Lockheed Martin bets big on...nuclear fusion?

[wtmusic]

Does Lockheed have new ideas for what's proved to be one of the toughest energy nuts to crack? If so, it could guarantee a revenue stream for the next century.



"A few weeks ago, I noted that there is a growing stable of companies, many small and some venture-backed, that is tackling the elusive challenge of nuclear fusion. Driven by entrepreneurial spirit and not by the colossal state budgets that define the large international governmental fusion projects such as Europe’s ITER and the U.S.’s NIF, one or more of these entities is likely to crack the fusion nut first, I said.

Almost on queue, another company has trotted into the fusion corral: U.S. aerospace stalwart Lockheed Martin. Speaking last week at a Google “Solve for X” event (it’s a bit like a TED gathering, but organized by the ubiquitous search engine/media company), Charles Chase from Lockheed’s “Skunk Works” group described a transportable, 100-megawatt fusion machine that he said will be grid ready in 10 years and that – here’s a bold claim – could provide all the world’s baseload power by 2050.

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Lockheed will build a sub-100MW prototype version by 2017 that will measure about 1-meter in diameter by 2-meters long. The 100MW grid-ready unit will be about twice that size, he says."

http://www.the-weinberg-foundation.org/2013/02/15/latest-entrant-in-the-fusion-sweepstakes-lockheed-martin/