Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
 

We have been seeing little detail-free teasers that Lockheed-Martin's
Skunk Works had come up with a new approach to hydrogen fusion.

The article came in the 15 October 2014 issue of Aviation Week, on page
42.

..http://aviationweek.com/technology/s...ompact-fusion-
reactor-details

The innovation is in how the hydrogen plasma is confined. Everything
else is standard, as such things go in that field.

While the described approach seems plausible, we will soon know - the
entire fusion community will scrub this with wire brushes.

Joe Gwinn

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
 

"Joe Gwinn" wrote in message
...
We have been seeing little detail-free teasers that Lockheed-Martin's
Skunk Works had come up with a new approach to hydrogen fusion.

The article came in the 15 October 2014 issue of Aviation Week, on page
42.

.http://aviationweek.com/technology/s...ompact-fusion-
reactor-details

The innovation is in how the hydrogen plasma is confined. Everything
else is standard, as such things go in that field.

While the described approach seems plausible, we will soon know - the
entire fusion community will scrub this with wire brushes.

Joe Gwinn

It occurs to me Skunk Works is probably stalled, and they are hoping that
somebody who tears them up will also reveal something they can use to get
going again. It could be very much why they are now revealing so much of
their basic premise.

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
 

In article , Bob La Londe
wrote:

"Joe Gwinn" wrote in message
...
We have been seeing little detail-free teasers that Lockheed-Martin's
Skunk Works had come up with a new approach to hydrogen fusion.

The article came in the 15 October 2014 issue of Aviation Week, on page
42.

.http://aviationweek.com/technology/s...ompact-fusion-
reactor-details

The innovation is in how the hydrogen plasma is confined. Everything
else is standard, as such things go in that field.

While the described approach seems plausible, we will soon know - the
entire fusion community will scrub this with wire brushes.

Joe Gwinn

It occurs to me Skunk Works is probably stalled, and they are hoping that
somebody who tears them up will also reveal something they can use to get
going again. It could be very much why they are now revealing so much of
their basic premise.

Well, if they stalled after only a 10:1 improvement, that's not really
a problem. Or rather, we'd all like to have such problems.

Anyway, my plan is to wait for the next shoe to drop.

Joe

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
 

On Thu, 23 Oct 2014 22:31:49 -0400, Joe Gwinn
wrote:

In article , Bob La Londe
wrote:

"Joe Gwinn" wrote in message
...
We have been seeing little detail-free teasers that Lockheed-Martin's
Skunk Works had come up with a new approach to hydrogen fusion.

The article came in the 15 October 2014 issue of Aviation Week, on page
42.

.http://aviationweek.com/technology/s...ompact-fusion-
reactor-details

The innovation is in how the hydrogen plasma is confined. Everything
else is standard, as such things go in that field.

While the described approach seems plausible, we will soon know - the
entire fusion community will scrub this with wire brushes.

Joe Gwinn

It occurs to me Skunk Works is probably stalled, and they are hoping that
somebody who tears them up will also reveal something they can use to get
going again. It could be very much why they are now revealing so much of
their basic premise.

Well, if they stalled after only a 10:1 improvement, that's not really
a problem. Or rather, we'd all like to have such problems.

"Potential 10:1 improvement IF we can get the bloody thing to work..."


Anyway, my plan is to wait for the next shoe to drop.

They're usually quite large and heavy. I hope it drops, though. I'd
truly love to see fusion (and the resultant near free utilities) in my
lifetime. Right, not holding my breath.

--
A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if
one's life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself.
-- Louis L'Amour

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
 

On Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:38:49 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

snip

They're usually quite large and heavy. I hope it drops, though. I'd
truly love to see fusion (and the resultant near free utilities) in my
lifetime. Right, not holding my breath.

If anything beyond "cold fusion" http://tinyurl.com/2mj7q
NIST should test, and if any real potential, a new Manhattan
Project or Project Apollo to develop and deploy should be
undertaken ASAP.

This will be not only economic stimulus/support for the
mis-, non- and under- employed STEM employees, but will help
support our heavy industries. This also contains the
solution to (among many other problems) the mega-drought in
California that is gradually creeping east, that presents a
serious and rapidly increasing problem to not only the US
food supply, but California employment, by making massive
desalinization and pumping economically justified. Such a
development would also put the US back in the lead of the
technology/engineering race, for at least a few years.


--
Unka' George

"Gold is the money of kings,
silver is the money of gentlemen,
barter is the money of peasants,
but debt is the money of slaves"

-Norm Franz, "Money and Wealth in the New Millenium"

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
 

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:42:10 -0500, F. George McDuffee
wrote:

On Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:38:49 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

snip

They're usually quite large and heavy. I hope it drops, though. I'd
truly love to see fusion (and the resultant near free utilities) in my
lifetime. Right, not holding my breath.

