The crucial point in the Skunk Works arrangement is their
tube-like design, which permits them to avoid one of the boundaries of usual
fusion reactor designs, which are very restricted in the sum of plasma they can
sustain, which makes them giant in size—like the gigantic International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. According to McGuire: “The traditional tokamak designs can only hold so much
plasma, and we call that the beta limit. Their plasma ratio is 5% or so of the
confining pressure. We should be able to go to 100% or beyond.” This design lets it to be 10 times smaller at the same power
output of somewhat like the ITER, which is anticipated to produce 500 MW in the
2020s. This is essential for the use of fusion in all kind of uses, not only in
huge, costly power plants. Skunk Works is committed that their structure—which
will be only the size of a jet engine—will be capable enough to power almost
everything, from spacecraft to airplanes to vessels—and obviously scale up to a
much bigger size. McGuire also claims that at the size of the ITER, it will be
able to produce 10 times more energy.
Mi puzza un po’ di bufala, ma se fosse vero…
Lockheed Martin’s new Compact Fusion Reactor might change humanity forever
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