Fusion Reactor Design From Lockheed...?

Behind by 50 years, at least.

Maybe by then nuclear can team with batteries to make e-planes viable.

If nothing else, FAA approval cycles could take 50 years.

E-plane?

I want my own fusion-powered spaceship!

If there is any truth to this at all... the ITER folks may be checking the help wanted adds.

Yeah, well call me in 10 years and we'll talk.

Are you kidding? A plane that can fly indefinitely without the need for in-flight refueling...Most of the cost associated with flying is fuel....Air travel could become really cheap....Now I'm not saying this will happen anytime soon.....but it could....

I'm not kidding anybody! I agree fusion-powered flight would be brilliant, but if and when viable fusion reactors come on the scene there'll be a number of stages to go through, including useful ones for power generation, before flight becomes a possibility.

I doubt whether anybody talked about powered flight when Newcomen built the first heat engine in 1712.

Well the concept of nuclear powered flight is nothing new....

http://eagad.com/seriously-cool-nb36-worlds-first-nuclear-aircraft-berreaktor/

But that was based on a fission reactor, and I don't think it flew, did it?

theres a huge difference between fission and fusion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlYClniDFkMI had already posted this info on my Nocera thread.

I couldn't get any sound on that, but as far as I can tell it deals with fusion developments. This has got a bit out of hand. All I was commenting on was the reference to fusion-powered flight, when (if it comes to fruition) it is sure to be used for ground-based applications before that.

Lockheed is claiming a breakthrough. the potential is massive, from planes to retrofitting coal and gas electrical generating plantshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWWTegfPO6g

Yes, but don't you agree that retrofitting coal and gas electrical generating plants will come well before planes? That's all I've been saying.

they are a defense contractor. in their latest vid releases they say military within 10 years, then emission free retros worldwide

There are other vehicles than planes that could benefit. Warships, possibly tanks, field artillery???, transports, who knows really how far this could go.

One key point: a smaller (CFR) can be designed built, and tested with far less money and time than the behemoth tokamak reactors. This should lend itself well to knowledge expansion, faster improvements in confinement, and the ability to acheive "ignition".

I quite agree, but I still think aircraft will be a long way along the list, and most likely order is power stations, ships (not necessarily warships), submarines, maybe tanks and land transport (locomotives?) etc etc then perhaps aircraft.

I think North of 60 nailed it in #15.

Nuclear-powered spacecraft. One these coupled to a large ion drive could do wonders exploring the solar system and beyond.

Yes, this would be great for a power station and evidently the design is highly scalable, but there certainly many other applications for a compact, high-energy power source. If it can scaled to work for both, why not power stations and aircraft?

They tried it once, but the idea never got off the ground.

Until we see some type of real in depth engineering data... I hate to say this... but... this looks like nothing more than a corporation starting to grease the money trail for R&D dollars from the dead brained politicians who will think this is a motherhood issue come home to roost.

At least they will spend the money faster than the next guys. L:O:L:

Details...

"The CFR will avoid these issues by tackling plasma confinement in a radically different way. Instead of constraining the plasma within tubular rings, a series of superconducting coils will generate a new magnetic-field geometry in which the plasma is held within the broader confines of the entire reaction chamber. Superconducting magnets within the coils will generate a magnetic field around the outer border of the chamber. "So for us, instead of a bike tire expanding into air, we have something more like a tube that expands into an ever-stronger wall," McGuire says. The system is therefore regulated by a self-tuning feedback mechanism, whereby the farther out the plasma goes, the stronger the magnetic field pushes back to contain it. The CFR is expected to have a beta limit ratio of one. "We should be able to go to 100% or beyond," he adds."

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

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/531836/does-lockheed-martin-really-have-a-breakthrough-fusion-machine/

If it was 1964 I'd say Hell yea!!! Go for it! Now seeing where we are with Nuclear.

We really screwed this up so badly it is not worth mentioning in our existence on this planet. The reality is, Nuclear could have been the best thing America ever did.

Then politics entered the fray. Screwed up the entire worx. If any of you have seen the show 21st century way back when... 40-50 years ago?? We would have lighted highways, there wold be no car accidents, no plane accidents. Life would be perfect in every way. OK, back to reality now, the dream is over.

