Big, giant defense contractor Lockheed Martin claims that it has made a technological breakthrough that could bring about the elusive goal of operational nuclear fusion reactors in the next ten years – perhaps even functional units that can fit on the back of a truck.

The company went public with its progress at its legendary, top-secret “Skunk Works” in order to attract potential development partners from industry and government.  The US Pentagon – Lockheed Martin’s biggest client – is already on board to build and test a compact fusion reactor in less than a year, and to build a prototype for manufacture in five years.

This is why nuclear fusion is desirable:  The process would ram two extremely hot atoms together.  When their nuclei combine to form one, a massive amount of energy is released.  Unlike nuclear fission, which is the process used in the world’s nuclear reactors, fusion will not release harmful radioactive material. 

The super-hot plasma energy must be contained in order for energy to be extracted.  So far, that is done in a containment vessel called a “tokamak”, which looks like a giant, hollow doughnut.  But Lockheed-Martin says its new design for a Compact Fusion Reactor (CFR) can generate ten times as much power as a tokamak, in a smaller space.  The company has applied for several patents for its approach, but has yet to publish any scientific papers for pier review.

“It’s really great that Lockheed has taken an interest in this important challenge of providing carbon-free energy to the world,” said Michael Zarnstorff, deputy director for research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.  “We haven’t seen any results from the Lockheed experiments but the design is an interesting concept and it looks like they are at a very early stage of exploring this configuration.”

Others are not convinced.

“We know of no materials that would be able to handle anywhere near that amount of heat,” said thermonuclear plasma physicist Swadesh M. Mahajan of the University of Texas, speaking specifically of the problem posed by the plasma release.