Could this be black tech turning white ?....Lockhead 'Skunk Works power' creates confusion over nuclear fusion

[Cidersomerset]

This article has stumped the BBC Science journalist who in the land of mainstream
says all this is science fiction and the article reads quite quaint from the alternate
angle , where we speculate the TR 3BS etc have been powered by some form of it......

But as we all know Science fiction one day, Science fact the next.....LOL

As many on here think we have had alternate energy for decades and maybe
the 'black budget ' boys and girls think its time to 'let the dogs out ' so to
speak and cash in on it before any one else like Rossi or the Chinese can.

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Lockheed Martin: Compact Fusion Research & Development

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=UlYClniDFkM

Oct 2014
Learn more: http://lockheedmartin.com/compactfusion

At Lockheed Martin Skunk Works®, we’re making advancements in the
development of fusion energy, the ultimate form of renewable power. Our scientists
and engineers are looking at the biggest natural fusion reactor for inspiration – the
sun. By containing the power of the sun in a small magnetic bottle, we are on the
fast track to developing compact fusion reactors to serve the world’s ever-growing
energy needs. Learn more about compact fusion: http://lmt.co/1rfsakG


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'Skunk power' creates confusion over nuclear fusion



17 November 2014 Last updated at 01:53



Matt McGrath Article written by Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent

More from MattFollow Matt on Twitter'Skunk power' creates confusion over nuclear
fusionComments (170) Fusion Lockheed Martin is working on a device that could
become a compact fusion reactor



Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin is doing its best to shatter my favourite science cliche.

"Nuclear fusion is just 30 years away - and always will be."



The advanced projects team at Lockheed, known as Skunk Works, has unveiled a
plan to develop a compact, magnetic fusion device in less than a decade.

OK, Skunk Works has a history of developing secret military aircraft over the past
70 years, but nuclear fusion?

What have they been smoking, you might say.

The team believe they have found a new way of squeezing atoms together so they
fuse and generate energy, in a small-scale magnetic device.

As a result, they aim to build a reactor a 10th the size of current approaches.

They argue that their device, which would fit on the back of a truck, could produce
100 megawatts (MW) of power and use just 25kg of fuel in a year.

“
Start Quote
If they do have some innovative ideas they'd be fools to tell us”
End Quote
Prof Steve Cowley

Culham Centre for Fusion Energy

That would be enough to power a city with 80,000 homes. The aim is to have a
prototype in five years and working model in 10.

Gassy doughnuts

Our current method of getting energy from atoms involves splitting molecules, a
difficult and dangerous operation that creates large amounts of radiation, and
leaves behind significant quantities of radioactive waste.

Fusion is a much neater idea - atoms are jammed together to release huge
amounts of energy, with no danger of accidents or proliferating weapons.

At the heart of magnetic fusion reactors is superhot, ionised plasma - a gas heated
to at least 100 million degrees C.



fusion Team leader Dr Thomas McGuire says a prototype could be built in five years
A critical element is how you contain this nuclear soup. The plasma normally
circulates in a doughnut-shaped vessel, but if it touches the sides, it would quickly
destroy the whole endeavour.

It's said to be as difficult as keeping the Sun in a box - and as yet we have no idea
how to build that box.

What experts believe that Lockheed have done is to change the way that huge
magnets are used to contain the gas.

Called "cusp geometry", the arrangement produces an effect where the harder a
particle struggles to move away from the gas, the harder the magnets work to keep it in line.

Achieving this type of stability has been a major problem for most of the other
approaches to fusion.

A collaborative global experiment known as Iter is building a massive device, set to
cost up to $15bn but which won't be operative until the mid-2020s.

At the moment all that has really been achieved is a large, expensive hole in the
ground in the south of France.

The Iter idea is based on work done at the Jet Project in Culham near Oxford.

Back in 1997, they managed to get 16MW of electricity from a fusion reaction,
though they needed 24MW to make it happen.

