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Lockheed Martin's Patent for a Fusion Reactor the Size of a Shipping Container

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday March 28 2018, @01:48AM   Printer-friendly
from the mr.-fusion dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Lockheed Martin has quietly obtained a patent associated with its design for a potentially revolutionary compact fusion reactor, or CFR. If this project has been progressing on schedule, the company could debut a prototype system that size of shipping container, but capable of powering a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier or 80,000 homes, sometime in the next year or so.

The patent, for a portion of the confinement system, or embodiment, is dated Feb. 15, 2018. The Maryland-headquartered defense contractor had filed a provisional claim on April 3, 2013 and a formal application nearly a year later. Our good friend Stephen Trimble, chief of Flightglobal's Americas Bureau, subsequently spotted it and Tweeted out its basic details.

In 2014, the company also made a splash by announcing they were working on the device at all and that it was the responsibility of its Skunk Works advanced projects office in Palmdale, California. At the time, Dr. Thomas McGuire, head of the Skunk Works’ Compact Fusion Project, said the goal was to have a working reactor in five years and production worthy design within 10.

[...] Considering the five year timeline Dr. McGuire put out in 2014 for achieving a workable prototype, maybe we’re due for another big announcement from Lockheed Martin in the near future.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Wednesday March 28 2018, @04:52AM (2 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday March 28 2018, @04:52AM (#659346)

    Do you really think the patent office actually demands to see a working prototype? It's easy to patent something that doesn't work: write up a patent and file it. It's been done countless times. It's a key feature in the business model of patent trolls in fact.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 28 2018, @06:45AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 28 2018, @06:45AM (#659377)

    It's a key feature in the business model of patent trolls in fact.

    In this case it's a business model of stock market trolls. Troll the investors "we haz fusion in container"

  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday March 28 2018, @12:59PM

    by TheRaven (270) on Wednesday March 28 2018, @12:59PM (#659463) Journal
    In general no; however, there are some specific categories in which they do. Perpetual motion machines, time machines, and cold fusion reactors are on that list. I don't know if small hot-fusion reactors are, but it sounds as if this patent is for a component of such a machine and so is able to be patented whether the machine actually works or not.
    --
    sudo mod me up