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Re:Lockheed Martin has obtained a patent for a compact fusio... by eloff on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @11:41AM (#16689564)
To the same extent as fission? You're being disingenuous here with that comparison.
Re:Lockheed Martin has obtained a patent for a compact fusio... by ExcelSaga on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @06:36PM (#16693431)
Fission is required for D-T fusion at this point, otherwise you don’t have any tritium. It’s the people who ignore that, and our failure to breed tritium within a fusion reactor who are disingenuous. If you don’t know even that much about the science, I’d strongly recommmemd refraining from accusing people of being less tham forthright.
Re:Lockheed Martin has obtained a patent for a compact fusio... by yellowapple on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @10:28AM (#16697899)
Per the article, it sounds like the fusion reactor itself could indeed be the thing producing the tritium by way of a lithium blanket. Of course, that means it'd need to have some way of generating the neutrons (the design seems to include two spots for "neutral beams", but I missed any mention of what's supplying those beams).
Re:Lockheed Martin has obtained a patent for a compact fusio... by eloff on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @02:14AM (#16695772)
It is today, but my understanding is that fission is just our best source of neutrons to breed tritium from lithium 6. Fusion should also be an excellent source of neutrons, so I don't see that as being a hard requirement. I'm not a physicist, so I may be dead wrong.