If anything beyond "cold fusion" http://tinyurl.com/2mj7q
NIST should test, and if any real potential, a new Manhattan
Project or Project Apollo to develop and deploy should be
undertaken ASAP.

As you know, magnetic-containment fusion projects have been going on
for a long time. When I co-owned a job shop in Princeton Junction, NJ
(1973 - 1980), just under half of our income came from making copper
connectors and titanium parts for the Tokamak research reactor at
Princeton Plasma Physics. That was part of Stage Two of the project,
financed in part by a $350 million federal grant.

In the time since, billions have been poured into Tokamak projects and
laser-implosion projects. A great deal of data has been accumulated,
including a lot of "unknown unknowns" that cropped up during the trial
runs of those projects.

For Lockheed to be saying now that they've combined several
containment ideas into one small vessel, and that they're confident it
will work, suggests that the accumulated test data is paying off. They
don't shoot off at the mouth over Skunk Works projects. I'm very
hopeful that they have something going.

--
Ed Huntress

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
 

"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:42:10 -0500, F. George McDuffee
wrote:

On Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:38:49 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

snip

They're usually quite large and heavy. I hope it drops, though. I'd
truly love to see fusion (and the resultant near free utilities) in my
lifetime. Right, not holding my breath.

If anything beyond "cold fusion" http://tinyurl.com/2mj7q
NIST should test, and if any real potential, a new Manhattan
Project or Project Apollo to develop and deploy should be
undertaken ASAP.

As you know, magnetic-containment fusion projects have been going on
for a long time. When I co-owned a job shop in Princeton Junction, NJ
(1973 - 1980), just under half of our income came from making copper
connectors and titanium parts for the Tokamak research reactor at
Princeton Plasma Physics. That was part of Stage Two of the project,
financed in part by a $350 million federal grant.

In the time since, billions have been poured into Tokamak projects and
laser-implosion projects. A great deal of data has been accumulated,
including a lot of "unknown unknowns" that cropped up during the trial
runs of those projects.

For Lockheed to be saying now that they've combined several
containment ideas into one small vessel, and that they're confident it
will work, suggests that the accumulated test data is paying off. They
don't shoot off at the mouth over Skunk Works projects. I'm very
hopeful that they have something going.

--
Ed Huntress
================================================== ===========

I am hopeful but skeptical. As plasma physicists have progressed from a
simple glow discharge towards a plasma that is both dense enough and hot
enough, for long enough to allow significant numbers of fusion events to
occur for some level of breakeven, not to mention actual useful power
production, there has been a steady stream of: "we tried turning it up a
little more and something totally unexpected has gone wrong". This then
required a new generation of study and development work to get under
control, so that they could turn it up a little bit more and repeat the
cycle. If Lockheed had said that they had data showing sufficient density
and temperature with hydrogen, and now they just needed to put in deuterium
or deuterium and tritium, then I would be celebrating. What they seem to
have said is that they have contained some unspecified but presumably low
number of ions in a new configuration to demonstrate that that geometry
could act as a container, and that that geometry may on paper include the
solutions to the problems that have cropped up with other geometries, but
with a clean sheet as far as any unexpected problems that may be specific to
this new geometry as they begin the process of "turning it up just a little
bit more" however many times are needed to get to fusion breakeven. I
eagerly await more data, and remain hopeful but skeptical.

-----
Regards,
Carl Ijames

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
 

On Tuesday, October 21, 2014 9:21:06 PM UTC-4, Joe Gwinn wrote:
We have been seeing little detail-free teasers that Lockheed-Martin's

Skunk Works had come up with a new approach to hydrogen fusion.

Yes, that's not to be confused with "cold fusion".

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
 

On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 12:42:10 -0500, F. George McDuffee
wrote:

On Thu, 23 Oct 2014 19:38:49 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

snip

They're usually quite large and heavy. I hope it drops, though. I'd
truly love to see fusion (and the resultant near free utilities) in my
lifetime. Right, not holding my breath.

If anything beyond "cold fusion" http://tinyurl.com/2mj7q
NIST should test, and if any real potential, a new Manhattan
Project or Project Apollo to develop and deploy should be
undertaken ASAP.

This will be not only economic stimulus/support for the
mis-, non- and under- employed STEM employees, but will help

Oh, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Gotcha.
What about the millions of recently/newly unemployed, too?


support our heavy industries. This also contains the
solution to (among many other problems) the mega-drought in
California that is gradually creeping east, that presents a
serious and rapidly increasing problem to not only the US
food supply, but California employment, by making massive
desalinization and pumping economically justified. Such a
development would also put the US back in the lead of the
technology/engineering race, for at least a few years.

My buddy in Vista just told me that the large desal plant in Carlsbad,
CA is going ahead this year. The Encina Power Plant will be expanded
and some three foot diameter freshwater lines will head out of it. I
haven't yet had time to check that out online, but will soon.
http://tinyurl.com/pprdj6v (There it is.)


--
A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if
one's life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself.
-- Louis L'Amour