Do we want a defense contractor controling fusion?

originally posted by: Q33323
a reply to: onequestion

Many things are in the hands of "contractors." Therefore, the government can claim to know nothing about it. No FOIA. Nothing, ... ever.

That's because the government isn't in the business of building things. You contract the design, development and production out. The government gets all the design data. It causes a real issue for some things, like software and firmware.

a reply to: onequestion

Great, everyone should have a small sun in their basement.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: onequestion

Great, everyone should have a small sun in their basement.

I agree! When they pull off the p-B11 version, I will buy the first one that sells for less than 50k.

a reply to: Bedlam

As long as they don't become… unstable.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Phage

That's what's scary.

Isn't anyone in the private sector doing this?

So you'd be happy with a company like Koch Industries having something like that?

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: onequestion

Great, everyone should have a small sun in their basement.

I agree! When they pull off the p-B11 version, I will buy the first one that sells for less than 50k.

Great. I'm in! Good bye, Puget Power*!!!!

At that price it would take me about five years to amortize. No more CFLs and LEDs. No more 68 degrees.

* PSE, but who cares?

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Drunkenparrot

It's not naive it's something the public needs to take into consideration when paying taxes.

Do we want to invest in that against our own best interests?

Hell I wish they'd stop taking my money so I could personally invest into a company that wants to do it.

Since companies compete for the contracts, it's a little silly to assume that Lockheed wanted nothing to do with it. The company that makes this breakthrough will have a corner on a completely new market.

no one will "control" it. If one company can build it, so can others. And something like that...you can bet your ass it'll be reverse engineered by the whole world.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
no one will "control" it. If one company can build it, so can others. And something like that...you can bet your ass it'll be reverse engineered by the whole world.

Gah, you beat me to it! I am also curious how one company will 'control fusion' ?

Does that mean they could turn the Sun off??! (sarcasm)

a reply to: Teikiatsu
No. But they can have a patent on a particular design. A patent which, in order to make money (to recoup R&D, then to profit), will be licensed. A patent which will expire after 20 years.

This is why I believe everyone is dumping oil as fast as they can before it is barely needed any longer.

originally posted by: Xeven
This is why I believe everyone is dumping oil as fast as they can before it is barely needed any longer.

It'll be as looong time til everyone's driving fusion powered cars.

There's a perfect storm going on in the oil market due to world finance and (geo)politics.

The EU has already achieved aneutronic fusion capabilities for some of its submarines that the EU claims to be working on a miraculous Air Independent Propulsion based on stirling engines and other electric capacitors. All fraud, the EU is hiding its fusion energy capabilities to protect the oil business and make sure there's always the peak oil excuse for its imperialism.

Lockheed Martin Skunkworks has a plan.

First they probably already made a fusion reactor. And they have been powering all kinds of neat things off of the electricity it generates. Finally, after many late night drinks, one of the scientists got permission to leak his ideas out from upper management. His ideas are Lockheed's intellectual property. The patent applies to the magnetic confinement scheme created for the compact fusion reactor. The announcement in October 2014 was a "feeler" to get other companies involved with their energy division (partners = money; money LM does not have to spend on their own and assume all the risk). Nobody, and I mean nobody else in the world, is making fusion this way! Everybody else is using tokomaks, stellarators, lasers (inertial confinement), and a couple are using a combo of magnetic confinement and lasers. One guy (pretty much self-funded) has this thing that looks like a spark plug and he is doing the more difficult proton-Boron reaction that Bedlam mentioned--that reaction creates electricity directly but requires billions of degrees to make it happen.

The LM plans goes something like this. "Create prototype. Get partners. Make T4s in an assembly line fashion. Make money and cheap, zero emission energy for the entire world"

F# yeah I want Lockheed doing this! Do you want that idiot from Tesla motors doing this? Bill Gates? Trump the Hump? Nah, let Skunkworks lead the way!

BTW, all of the articles in the Next Big Future article are from last year. In case you did not know the project has continued funding. The reactor has made its first plasma. The magnetic confinement scheme has been released and I have it posted over here on ATS

originally posted by: Flanker86
The EU has already achieved aneutronic fusion capabilities for some of its submarines that the EU claims to be working on a miraculous Air Independent Propulsion based on stirling engines and other electric capacitors. All fraud, the EU is hiding its fusion energy capabilities to protect the oil business and make sure there's always the peak oil excuse for its imperialism.

Ah yes, the dreaded EMF, scourge of... not very much. A few Somali pirates, I think, that's about it. And the EMF is actually several different countries contributing towards a common goal.

Two or three countries who contribute are using AIP technology. The only one I'm aware of using Stirling AIP is Sweden.

And AIP isn't miraculous, it's actually a fairly old technology in submarine terms. You might say that it's miraculous that they've stopped it blowing up. It doesn't have a very... safe... history.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
One guy (pretty much self-funded) has this thing that looks like a spark plug and he is doing the more difficult proton-Boron reaction that Bedlam mentioned--that reaction creates electricity directly but requires billions of degrees to make it happen.

Sounds like Dense Plasma Focus Fusion. There are actually a few groups working on it.

While I absolutely love the idea, I'm left with the impression from those more knowledgeable in such things that it's a bit... pie in the sky. Which is a shame.

At least Rossi hasn't crept out from whatever rock he lives under to get involved.

a reply to: EvillerBob

It is this small group LPP Fusion.

They continue to post updates, request funding, and have achieved hotter temperatures than both W7-X and China's EAST. Last I heard they were getting ready to upgrade the tip of their device and possibly add more capacitors.

Lockheed is still doing deuterium-tritium neutronic reaction. I hope somebody comes along and gets them set up with a liquid lithium first wall. This is also steady state. I like how all magnetic lines of force always push back to the center! It really is an ingenious design. It is like an engineer to think, "This kind of works but what if I do this? Then when it squeezes out over hear, mirror it back using this?" because that looks like how it was designed to me! And that is also the reason I think it will work. I mean, does work!

[ETA: Yeah, it is "dense focus fusion" but I typically call it "aneutronic fusion" and leave it at that]