Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details (2014) | Hacker News Reader

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details (2014)

aviationweek.com

41 pointsgraderjs13 comments

Always worth balancing these with my favorite skeptical fusion article: VooDoo Fusion Energy

https://vixra.org/pdf/1812.0382v1.pdf

From the PDF:

> Lockheed-Martin Compact Fusion

> “Lockheed will have a small fusion reactor prototype (powerplant) in five years...and a commercial application within a decade,” from MIT Technology Review, 10/20/2014.

> “Net energy gain in 2020 and commercial powerplant targeted for 2024,” from NBF May 3, 2016.

I suspect we would have heard if they had achieved net energy gain.

> I suspect we would have heard if they had achieved net energy gain.

I dunno, Skunkworks doesn't traditionally like to publicize major breakthroughs until decades later.

They were pretty heavily targeting civilian commercial applications. If they were keeping it under wraps we would have simply not heard anything at all.

Or the second they got close the feds stepped in and squashed further comment with a gag order.

The current thought has been that civilian use and proliferation of fusion reactors is a positive thing for the US's security posture, since it opens up nuclear power generation options without nuclear weapons proliferation concerns. Ie. it removes 'this fission reactor is just for power generation, totes not breeding plutonium, or using the centrifuges to develop a weapon' shtick you see from states wishing to become nuclear powers.

That's encouraging. BTW where do you get information like that? I'd probably love to read more

This reveal from Lockheed coincided with the 2014 IAEA Conference on Fusion Energy, which was being held in Saint Petersburg. Make of this what you will.

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/mediaadvisories/iaea-confere...

This article was from 8 years ago… anyone have any updates on progress or testing of this system?

They had four prototypes, and were building the fifth prototype in 2019. Radio silence since then. None of the five designed to be usable as a power generation device, just prototyping their novel confinement topology. https://lynceans.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Lockheed-Mar...

I thought I remember reading that output estimates got cut in half, twice, and that the program fizzled.

The first sentence was great! but the paywall stopped me short of finishing the second sentence. From what I could read though, it looks like Skunk Works has some great things in the works.

Yeah, this seems of very limited utility. I wonder what the overlap is between the two readerships.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com