Could it be real this time? I've almost given up hope of seeing viable fusion power in my lifetime: Lockheed Martin Now Has a Patent For Its Potentially World Changing Fusion Reactor
Lockheed Martin has quietly obtained a patent associated with its design for a potentially revolutionary compact fusion reactor, or CFR. If this project has been progressing on schedule, the company could debut a prototype system that size of shipping container, but capable of powering a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier or 80,000 homes, sometime in the next year or so.
The patent, for a portion of the confinement system, or embodiment, is dated Feb. 15, 2018. The Maryland-headquartered defense contractor had filed a provisional claim on April 3, 2013 and a formal application nearly a year later. Our good friend Stephen Trimble, chief of Flightglobal's Americas Bureau, subsequently spotted it and Tweeted out its basic details.
In 2014, the company also made a splash by announcing they were working on the device at all and that it was the responsibility of its Skunk Works advanced projects office in Palmdale, California. At the time, Dr. Thomas McGuire, head of the Skunk Works’ Compact Fusion Project, said the goal was to have a working reactor in five years and production worthy design within 10.
"I still have to find a new job after this is done" I like it.
If you think environmentalists are resistant to fossil fuels or nuclear (fission) energy, just wait until effectively unlimited fusion power becomes available.
And in further fusion news, how about a starship? Pulsed Fission-Fusion (PuFF) Propulsion Concept gets Phase 2 NIAC funding
The pulsed fission fusion propulsion (PuFF) system envisions using a pulsed z-pinch to compress a fission-fusion target. The resulting deflagration expands against a magnetic nozzle to produce thrust and generate recharge energy for the next pulse. A z-Pinch is a device that is commonly used to compress laboratory plasmas to high pressures (~1 Mbar) for very short timescales (~100 ns). An electrical discharge produces a high axial current along the outer surface of a column of plasma; this current in turn generates a very strong toroidal magnetic field. This self-generated magnetic field interacts with the axial current via the Lorentz force and radially compresses the plasma column, bringing it to very high densities and temperatures. This team is exploring a modified Z-pinch geometry as a propulsion system by encasing the fission- fusion target in a sheath of liquid lithium, providing a current return path. Numerical results have been promising, the level of compression is sufficient to reach fission criticality. The fission energy boosts the fusion reaction rate, generating more neutrons which boost the fission process. This concept will potentially reach specific impulses of 30,000 sec with thrust levels sufficient to travel to Mars in a month and to interstellar space in a few decades.
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