• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Lockneed breakthough in fusion reactors.

BoogieWoogieWookie

Thinker
BoogieWoogieWookie
Joined
Aug 31, 2005
Messages
243
Location
USA in the Bible Belt
Don't know if anyone has posted on this yet...

(Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it had made a technological breakthrough in developing a power source based on nuclear fusion, and the first reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck, could be ready for use in a decade.

Link
 
I think they meant two decades. It's always 20 years ....

but yes, seems exciting, they stated they - "would build and test a compact fusion reactor in less than a year, and build a prototype in five years"

A 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet.

That would fit nicely in the barn.
 
icerat said:
That would fit nicely in the barn.
Click to expand...

As I understand it the selling point about the size of the reactor isn't handy storage. I think you may have to budget a bit more space for all the rest of the gubbins that turns that heat into useful energy.

However smaller reactor design means less energy expended on keeping the hot stuff from leaking out where it's not wanted.

I may be wrong though.
 
Ocelot said:
As I understand it the selling point about the size of the reactor isn't handy storage. I think you may have to budget a bit more space for all the rest of the gubbins that turns that heat into useful energy.

However smaller reactor design means less energy expended on keeping the hot stuff from leaking out where it's not wanted.

I may be wrong though.
Click to expand...
The "*cough*nuclearships*cough*" didn't make it into the article. Saying you can get 100 MW in a small volume is like blowing a kiss and flashing some skin at the US Navy.
 
icerat said:
ETA: More details from aviation week
Click to expand...

The key that it may be a real "breakthrough" is in this:

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.
Click to expand...

I have not been following this for years but, if researchers have finally managed to move away from tokamak configurations to a self-stablizing one, they may be on to something. The tokamak was a step up from the original torus designbut things have been stuck there for 50 years.
 
I was reading the same article and wondered how they were going to get useable power out of it. Unless people are going to warm their hands around the fusion there is going to have to be something else other than that small reactor.

From Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power#Plant_design
Dunk the reactor into a water filled vessel and generate steam. Or some sort of direct conversion.

I can see this revolutionizing nuclear propulsion in the next few decades. Maybe they can make it cheap enough for use by the merchant marines.

Ranb
 
How do you have superconducting magnets in the vicinity of an RF plasma field that is at 100,000,000 degrees? Conduction is not the only means for heating an object. Radiated and convective heat transfer would be huge and would quench the magnets.

The superhot plasma is controlled by strong magnetic fields that prevent it from touching the sides of the vessel and, if the confinement is sufficiently constrained, the ions overcome their mutual repulsion, collide and fuse.
Click to expand...
ETA: Lockneed breakthough in fusion reactors.
Never heard of them.;)
 
Last edited:
The personal flying car will come first. Nature and physics in general always seem to throw in That One Little Thing that somehow completely messes up that Scathingly Brilliant Insight you came up with.

Beanbag
 
Olowkow said:
How do you have superconducting magnets in the vicinity of an RF plasma field that is at 100,000,000 degrees? Conduction is not the only means for heating an object. Radiated and convective heat transfer would be huge and would quench the magnets.


ETA: Lockneed breakthough in fusion reactors.
Never heard of them.;)
Click to expand...
you would need insulation and active cooling of the magnets, that's just engineering details. New materials are operating at higher temperatures than ever before, this will also help deal with the issues. The highest temperatures are going to be in plasma well away from the walls of the machine. The actual density of the plasma away from the fusing region will be very low so the thermal conductance is very low given the high temperatures at the centre. I would assume that the materials lining the device will be relatively exotic. JET has been running with new linings recently to improve durability and investigate tritium production.
 
I wonder how the equipment would cope with the neutrons generated? They would need a good layer of water to absorb them. The water could then be turned into steam and the steam used to generate electricity.
 
I noticed that Lockheed has not issued too many details on this "breakthrough" of theirs.

As such, I hope that the system works, but I sure would like to see some more data on it before sending out the celebration party invites.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom