Mr. Fusion? Compact Fusion Reactor Will be Available in 5 Years Says Lockheed-Martin
by Tim Reyes
on October 21, 2014
Could
the future of fusion driven rockets for interplantary or even
interstellar travel be near at hand? Engineers at the Lockheed-Martin
Skunk Works believe they will have a compact fusion reactor prototype
operational in five years and in use within 10 years. (Illustration
Credit:© David A. Hardy/www.astroart.org, Project Daedalus)
The Farnsworth Fusor; Pons and Fleishmann. It seems the trail to
fusion energy has long gone cold — stone cold, that is, and not cold as
in cold fusion. Despite the promise of fusion providing a sustainable
and safe energy source, fusion reactors are not a dime a dozen and they
won’t be replacing coal fired power plants any time soon. Or will they?
Lockheed-Martin
Skunk Works
announced a prototype compact fusion reactor that could be ready within
five years. This revelation has raised eyebrows and sparked moments of
enthusiasm.
But, let’s considers this story and where it all fits in both the history and future.
For every Skunk Works project that has made the runway such as the
Stealth Fighter or SR-71 Blackbird, there are untold others that never
see the light of day. This adds to the surprise and mystery of
Lockheed-Martin’s willingness to release images and a detailed narrative
describing a compact fusion reactor project.
The impact that such a device would have on humanity can be imagined …
and at the same time one imagines how much is unimaginable.
Lockheed-Martin
engineers in the Skunkworks prepare a vessel, one component of an
apparatus that they announced will lead to nuclear fusion in a
truck-sized reactor within 5 years. An international effort is underway
in Europe to create the world’s first practical tokamak fusion reactor, a
much larger and costlier design that has never achieved the long sought
“breakeven” point. (Photo Credit: Lockheed-Martin)
The program manager of the Skunk Works’ compact fusion reactor
experiment is Tom Maguire. Maguire and his team places emphasis on the
turn-around time for modifying and testing the compact fusion device.
With the confidence they are expressing in their design and the ability
to quickly build, test and modify, they are claiming only five years
will be needed to reach a prototype.
What exactly the prototype represents was left unexplained, however.
Maguire continues by saying that in 10 years, the device will be seen in
military applications and in 20 years it will be delivered to the world
as a replacement for the dirty energy sources that are in use today.
Military apps at 10 years means that the device will be too expensive
initially for civilian operations but such military use would improve
performance and lower costs which could lead to the 20 year milestone
moment if all goes as planned.
Their system uses magnetic confinement, the same basic principle behind the
tokamak toroidal plasma confinement system that has received the greatest attention and government funding for over 50 years.
The
ITER Tokamak Fusion Reactor is expected to begin operational testing in
2020 and begin producing deuterium-tritium fusion reactions in 2027.
(Credits: ITER, Illus. T.Reyes)
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (
ITER)
is currently under construction in Europe under the assumption that it
will be the first net energy producing fusion generator ever. It is
funded by the European Union, India, Japan, People’s Republic of China,
Russia, South Korea and the United States. But there are cost over-runs
and its price has gone from $5 billion to $50 billion.
ITER is scheduled to begin initial testing in 2019 about the time
Lockheed-Martin’s compact fusion reactor prototype is expected. If
Lockheed-Martin succeeds in their quest, they will effectively have
skunked ITER and laid to waste a $50 billion international effort at
likely 1/1000th the cost.
There are a few reasons Lockheed-Martin has gone out on a limb.
Consider the potential. One ton of Uranium used in Fission reactors has
as much energy as 1,500 tons of coal. But fission reactors
produce radioactive waste and are a finite resource without breeder
reactors, themselves a nuclear proliferation risk. Fusion produces 3 to 4
times more energy per reaction than fission. Additionally, the fuel —
isotopes of hydrogen — is available from sea water — which is nearly
limitless — and the byproducts are far less radioactive than with
fission. Fusion generators once developed could provide our energy needs
for millions of years.
More pragmatically, corporations promote their R&D. They are in a
constant state of competition. They present a profile that ranges from
the practical to the cutting edge to instill confidence in their
Washington coffers. Furthermore, their competitors have high profile
individuals and projects. A fusion project demonstrates that
Lockheed-Martin is doing more than creating better mouse-traps.
To date, no nuclear fusion reactor has achieved breakeven. This is
when the fusion device outputs as much energy as is input to operate it.
Magnetic confinement such as the various tokamak designs, Lawrence
Livermore’s laser-based inertial confinement method, and even the simple
Philo Farnsworth
Fusor can all claim to be generating energy from fusion reactions. They
are just all spending more energy than their devices output.
An
example of a homemade Fusor. Originally invented in the 1960s by the
inventor of the television, Philo Farnsworth. (Credit: Wikipedia,
W.Jack)
The
fusor,
invented in the 1960s by Farnsworth and Hirsh, is a electrostatic
plasma confinement system. It uses electric fields to confine and
accelerate ions through a central point at which some ions will collide
with sufficient energy to fuse. Although the voltage needed is readily
achieved by amateurs – about 4000 volts – not uncommon in household
devices, no fusor has reached breakeven and theoretically never will.
The challenge to reaching breakeven involves not just energy/temperature
but also plasma densities. Replicating conditions that exist in the
core of stars in a controllable way is not easy. Nevertheless, there is a
robust community of “fusioneers” around the world and linked by the
internet.
Mr
Fusion, the compact fusion reactor that drove the 21st Century version
of the DeLorean in Back to the Future. The movie trilogy grossed $1
billion at the box office. Mr Fusion could apparently function off of
any water bearing material. (Credit: Universal Pictures)
It remains to be seen who, what and when a viable fusion reactor will
be demonstrated. With Lockheed-Martin’s latest announcement, once
again, fusion energy is “just around the corner.” But many skeptics
remain who will quickly state that commercial fusion energy remains 50
years in the future. So long as Maguire’s team meets milestones with
expected performance improvements, their work will go on. The potential
of fusion energy remains too great to dismiss categorically.
From an altitude of more than 135,000 feet (41,148
meters), Alan Eustace had a view of the curvature of Earth against the
blackness of space.
Alan Eustace was carried into the stratosphere with a high-altitude scientific balloon.
China’s lunar sample program involves upcoming re-entry
capsule test to evaluate high-speed plunge into Earth’s atmosphere.
Long March booster being readied to support China's
next mooncraft takeoff this month, dedicated to testing technology for
future lunar sample-return mission. 
The 4M mission is dedicated to Manfred Fuchs who died early this year. 4M stands for the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission.
LuxSpace launch preparation team in China has
successfully completed the system functional tests and health checks of
its 4M probe before integration with China's Long March 3C. 
