Lockheed Martin claims to be able to make nuclear fusion reactors in 10 years

Lockheed Martin claims to have achieved a breakthrough in nuclear fusion. The company expects that its technology should be able to build nuclear fusion reactors intended for energy production in ten years’ time.

That reports Reuters news agency. Lockheed Martin’s research department has been working on the project for four years, research chief Tom McGuire said. In order to actually switch to commercial production, partners are needed, both academically and industrially. In ten years, Lockheed Martin expects to be able to actually build fusion reactors commercially, if the plans go ahead.

It is striking that Lockheed Martin focuses on building relatively small reactors. These must be compact enough to be transported by truck. Due to its relatively small dimensions, the nuclear fusion reactor must also be usable on ships, for example. Lockheed Martin claims to have already demonstrated that it can build a 100MW reactor measuring just over 2 by 3 meters in length and width. The construction of such a reactor must be completed within a year, after which a prototype will be available in five years.

Deuterium and tritium, both isotopes of hydrogen, are used as fuel for the nuclear fusion reactor. Normally, nuclear fusion is difficult to implement because the temperature required to fuse two atomic nuclei is too high for practical application. Lockheed Martin has given Aviation Week an insight into how the reactor works.

Last week, scientists presented results of experiments that seem to confirm that cold fusion is possible with the so-called E-Cat reactor. However, there are doubts about the research, partly because it is not clear exactly how this reactor works.