Electric dreams: Lockheed says nuclear fusion on the way

THE “true atomic age” of limitless electricity without any radioactive waste or carbon dioxide emissions could be a reality within a decade,

THE “true atomic age” of limitless electricity without any radioactive waste or carbon dioxide emissions could be a reality within a decade, according to a US aerospace company that has claimed a breakthrough in nuclear fusion.

Scientists have reacted cautiously to Lockheed Martin’s claims which, if true, could revo­lutionise the global energy ­equation and space travel.

The company’s hi-tech offshoot, Skunk Works, which developed the U-2 spy plane and F-117 stealth fighter jet, said it was developing nuclear fusion plants the size of a small truck.

Without the radioactive waste from conventional nuclear fission, there are no fears of nuclear ­weapons proliferation and fewer political barriers to rolling out the technology at scale.

Lockheed Martin said the new generators could be bolted directly on to existing gas-fired electricity generators. Alternatively, they could be fitted to aeroplanes and ships that would never require refuelling and would theoretically have an unlimited range.

The “grand vision” is to be able to “get to Mars in a month, and you can only do that if you have a ton of power”, said project team leader, Tom McGuire.

Nuclear fusion — the process through which the sun produces energy — has long been the holy grail of nuclear power but development has proven difficult because of the large infrastructure required, managing the tremendous heat involved and the amount of energy required to generate a reaction.

To generate electricity the heat from a fusion reactor is used to boil water and produce steam, which spins a standard turbine currently used in gas-fired power plants.

Unlike conventional fission nuclear reaction, when one atom is split into two smaller fragments, a fusion reaction is achieved by heating gas and separating it into ions and electrons. When the ions get hot enough, they can overcome their mutual repulsion and collide, fusing together, releasing about one million times more energy than a chemical reaction and three to four times more energy than a fission reaction.

Lockheed Martin claims to have overcome earlier problems with the design of a bottle-shaped magnetic field to contain the enormous amounts of heat generated.

The company said it had several patents pending on the technology. Lockheed Martin first announced its intention to begin work on a small scale nuclear ­fusion in March last year. The speed of developments has caught many people by surprise.

Dr McGuire said the technology developed at Skunk Works would allow the release of vast amounts of energy in a controlled fashion. He said the small size of the fusion reactor units was the key to the speed of anticipated development. “Rather than the size of a large building, we can do it in something the size of a truck,” Dr McGuire said.

“It doesn’t take five years to design it; it takes three months. We think we can design, build and test it in under a year. We think we can get to a prototype in five years.”

Nuclear expert Ziggy Switkowski said if the company had achieved the breakthroughs it claimed, it was “terribly exciting” — a 100 megawatt reactor would be able to run a large mine site or a town of 100,000 people.

Dr Switkowski said the company’s timelines were ambitious. “Even if they can produce a prototype in five years, it would take another 10 years for the necessary regulatory approvals and ability to scale it up,” he said.

“In terms of widespread availability, it is still 20 years off.”

Dr Switkowski said many companies had failed in their quest to develop nuclear fusion technology but Lockheed Martin was a credible company with a good record of innovation.

The Australian Science Media Centre also urged caution on the claimed breakthrough.

Roger Dargavill, leader of the MEI Energy Futures Group at the University of Melbourne, said it was unlikely fusion power would be cost-competitive against wind and solar in Australia.

He said nuclear was low-carbon and would be an important part of the electricity generation fleet in countries where other low-carbon alternatives were not viable.

Joel Gilmore from ROAM Consulting said the Lockheed announcement was a long way from a working prototype, let alone a commercially viable power generator.

“Even if successful, the big question is what will fusion power cost?” he said.