It still stands as the world's best effort when it comes to smashing atoms together.



fusion Gas heated to extremely high temperatures is at the heart of the magnetic
fusion approach Like many experts in the field, those at Jet believe the Lockheed
announcement is not a breakthrough but a lack of concrete information is
frustrating the scientists.

"You have to be ready for somebody to change your mind, you have to be," said
Prof Steve Cowley, the director of the Culham effort.

"I don't know in this case. It might be that they have some good ideas, but partly
because they are doing it commercially they are not going to tell us, so it can't be
subject to the normal scientific peer review.

"If they do have some innovative ideas they'd be fools to tell us."

The Iter approach

CLICKABLE
LabelsOffOn
Fusion reactor Cryostat
Magnets
Vacuum
Blanket
Heater
Divertor
Cryostat The cryostat holds the vacuum vessel and acts as a giant fridge maintaining
the low temperature needed for the superconducting magnets.

Magnets The magnet system confines and controls the plasma inside the vacuum
vessel and will generate a magnetic field 200,000 times higher than the Earth.

Vacuum The vacuum vessel is a doughnut-shaped chamber in which the fusion
reaction takes place as the plasma particles spiral continuously without touching
the walls.

Blanket The blanket covers the interior surfaces of the vacuum vessel, shielding the
vessel and superconducting magnets from the heat and high-energy neutrons
produced by the fusion reaction.

Divertor The divertor sits at the bottom of the vacuum vessel and acts like an
exhaust system, extracting heat and helium ash and other impurities from the
plasma.

Heaters For the gas in the vacuum chamber to become plasma, the temperatures
inside the reactor need to reach 150 million degrees celsius—or ten times the
temperature of the centre of the Sun.

As well as these magnetic approaches, others are using lasers to heat and
compress the fuel so that it initiates the fusion reaction.

Late last year in California, researchers at the National Ignition Facility passed a
critical milestone on this approach.

There are dozens of others looking to make fusion work. Canada-based General
Fusion uses liquid lead in its experiments; at MIT the preference is for levitation.

The amazing potential for cheap energy that is carbon and waste-free is enough to
send shivers down your spine.

But then again so was the cold fusion idea.

This could suffer a similar fate.

Some experts say that if it wasn't for the Lockheed name, it would be dismissed as
the ramblings of a bunch of crazies.



fusion Another approach uses lasers, focused on this capsule to try to achieve fusion


There is no data and even if the new magnetic geometry can contain the plasma,
there are hundreds of hurdles before creating more energy than the device consumes.

According to Prof Cowley, perhaps in some areas of life, size does actually matter.

"You would love it to be more like your garage in Palo Alto, but maybe fusion
doesn't work in that way. Maybe it's more like the atomic bomb where you have to
lock in your ideas over a long period to make them work."

The Jet project hopes to go further in the next few years and perhaps in 2017 or so
it will get to "break even", the point where the amount of energy produced by the
device is the same as the amount it takes to fire it up.

That's a long way from fusion-powered planes as in the Lockheed idea.

One problem for Jet could be a shortage of electricity, given the recent fire at Didcot Power station.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29710811

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The funny point of this from my point of view today is I just watched the last
few episodes of season 2 'Under The Dome ' earlier and the 'Egg' energy source
creating the power for the Dome was being desperately sought after by government
subcontractors at all costs, which just amused me as the 'Skunk works' is
well known for military secret advanced craft......


OK some of the story lines are a bit 'Naff' but the concept is very interesting.....

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dg9iiLNdbD4

[Michael Moewes]

My friends Father was the leading phisician in the french fusion programm. In 1998 he said that in 2015 they will have it ready.
I still doubt as they had major fallbacks by melting fusion chambers. the problem is, that to maintain the power of the sun in a space so limited, you need the magnatic energie field of the sun to maintain it stable. Just imagine what this will do to our earthmagnetic field.

[amor]

There are several overunity producers of energy which it is claimed have been running for 20 years, some without moving parts, running on the zero field, shown on the internet. This is all a scam in my opinion to keep the dynasaur oil industry going and their crooked banks in business. What about the cold fusion. I'd like to put these scammers in the middle of their reactors which only boil water.