Compact Fusion Reactors

[pmccarthy]

The Lockheed Martin Skunkworks has announced it is close (5 years) to producing a compact fusion reactor. They say an aircraft the size of a C-5 would be able to carry one on board and to run for a year on a few bottles of gasoline. See http://www.lockheedmartin.com.au/us/products/compact-fusion.html

 

Related articles say it might "change humanity forever".

 

 

[fly_tornado]

Google depleted uranium contamination

 

The military industrial complex only cares for profits

 

 

[Thruster87]

Steam driven [closed system] aircraft maybe a future concept using fusion reactors.Could we hope to replace a jab engine with steam so we could get the same reliability as a rotax 912

 

 

[fly_tornado]

have you not seen that TV sow The Simpsons? about a guy that works in a nuclear power plant

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Minimal radioactive waste, and that with a half life of only 100 years. There is something romantic about little reactors whizzing through the sky.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

Imagine the mess they will make in America when the Jihads fly one into a building

 

 

[kgwilson]

The idea has been around for a long time. The problem has always been being able to harness the energy and maintain the heat required to effect fusion. Generally to date it has only been for a few seconds or minutes. If this can be harnessed and controlled it is possibly the answer to humanities energy requirements.

 

 

[PA.]

My Great Uncle in 1932 created a machine to split the atom. Wonder what he would think of a flying reactor?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cockcroft

 

 

[fly_tornado]

If we get enough radioactive debris into the atmosphere we can give every breathing creature lung cancer

 

 

[facthunter]

Fusion is a lot different. We already have a good one working and it will go for long enough without refuelling it, and we don't add any heat to the system by harnessing it. The trouble is Its FREE and people like to control these things so they can screw lot's of money out of you. Nev

 

 

[pmccarthy]

John Cockcroft story was interesting, I hadn't heard of him or of splitting the atom that early.

 

 

[rankamateur]

My Great Uncle in .....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cockcroft

Does that make you John R , PA?

 

 

[PA.]

Does that make you John R , PA?

No, Cockcroft is my mum's side of the tree. I'm Peter Arnold or PA to friends and Pa to my Grandson.

 

 

[rankamateur]

Somehow I was not shocked.

 

 

[cooperplace]

My Great Uncle in 1932 created a machine to split the atom. Wonder what he would think of a flying reactor?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cockcroft

John Cockcroft was your great uncle? Amazing. I used to cycle past the shed in Downing St., Cambridge, on my way to work; people said that was the site where the machine was in 1932.

 

 

[spacesailor]

So. "Who,s.? Rutherford of NewZealand" always thought he did it !.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[cooperplace]

The Lockheed Martin Skunkworks has announced it is close (5 years) to producing a compact fusion reactor. They say an aircraft the size of a C-5 would be able to carry one on board and to run for a year on a few bottles of gasoline. See http://www.lockheedmartin.com.au/us/products/compact-fusion.htmlRelated articles say it might "change humanity forever".

I first read about fusion reactors when I was about 8 years old, they were "10-20" years off". Fifty years have passed, and in everyone else's estimate it remains "10-20 years off". Experts in the field have pointed out that the skunkworks have little history in this department, so their credibility isn't good. I'll believe it when it happens, but I doubt it will be in my lifetime.

Strictly speaking we've had compact fusion reactors for a long time -farnsworth fusors- but these are a curiosity, not generating power.

 

 

[kgwilson]

So. "Who,s.? Rutherford of NewZealand" always thought he did it !.spacesailor

Lord Ernest Rutherford was a NZ born British Physicist who is credited with splitting the atom in 1917. He also discovered and named the proton. There is an excellent and informative monument to him at Brightwater near Nelson, NZ where he was born.