NextBigFuture.com points to an interesting talk given at the Solve for X forum about a Lockheed-Martin Skunkworks project about which I believe little has been revealed previously. In the video below, Charles Chase of L-M discusses their compact nuclear fusion reactor design, which he believes could lead to a working 100MW prototype reactor in 5 years and go into commercial production by 2022. Charles Chase on energy for everyone – Moonshots – Solve for X.
He tells what the design does, i.e. it uses tritium-deuterium, creates a high beta configuration, provides very good containment and stability but unfortunately he gives no details on how exactly it does these things. I hope the reason he is now able to discuss this in a public forum is because they are in the process of publishing scientific papers on it but we will just have to wait and see.
The best part about this line of research would be the half-decade fast transition from prototype to manufactured production model, as Mr. Chase of LockMart stresses. And we get a result either way faster, saving R&D dollars.
Because the ITER slide is flipped, the ‘little guy’ added for scale is in the lower *left* corner of the reactor, not the right. 🙂
-Spike MacPhee