Soviet Fighter engines (though they did announce recently a massive investment in R&D in that area in an attempt to catch the rest for the world).

  54. KING DINGALING says

    October 16, 2014 at 7:21 am

    +Paul Spoerry American officials have said that they think the Chinese have stolen their top secret stealth technology. I agree that it COULD just be a diamond encrusted turd but the Chinese have been caught trying to pay off workers to see top secret designs in the past. The Chinese jet doesn't just look a BIT like the F-35, it looks the double of it and it was seen VERY soon after the F-35 so it's highly likely they got the design.

  55. Robert Whisenhunt says

    October 16, 2014 at 9:05 am

    One issue that I can see, at least with placing this into an airplane, is that almost all fusion reactions give off neutrons. Because of this, there will have to be shielding around the reactor. The only reactions that don't output neutrons are ones that involve He-3 (which is absurdly rare on Earth) or heavier elements, such as Li-6. The problem with the heavier reactions is that they take even higher temperatures and pressures to make them occur. The easier reactions are once that run off of deuterium and tritium, but since those fuels are rare (and tritium is radioactive), the energy still won't be cheap until we can get to the point of running off of good old H-1. But again, shielding will be needed due to neutrons and gamma rays. So, color me skeptical, especially about putting these reactors on planes.

  56. Richard Quick says

    October 16, 2014 at 12:08 pm

    +Robert Whisenhunt They plan to adopt the Boron11 fuel in the commerical reactor which produces three alpha's and no neutrons.

  57. Mathias Willems says

    October 16, 2014 at 12:59 pm

    +Robert Whisenhunt Robert, the walls of the reactor will probably be made of lithium, neutron hits that wall, gives of tritium, they'd only need to add deuterium. Neutron escape is very minimal I know, don't know how much exacly but very low.

  58. Mathias Willems says

    October 16, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    +Mathias Willems Pretty funny that Nations are spending billions, if not trillions on the ITER project and Lockheed manages to do it on it's own(years faster than ITER).There was also news about the E-CAT supposing to work, very sceptical machine but if that would be true someone just invented a fusion reactor in his garage. LOL.

  59. shed sheb says

    October 16, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    Hi

  60. KING DINGALING says

    October 16, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    Low.

  61. Mee says

    October 16, 2014 at 5:09 pm

    +Mathias Willems E-CAT was just a scam it wasn't anything. And the ITER project is very different thing. They are working on a fusion plants to connect to the public electric grid aka not a military application for one thing, and its aimed at high power output.

    Lockheed are looking at making them smaller for military purpose with less output, i don't know what a truck sized reactor would be useful for in the commercial world. The output is not going to power homes, it would be enough to power planes and ships, but i doubt commercial companies would buy fusion reactors for planes – compared to the price of fuel it is a no brainer to stick with fuel. It would also cost a lot of re-engineer the planes to use the new energy source. Equally i imagine it weights more than the fuel too. So until companies need to switch to fusion they obviously won't because it costs heck of a lot of money.

  62. Mychelle Mandap says

    October 16, 2014 at 10:21 pm

    W

  63. KING DINGALING says

    October 17, 2014 at 3:02 am

    XYZ

  64. shed sheb says

    October 17, 2014 at 6:44 am

    Yes

  65. Endless Infinity says

    October 17, 2014 at 8:44 am

    They're building the Iter reactor…RIGHT NOW! Fusion is here.

  66. 0730Ender says

    October 17, 2014 at 9:02 am

    +Endless Infinity
    ITER is an important fusion experiment, but it's nowhere near a commercial fusion reactor. It's gain will be half of what is needed for a working reactor, and its pulse length is much too short. Indeed, it would be great if someone were able to build a compact reactor, but this group isn't giving enough details to evaluate if what they say is feasible. For the time being I'll remain on the sceptics side.

  67. Mathias Willems says

    October 17, 2014 at 9:04 am

    +Mee Mee, you should lookup the latest news on the Ecat, it might still be a scam but independent researchers have found crazy things.

    For lockheed, they state it will be used for commercial use too, scale this up x10 and you 1gigawatt, that a pretty darn big nuclear fission plant you would need for that. YOu don't know anything about the price right now, so statements that it will not be used for in planes or such are not well placed I find. As with everything it will cost a lot in the begin but as mass production kicks in it can get cheaper. Btw materials the size of a truck will not cost billions. I think if the tech succeeds they will try to make as much money with it, so making this available for the masses is a logical next step. Curious how the oil companies would respond to this.
    Regarding the planes, do you know how much it costs to tank a plane for a year… thats a very big bunch of $$$ 25 kilos of deutermium isn't gonna cost even one hundreth of that.

  68. prem chand says

    October 17, 2014 at 9:30 am

    Union Is Straingth

  69. Carson Thaler says

    October 17, 2014 at 2:51 pm

    "without fears of it being turned into a military weapon… "

    You clearly are unfamiliar with our nation's military history…

  70. Mychelle Mandap says

    October 17, 2014 at 5:42 pm

    Hello good morning

  71. Douglas Smith says

    October 17, 2014 at 7:58 pm

    +0730Ender , you're scared.

  72. Carson Thaler says

    October 17, 2014 at 8:08 pm

    Fear has little to do with the facts… Facts are quite objective where as fear is subjective.

  73. Carson Thaler says

    October 18, 2014 at 10:27 am

    "Power hungry US city"? … or powerfully inefficient US city…

  74. 0730Ender says

    October 18, 2014 at 11:15 am

    +Douglas Smith
    There's nothing to be scared about.

  75. Angela Webb says

    October 18, 2014 at 12:39 pm

    Do you have girlfriend or wife

  76. Carson Thaler says

    October 18, 2014 at 2:04 pm

    Why the curiosity? It's not even peripheral to the subject matter.

  77. Ning Zhang says

    October 18, 2014 at 2:08 pm

    +Mathias Willems
    This sounds like there is a high probability of neutron interaction with the wall. Anything to back that up?

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