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How is Lockheed Marting doing with its shipping-container-sized fusion reactor?
by coolspot 6y ago
How is Lockheed Marting doing with its shipping-container-sized fusion reactor?
- pfdietz 6y agoIt grew in volume by a factor of 100, its power density fell to about 1/40th that of a fission reactor, and they stopped talking about it.
- jacquesm 6y agoEven so, if they could make it work it would be quite amazing. After all, miniaturization is a different challenge from getting the thing to work in the first place.
- pfdietz 6y agoIt would be amazing in the same sense a dancing bear is amazing. Not because it's useful, but because it can be done at all. Minaturization runs up against limits on power/area through the wall (and minimum thickness of T breeding blankets) that will force any DT fusion reactor to have power density a small fraction of a fission reactor.
- ohiovr 6y agoI knew it was doomed from day one. They never could show that the reactor support parts weren't in line with the flow of the plasma. It never got much past the Polywell concept from which it was derived.
- ncmncm 6y agoYet, it was a big success in that substantial cash was diverted to places where it would not otherwise have been. Not a penny of it evaporated; all went into waiting pockets.