Lockheed Martin bets big on...nuclear fusion?

[wtmusic]

12. A succcessful MSR prototype ran for four years at Oak Ridge in the 60s

generating 8MW of power with a vessel about the size of 5 bathtubs. The concept was a casualty of politics, not physics:

&quot Oak Ridge Director Alvin) Weinberg was fired by the Nixon Administration from ORNL in 1973 after 18 years as the lab's director because he continued to advocate increased nuclear safety and Molten Salt Reactors, instead of the Administration's chosen Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) that the AEC's Director of Reactor Division, Milton Shaw, was appointed to develop."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Weinberg

The high neutron flux chewed up graphite moderator tubes, it involved some chemical separation challenges, and its high temperature was hard on pumps. None is regarded as a deal-breaker with today's tech.