The tokamak is the fusion community's choice of device for getting energy out of a fusion reactor, but smaller configurations may also be promising. There's ta

The tokamak is the fusion community's choice of device for getting energy out of a fusion reactor, but smaller configurations may also be promising. There's talk of exploring compact fusion configurations as a faster path to commercial viability; many private companies in North America are working on compact fusion and Lockheed's Skunkworks has expressed interest. Smaller size of these devices means research and operating costs are lower. The end product might be something more easily integrated into power grids (~100MW versus ~1GW of DEMO) and would hopefully have a competitive cost of electricity. Path to Market for Compact Fusion Cores: http://fire.pppl.gov/FESAC_WP_Path2Mark_SWood.pdf http://fire.pppl.gov/FESAC_WP_Path2Mark_SWood.pdf http://www.icosa.co/2013/02/lockheed-skunkworks-develops-compact-fusion/ http://www.icosa.co/2013/02/lockheed-skunkworks-develops-com...