The Focus Fusion Society Forums Fusion Contenders Lockheed Skunkworks

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    Alex Pollard
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    Here is a detailed analysis of what little public information there is on Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks fusion project.

    http://www.thepolywellblog.com/2016/12/an-intensive-analysis-of-lockheeds.html

    The article expresses some skepticism about the assumptions used by Lockheed to model their approach.

    One criticism that isn’t made is that their approach (and this applied generally to almost all approaches to fusion) is that it relies on the waste product, helium, hanging around in the reaction vessel to deposit its heat into the fuel so that the reaction can continue. But the longer it hangs around, the more it “contaminates” the fuel. It is a trade-off and when achieving mere break-even is the goal it is yet another complication that the DFP approach completely avoids because the waste product removes itself as an ion beam and its energy can be efficiently harvested and cycled back in as electrical power for the next shot.

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