US Navy applies for a patent on a compact nuclear FUSION reactor...

[JohnRBaker]

I'm still not sure if this will ever really work, but we can only hope.

Scientist Behind The Navy's "UFO Patents" Has Now Filed One For A Compact Fusion Reactor

The latest in a series of bizarre Navy patents isn't just for a revolutionary reactor that could power cities, but also potentially a craft.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...as-now-filed-one-for-a-compact-fusion-reactor

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[TheTick]

It doesn't have to work to be patented.

 

[IRstuff]

So long as they don't claim over-unity, they can get it patented.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[VEBill]

Discussing meter-scale systems that would be "...capable of producing power in the gigawatt (1 billion watts) to terawatt (1 trillion watts) range and above..."

I especially like the "...and above."

The meter-scale (small size) hype, with implied promises towards eventual civilian applications, is problematic.

Forget nuclear physics. Just treat this hypothetical device as a 'black box' of say 2m per side that is internally generating, in its core, gigawatts, or terawatts, ...or above.

Even if one imagines some sort of Niagara Falls of liquid metal being somehow poured through the core to carry away this amount of thermal power (better be with near-100% efficiency), the associated infrastructure would be vast.

Presumably the energy would end up in the usual water-based steam turbines to spin generators, so the heat engine approach will require the typical cooling towers to act as the essential heat sink.

All in all, any such civilian power plant will sprawl over 100 acres.

Even if the nuclear core was the size of a pea, it'll still sprawl over 100 acres.

---

The obvious exception to the inherently sprawling size would be if such a system could somehow be submerged underwater, deep in the ocean...

An excellent approach, especially in terms of gaining the required R&D funding.

 

[jraef]

Now where did I put those banana peals?

" We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know." -- W. H. Auden