Here is more on the tech, including a drawing: http://aviationweek.com/technology/skunk-works-reveals-compa...
I was curious about detail when I saw the news, Thanks for sharing!
Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
91–100 of 375 posts
Re: Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
#92> U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers run on nuclear power, but they have large fusion reactors on board that have to be replaced on a regular cycle. sigh To the extent this is true I suspect those "large fusion reactors" are tuned not so much for generating electricity and a great deal for annihilating whatever the carrying missile is pointed at. But never mind fuzzy thinking at Reuters right now. This is amazing…
Must be early. A few people didn't get your joke/sarcasm.
Re: Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
#93> 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet, which could fit on the back of a large truck A typical thermal power station has an efficiency below 50% for electricity generation, so the plant dissipates at least as much heat as it generates electrical power. I wonder how you could get rid of 100MW of waste heat from a volume small enough to fit on a truck. That's a heat flux of more than a megawatt per squa…
That's an excellent point! Perhaps they intend the truck to be sitting at the bottom of a fast moving river.
But what gets me is that they are burying the lead. No fusion reactor of any size has reached sustainability...so why is the story here talking about size at all? Small size would be a very nice added bonus; fusion reactors that don't consume more energy than they produce are earth-changing.
Re: Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
#94I don't know much about fusion. It seems that the breakthrough they're talking about is that reactors are ~10x smaller. Why is this a big deal? Square footage is plentiful. I thought the problems are safety and how much energy it could produce.
Because these relatively small reactors can be made to tie in with existing gas turbine power plants. They can ship these replacement fusion plants all over the world. http://aviationweek.com/blog/high-hopes-can-compact-fusion-u...
Re: Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
#95This title makes me engery
Re: Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
#96"McGuire said the company had several patents pending for the work and was looking for partners in academia, industry and among government laboratories to advance the work." I'm guessing this means that they will try and maximize profit rather than maximize cheap and clean energy for the entire world. That is a bit disappointing if true.
If the only motivation is cheap and clean energy for the entire world, expensive research never gets funded.
Re: Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
#97So, they've come up with a way to make a fusor that produces more energy than it consumes? Also, I'd be interested in knowing what kind of scram mechanism they develop. If the superconductors were to fail, the expansion of the plasma would be catastrophic, right?
It certainly wouldn't produce a runaway fusion reaction, if that's what you mean. A hot plasma would dissipate pretty quickly once confinement fails, so the only energy would be that in the plasma itself. Might be bad for whoever is in the room, but probably not the county.
Right, I meant catastrophic for the reactor. Definitely not worried about blowing up the country. Probably shouldn't have typed that phrase. NSA is probably all over me now.
Re: Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
#98Everything is always a decade away.
(And then it rarely happens)
Re: Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
#99> U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers run on nuclear power, but they have large fusion reactors on board that have to be replaced on a regular cycle. sigh To the extent this is true I suspect those "large fusion reactors" are tuned not so much for generating electricity and a great deal for annihilating whatever the carrying missile is pointed at. But never mind fuzzy thinking at Reuters right now. This is amazing…
I believe you're misunderstanding, those ships run on power generated by a nuclear reactor. A reactor is like when you think of a regular nuclear power plant, it's not part of a missile.
You're right, but it was a joke pointing out an error in the article. They originally said the carriers run on fusion reactors, but it's been fixed.
Re: Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
#100From the article: Lockheed shares fell 0.6 percent to $175.02 amid a broad market selloff.
Shouldn't the market be a little more excited about this?