Easy livin Climax NY!!

This is the company that gave us the F-35. Case closed.

What, you've received YOUR F-35?

It was defective.

Mine was made in China.

Interesting: this is the second story this week I've seen about affordable small fusion reactors:-

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?_mc=RSS%5FEET%5FEDT&doc_id=1324255&page_number=2

Maybe we are entering a new phase of development.

me too

Like waiting for a bus. You wait and wait, and then two or three come along at once.

I think that's all one bus.....

<splarf>

Oh god no. It's mating season again.

(Honestly, SE, how long did you search for that pic? )

With the possible nuc fan in the tail of the bus, I would think that SolarEagle has a big collection of these picture treasures .... actually, I thought it quite a neat machine!

I am now waiting on a pic of the micro fusion powered, remotely controlled hospital trolley bed that perpetually is on the move from emergency to the checkout at a speed reflective of the recovery period with short term docking for injections and medical interventions etc. Who needs hospital wards?

About 10 sec....but just think the nuclear powered buses and trains might now become a reality....

http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2008/02/05/at-work-in-the-fields-of-the-b/

Well, given that it's Lockheed - a prime military contractor - you can bet they're eyeing this reactor to power mobile railguns and 'directed-energy' weapons - lasers. The power supply has always been the 'gotcha' in the mobile and airborne versions of these apps, but with a 'portable' 100 MW power supply soon-to-available? Heck yeah they're gonna use it for mobile/airborne weapons. It's the nature of the beast.

Buses? Nah, everybody would miss the diesel smoke in their face as the bus blew on by.

They will use it for more pork barrel.

Yup,,,this baby will go as fast as you want to go....

....if it had a set of wings man I know it could fly.....

Solved it? Chemical lasers are a solution, but they are not the solution by any means. Chemical lasers are used only because, for a given power output, they are lightweight enough and small enough to fit in a plane (even if they do take up every single cubic inch of a 747's interior). They've got their own problems, as well.

Possibly their biggest downside is their exhaust; it is corrosive in the extreme: hydrogen fluoride; mixed with a little water vapor and you've got hydrofluoric acid - one of the most corrosive substances known to Man. These lasers, moreover, are good for only a limited number of shots before you have to land and refuel the laser (and replace the optics whilst you're at it).

Chemical lasers are just an interrim solution and far from ideal. The power density of a compact fusion reactor, on the other hand, is far, far greater; the reactor-fuel itself has about five million times the energy density of hydrogen + fluorine. The reactor could also double as the power source for the plane, moreover, allowing it to fly for greatly extended periods (and, if crewed at all - it could be flown unmanned, as a drone - certainly longer than the crew could last before going nutters).

If Lockheed pulls this one off, they're gonna be laughing all the way to the bank.

Delay....delay..."software....software...". They can make it a HUGE pipeline to the bank - but if you actully want to see a performing reactor....it would have been a lot more credible coming from a major Japanese firm.

I am seated in the 'wait-and-see' section for this game.

D

Wasn't Lockheed shipping SR-71s

about the same time (early 1960s) major Japanese firms were shipping

transistor radios?

They haven't unlearnt anything since that time, and if anyone knows how to work technological miracles, Lockheed does. If you want a nice TV, go to a major Japanese firm, but if you want a company that stands a good chance of developing a compact, scaleable fusion reactor, we've got those kinds of companies right here in the USA.

My money says this thing is real.

Lockheed seems to be promising the 'Emperors New Clothes' these days!

Interesting that ICF still is 100X below threshold, when in 1978 it was claimed they were only 10 years out from "ignition". Same thing with the large tokamaks, they are "perpetually" 10 years out....from something useful.

On the other hand, it is rather uncharacteristic for Lockheed to show their cards, and the fact they may not be showing all the cards tells me there is hope. This announcement is totally different from the way the "cold fusion" announcement went down.

One of the dilemmas of any researcher is proving first of all to himself that what he is observing has anything to do with the "theory" of operation. It is almost as if the researcher should prove first of all that he is not just repeating someone else's work on a different matrix, and that the observables in his system do not correspond with earlier work.

