The magnetic coils inside the compact fusion
experiment pictured in an undated photo provided by
Lockheed Martin.
(Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday it
had made a technological breakthrough in developing a
power source based on nuclear fusion, and the first
reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck,
could be ready for use in a decade.
Tom McGuire, who heads the project, said he and a
small team had been working on fusion energy at
Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works for about four years,
but were now going public to find potential partners in
industry and government for their work.
Initial work demonstrated the feasibility of building
a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet,
which could fit on the back of a large truck, and is
about 10 times smaller than current reactors, McGuire
told reporters.
In a statement, the company, the Pentagon's largest
supplier, said it would build and test a compact fusion
reactor in less than a year, and build a prototype in
five years.
In recent years, Lockheed has gotten increasingly
involved in a variety of alternate energy projects,
including several ocean energy projects, as it looks to
offset a decline in U.S. and European military spending.
Lockheed's work on fusion energy could help in
developing new power sources amid increasing global
conflicts over energy, and as projections show there
will be a 40 percent to 50 percent increase in energy
use over the next generation, McGuire said.
If it proves feasible, Lockheed's work would mark a
key breakthrough in a field that scientists have long
eyed as promising, but which has not yet yielded viable
power systems. The effort seeks to harness the energy
released during nuclear fusion, when atoms combine into
more stable forms.
"We can make a big difference on the energy front,"
McGuire said, noting Lockheed's 60 years of research on
nuclear fusion as a potential energy source that is
safer and more efficient than current reactors based on
nuclear fission.
Lockheed sees the project as part of a comprehensive
approach to solving global energy and climate change
problems.
Compact nuclear fusion would produce far less waste
than coal-powered plants since it would use
deuterium-tritium fuel, which can generate nearly 10
million times more energy than the same amount of fossil
fuels, the company said.
Ultra-dense deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, is
found in the earth's oceans, and tritium is made from
natural lithium deposits.
It said future reactors could use a different fuel
and eliminate radioactive waste completely.
McGuire said the company had several patents pending
for the work and was looking for partners in academia,
industry and among government laboratories to advance
the work.
Lockheed said it had shown it could complete a
design, build and test it in as little as a year, which
should produce an operational reactor in 10 years,
McGuire said. A small reactor could power a U.S. Navy
warship, and eliminate the need for other fuel sources
that pose logistical challenges.
U.S. submarines and aircraft carriers run on nuclear
power, but they have large fission reactors on board
that have to be replaced on a regular cycle.
"What makes our project really interesting and
feasible is that timeline as a potential solution,"
McGuire said.
Lockheed shares fell 0.6 percent to $175.02 amid a
broad market selloff.
(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)