Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough is claim by Lockheed Martin.

The arms manufacturer announced on Wednesday that it was “working on a new compact fusion reactor (CFR) that can be developed and deployed in as little as 10 years”. But Lockheed’s four paragraph press release and accompanying video are heavy on hyperbole and light on detail.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2...ear-fusion

Lockheed's presentation:


This sounds like the Polywell Fusor




This is kind of like cold fusion, but with real science behind it and it's actually pretty hot. It doesn't exist as a practical power plant. If it comes to fruition, it's like an industrial-sized power plant in your garage.

Reminds me of my favorite sign "Free Beer - Tomorrow." Because everything like this is always just 10 years away.

(10-17-2014 07:24 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  Reminds me of my favorite sign "Free Beer - Tomorrow." Because everything like this is always just 10 years away.

To be fair, this contrasts with other ideas on fusion that are perpetually 40 years away, and have been as long as I've been alive.

I'll believe it when I see it happen.

Every week I read about battery breakthroughs that will allow batteries to last much longer, store many times more energy, and charge in minutes instead of hours, but they never come to fruition.

It is easy (relatively speaking) to make something happen on a small scale in a lab. It is completely different to actually put it into production.

Hopefully this time it is different. It would truly revolutionize the world.

How cool would it be to work on this project? I would think it would be very hard to leave the job in the afternoon. WOW!!

This would truly change the world....in ways that we can not imagine.

It would also create chaos. The energy paradigm and the $$$ involved in it would suddenly change globally. Imagine for a second the consequences of suddenly not needing to burn fossil fuels for energy? What happens to the countries and people world wide that depend upon fossil fuels as their chief export and incomes.

The impact of this technology will be staggering both positively and negatively on peoples lives. We are talking about a mind blowing paradigm shift of epic proportions if this comes to fruition.

This is much better than "we are 20 years away" or we are 50 years away". Lockheed doesn't just come out and say stuff like this unless they think they are on to something. In fact, I'm a bit surprised they even told us, knowing the secrecy that is involved with other Skunkworks projects.

(10-17-2014 08:43 AM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  What happens to the countries and people world wide that depend upon fossil fuels as their chief export and incomes.

Hopefully, they stop giving money to groups like ISIS.

(10-17-2014 09:14 AM)BleedsHuskieRed Wrote:  This is much better than "we are 20 years away" or we are 50 years away". Lockheed doesn't just come out and say stuff like this unless they think they are on to something. In fact, I'm a bit surprised they even told us, knowing the secrecy that is involved with other Skunkworks projects.

I believe (and hope) they're on the track to something, but much like niner said.. in this case, I have to see some proof, and not just a bunch of cheerleading and hyperbole.

If true, the oil companies are going to be doing everything they can to slow Lockheed down in this regard.

Robert Brussard was trying to do something like this privately - he went to Google to pitch it there, and pitched it publicly as well in order to raise funds. Lockheed ought to have the resources that Brussard did not, so I'm not sure why the public drum beating here.

If they do the research and came through with a working prototype, this thing would be such a slam dunk, universal sell that not even the NRC or Euro-Greens could provide enough obstacles to screw it up. They would not like the idea of civilization advancing with lower carbon emissions, but they can cry in their soy fair trade lattes...

Any recent UFO Crash Reports?

(10-17-2014 11:17 AM)I45owl Wrote:  They would not like the idea of civilization advancing with lower carbon emissions, but they can cry in their soy fair trade lattes...

Human history has seen it's greatest achievements on the backs of energy improvements: first fire, then steam, currently petroleum, maybe now fission? The biggest historical limitation of prosperity and economic growth has been a lack of cheap and abundant energy. If you have enough of cheap and abundant energy, you have the cornerstones of prosperity.

No wonder liberal-Malthusians are so upset at this development.

(10-17-2014 01:05 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  Any recent UFO Crash Reports?

LOL

(10-17-2014 09:14 AM)BleedsHuskieRed Wrote:  This is much better than "we are 20 years away" or we are 50 years away". Lockheed doesn't just come out and say stuff like this unless they think they are on to something. In fact, I'm a bit surprised they even told us, knowing the secrecy that is involved with other Skunkworks projects.

Could just be hyping it to get more money from the government. Not like the government is going to request that money back if your research turns out to not be viable on a commercial scale.