Yet another Fusion-in-a-decade ckaim

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

Sorry for the mobile link.

It's basically a press release but could have huge implications if the engineering works out.

I read it through. This will work sooner or later - they haven't found a new reaction, just improved the efficiency of the old one + better cooling and isolation material. So generally their idea is to build next version of old tokamak plasma generation device.

Which seems pretty good and rational - to upgrade what is working and reduce the cost/lost E.
 
'Fusion in a decade' (I normally hear 50 years) as a joke...

The comedy in the situation soon vanishes if you avail yourself of information regarding the history of funding for fusion research, which has been next to nothing up until the current generation, which is positively criminal imo.
 
They announced (last year I think) that they were going to be developing a commercial Polywell reactor, a method that i'd never heard of but which the US military has been funding for some time. Any news is good news as far as fusion goes and a corporation like Lockheed should have the cash to make a good go of it. ITER is the first project to go into the serious multii-billion dollar funding range iirc (JET was being financed for a few tens of millions per year, not sure about the NIF) and that's the sort of cash that needs to be going into next gen energy research.
 
'Fusion in a decade' (I normally hear 50 years) as a joke...

The comedy in the situation soon vanishes if you avail yourself of information regarding the history of funding for fusion research, which has been next to nothing up until the current generation, which is positively criminal imo.

Why criminal? What's the point of developing another better power source that a disinformation campaign run by the fossil fuel industry will just prevent us from using anyway?
 
Don't be daft. Who do you think is going to be first in the queue to make titanic profits from building commercial fusion power plants when the tech becomes available?
 
My guess based on the article in the OP would have been Lockheed-Martin.
 
How awesome would it be to buy into a fusion IPO? That'd rock

The energy seminar playlist in my sig has a very good talk on the case for fusion, for the curious layman. I enjoyed it.
 
If LM develop a usable tech, they won't be in the queue will they? They be straight up building the things.
 
Don't be daft. Who do you think is going to be first in the queue to make titanic profits from building commercial fusion power plants when the tech becomes available?

It won't be oil companies. They didn't jump into fission power development, so what makes you think they are going to lead the way in fusion? Other than the end result (generating electricity) there is pretty much no overlap in the technologies involved. Aerospace companies like Lockheed do have significant overlap, since spacecraft have always created a demand for some alternative to combustion.
 
From the article it doesn't sound like they have any idea how hard the problem is they are trying to solve.

Even if it is a good concept, it will take quite a bit longer than 10 years.
 
From the article it doesn't sound like they have any idea how hard the problem is they are trying to solve.

Even if it is a good concept, it will take quite a bit longer than 10 years.

You seem to not understand that if Lockheed says they have something, they have it. These people have been on the cutting edge for 50+ years. If they came out in public on a deadline, they likely have proven this will work ages ago. If you think a military funded project being publicly revealed means they haven't started, you're foolin' yourself.
 
It won't be oil companies. They didn't jump into fission power development, so what makes you think they are going to lead the way in fusion?
There wasn't any real necessity for them to go into fission, it was never anything more than a minority market with huge risks involved.

The game has changed now, there is a huge popular upswelling in support for alternative energy (and objectively there's a huge need for it as well), fusion is a lot safer and fossil fuels are becoming more and more uneconomic. The oil companies are going to have to switch their major trade at some point or they are going to go extinct.
 
From the article it doesn't sound like they have any idea how hard the problem is they are trying to solve.

Even if it is a good concept, it will take quite a bit longer than 10 years.

Here's where I just assume people aren't dumb. The PR people might be mis-simplifying things. Cost-overruns are guaranteed, IMO, obvs.
 
Polywell type reactor research dates all the way back to the 50's iirc. LM are not starting from a blank slate.
 
Fusion in a decade? Wanna bet?
 
dutchfire - I accepted the whiskey thread bet before you, but since you actually threw down the gauntlet, I'd be fine with you getting first dibs on it and replacing me if you really did want to bet and bhsup allows that.

Either way, bhsup, good luck! :scan:
 
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