The 'Skunk Works' is synonymous with secrecy. Revealing their own projects isn't part of their job description.

That press release looks like it came from the PR department.

Does the Skunk Works tel PR what they haven't finished yet? I am doubtful!

"Revealing their own projects isn't part of their job description."

Well, then, they've a lot more projects than they've let on. I count only 25. 25 1/2 if you include their new, top-secret hangar in Palmdale.

Known past and present Lockheed Advanced Projects Development Unit (aka, Skunkworks) projects:

Aircraft

LASRE atop the SR-71 Blackbird - both Skunkworks projects.

• Lockheed P-38 Lightning (unofficial)
• Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star
• Lockheed XF-90
• Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
• Lockheed U-2
• Lockheed X-26 Frigate
• Lockheed YO-3
• Lockheed A-12
• Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
• Lockheed D-21
• Lockheed XST (Have Blue)
• Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk
• Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor
• Lockheed Martin X-35 and Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
• Lockheed X-27
• Lockheed Martin Polecat
• Quiet Supersonic Transport
• Lockheed Martin Cormorant
• Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk
• Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel
• Lockheed Martin X-55
• Lockheed Martin SR-72

Non-aircraft:

• Sea Shadow
  
• High beta fusion reactor

Last but not least, Lockheed's new, super-secret hangar in Palmdale, CA that nobody knows about:

Note clever placement of super-secret logo so that no one would ever guess which Lockheed division works here [APDU]. (The trees are fake, btw. Sensor nets, monitored by the CIA. Birds foolhardy enough to nest here are renditioned by night to Yemen and, barring a few tweets, are never heard from again.)

Advanced Projects Division, not Secret Projects Division, and although some projects are indeed shrouded in secrecy, it's the exception, not the rule.

For you hobby types that might want to build a model demo fusor thingy, I found a source....

Caution, do not attempt unless you understand the forces at work and the precautions that must be taken....

http://makezine.com/projects/make-36-boards/nuclear-fusor/

Cute little thing, isn't it? Argon glow lamp.

I hear the South Korea is going to use old cigarette butts to make the next flux capacitor (actually they are calling it a super-capacitor), it is just a big value capacitor.

I wonder what happens when this super-capacitor is hooked up to a super-conducting magnet?

One time, at a lab I worked at that will go unnamed, we made what is called a "theta-pinch" device to wrap one wrap of 1" thick copper over a tube (quartz) to contain an analytical spark (of aluminum). The idea was to spectroscopically study the higher ionization states of aluminum (atomic-ionic) light emission by thermal excitation of plasma by the intense magnetic field of several hundred thousand amperes of current in a single loop 1" thick and about 8" wide. We used a very large capacitor of high voltage rating from the power industry, I believe. The project did not succeed in stripping off all the electrons from aluminum, but did get to the fifth ionization, as best I recall. I do not remember them using any radiation shielding, which probably was a bad idea, but I do believe each "shot" was made by remote control on a computer timer, with personnel out of the spectrometer room.

"I wonder what happens when this super-capacitor is hooked up to a super-conducting magnet?"

If your field doesn't induce currents in any nearby conductors, you get a very, very, VERY high-Q resonant circuit, the Q limited only by the capacitor's internal losses. With a low-loss capacitor, the circuit would 'ring' for long time without any additional input. Minutes, maybe hours.

Did your theta-pinch device use the capacitor in a Marx generator? Sandia's Z-Machine uses that approach to generate 27-million-ampere current pulses lasting about 100 nanoseconds each, heating the target to about 2 billion degrees K. The target is inside a hohlraum made of tungsten wires, the cage being about the size of a pencil eraser. Sandia has demonstrated neutron production using this technique, a form of ICF. Simulations suggest a 1000-fold increase in neutron production (a product of fusion) were they to boost the current to 60-million amperes. Presently the current peak is roughly a thousand times that of an average lightning bolt and about 20,000 times faster.

I do not recall seeing a Marx Generator sitting around near the capacitor, but the capacitor was nearly five feet tall, about 18" wide, and probably 2' deep.

The Sandia Lab set up has got to be way more impressive than that, and is a whole lot of energy in a short burst.