This could be a game changer

[begreen]

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

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[peirhead]

Maybe they'll get them small enough to fit in my pellet stove!

 

[Doug MacIVER]

things that make you go mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! serious name is outstanding in that it's most likely really possible.

 

[spirilis]

Still rolling my eyes at the "omg we're almost there except not really we're barely in the early stages of developing this!" press releases for fusion projects. I have been keeping up with the Polywell project for a few years since Bussard's pitch to Google. I am confident someone will make fusion power a reality at utility scale but I doubt it'll happen in my lifetime.

 

[spirilis]

That said, Lockheed and Skunkworks have brand name recognition, maybe they can pull it off soon

 

[begreen]

There is a skeptic in the crowd. Not sure if this is just sour grapes or truth, but regardless Lockheed has placed their bet on the line, probably for a healthy DARPA grant.
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/10/lockheed-martin-nuclear-fusion-skeptical

 

[BrotherBart]

Ya wanna see skeptics, read the comments to this.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...-million-times-the-energy-density-of-gasoline

 

[begreen]

Woohoo, Mr. Fusion!

 

[spirilis]

Ya wanna see skeptics, read the comments to this.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...-million-times-the-energy-density-of-gasoline

Lol! I saw that the other day too. If that is legit, I'd imagine we'll be using cold fusion power well before any of these other confinement fusion reactors come to reality

 

[BrotherBart]

I have been asking for my own backyard nuke for years.

 

[spirilis]

Backyard nuke would put the power utilities in a tailspin very quickly. Hey I wonder if you could make a cold fusion fireplace complete with fake flame? Perhaps the Amish could help us out with the furniture design...

 

[woodgeek]

Aviation Leak has details.... http://aviationweek.com/technology/skunk-works-reveals-compact-fusion-reactor-details

With military funding, anything is possible.

 

[BrotherBart]

At least I won't be alive for the unintended consequences of this one.

 

[begreen]

If it works there is going to be a very expensive dead donut in France.

 

[woodgeek]

The major difference from the other magnetic confinement schemes I have seen is the use of magnetic coils INSIDE the plasma. There is a theorem that you can't make a static three dimensional bottle without currents or charges inside the bottle. Other designs (tokamaks) get around this by inducing complex helical currents within the conducting plasma itself, and these currents are themselves unstable.

The tokamak also avoids end 'leakage' by being a donut. The idea here is just to 'pinch' the ends closed with a stronger field, which if I remember my magentohydrodynamics works fine with hot plasma, but less well with cold ones.

So the claim that the basic geometry is more stable, and can thus go to 100x higher densities (a key metric) makes enough sense on paper.

BUT a key feature is that they appear to have coils in contact with the hot plasma. Presumably they have a 'trick' to minimize that contact which would cool the plasma and erode the shielding, but I suppose that is the 'secret sauce' of this design.