Lockheed says it's close to nuclear fusion

[King]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/15/us-lockheed-fusion-idUSKCN0I41EM20141015

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Thanks, Obama.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

That's good, but as long as the burgeoning fusion industry is run in a competent way ( i.e. not in the horrific way the fission plants are run, which is essentially huge taxpayer-funded write-offs to corperations.)

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

I forsee the future energy industry war to be between fusion and solar, if this actually works out. Both the more affordable solar panel and the fusion reactor should be available around the same time. It'll simply come down to a mineral war -- which faction can harvest the most raw materials necessary for their respective energy source most efficiently and in large supply.

[King]

That's good, but as long as the burgeoning fusion industry is run in a competent way ( i.e. not in the horrific way the fission plants are run, which is essentially huge taxpayer-funded write-offs to corperations.)

Well, fusion is far far more economically viable than fission.

[Likely Voter]

Fusion could also lead to commercializing the moon due to Helium 3.  This could also become an international fight over land mineral rights on the moon. Plus environmentalists won't like strip mining moon

[Joe Republic]

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They only have a year from now to decrease its size to fit on the back of a much smaller vehicle, and increase its yield to 1.21 gigawatts.

[King]

Fusion could also lead to commercializing the moon due to Helium 3.  This could also become an international fight over land mineral rights on the moon. Plus environmentalists won't like strip mining moon

Hey, it'll get us back into space.

[Likely Voter]

It could be the spark for a new space race, ironically back to the moon. The Russians, Chinese and Indian space agencies have all talked mining Helium-3 on the moon.

[MalaspinaGold]

Still say the adage "fusion is the energy of the future, and always will be" holds until proven otherwise.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Still say the adage "fusion is the energy of the future, and always will be" holds until proven otherwise.

This. I'll believe it when I see it.

[Person Man]

Still say the adage "fusion is the energy of the future, and always will be" holds until proven otherwise.

This. I'll believe it when I see it.

Of course I'm excited and today's environment of political and economic stability might make Fusion it's time to shine for if this was a time for technological change to solve large scale global social and economic problems, its now. All that being said, they will probably run out of money or hit a road block in the next two or five years. Either that or the "End of History", sub-5% unemployment and $2 a gallon gas will at least temporarily return in that timeframe.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Great news.

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They only have a year from now to decrease its size to fit on the back of a much smaller vehicle, and increase its yield to 1.21 gigawatts.

And then they have to get the giga prefix changed to "jiga".

[dead0man]

Great news if it pans out, but nobody has a problem with Lockheed this week?  I was under the impression that a lot you put the defense industry right between Dubya and cops on the list of Things Wrong With The World.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

In related news, the most ridiculed area of science, cold fusion, may have merit after all.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/191754-cold-fusion-reactor-verified-by-third-party-researchers-seems-to-have-1-million-times-the-energy-density-of-gasoline

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Great news.  Now remove all rights to it immediately from the private sector so we can actually benefit from this. 

[angus]

Well, fusion is far far more economically viable than fission.

fusion releases more energy per gram than fission, like ten times as much

also, there are no radioactive by-products with fusion

[pbrower2a]

Well, fusion is far far more economically viable than fission.

fusion releases more energy per gram than fission, like ten times as much

also, there are no radioactive by-products with fusion

Wrong -- high-intensity, ionizing energy that must be muted into more controllable heat. The mathematics just do not work for cold fusion.

[angus]

So, where is exactly is the "wrong" part of anything you quoted?

[dead0man]

Great news.  Now remove all rights to it immediately from the private sector so we can actually benefit from this. 

and that's how you get companies to stop doing R&D.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Great news.  Now remove all rights to it immediately from the private sector so we can actually benefit from this.  

and that's how you get companies to stop doing R&D.

Not always.  In this case, yes.  And it's not like companies don't fight over who's getting that next big government contract.

[muon2]

The press release from Lockheed doesn't say much, but I assume this is some advance on fusor design. Fusors have been around for 50 years, and have been somewhat useful for low flux neutron production, but up to now they haven't been able to generate more energy through fusion than they consume to power the electric and magnetic fields. I guess we'll have to wait until their stated test next year to learn more about the design.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

The press release from Lockheed doesn't say much, but I assume this is some advance on fusor design. Fusors have been around for 50 years, and have been somewhat useful for low flux neutron production, but up to now they haven't been able to generate more energy through fusion than they consume to power the electric and magnetic fields. I guess we'll have to wait until their stated test next year to learn more about the design.

Good post.  So I must assume you get your username from some kind of elementary particle?

[Joe Republic]

*pfft*  What would muon2 know about physics?  Nothing, that's what.




* see also: "What would muon2 know about Illinois state legislative politics?  Nothing, that's what."

[muon2]

The press release from Lockheed doesn't say much, but I assume this is some advance on fusor design. Fusors have been around for 50 years, and have been somewhat useful for low flux neutron production, but up to now they haven't been able to generate more energy through fusion than they consume to power the electric and magnetic fields. I guess we'll have to wait until their stated test next year to learn more about the design.

Good post.  So I must assume you get your username from some kind of elementary particle?

Thanks, I've spent much of the last 27 years identifying and tracking muons as a tool to measure fundamental properties of elementary particles.

[Linus Van Pelt]

Good news, if we can make it through the decade without a flood, an earthquake, a firestorm, the Monster, or a municipal bankruptcy caused by zoning industrial and residential too close to each other.