Compact nuclear fusion reactor is 'very likely to work,' studies suggest

Re:Compact nuclear fusion reactor is 'very likely to work,' ... by a1369209993 on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @08:17PM (#24634567)

To be fair, we have known how to build a working nuclear fusion power generator (probably with less than 30 years of construction) since the 1950s (see Project Orion); it's just a ridiculously huge construction/engineering project (basically a internal combustion engine powered by thermonuclear bombs).

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Re:Compact nuclear fusion reactor is 'very likely to work,' ... by ArnoVW on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @07:32AM (#24637632)

Orion was essentially an "external combustion engine". I.e. you have a huge piston that is driven by repeated explosion of nuclear bombs. With a spring mecanism to even out the whallops. And no "engine block" around it.

It did not generate electricity, and given the discrete/pulsed nature of the mecanism, I have a hard time seeing how you would "even out" the output, should you decide (somehow) to attach it to a generator. Let alone imagining how you would transport said electricity back to earth.

Because, don't forget, it was possible to have an external combusion engine because it was in space. Even by 50's standards, the project was judged a non-starter for atmospheric flight, from environmental standards point-of-view.

The project itself was in theory viable for it's original objective (space travel), but highly impractical. It requires massive, robust structures (read 'heavy') that can resist very high impacts. Not a problem once you're into space, but you have to get it into space first. And no-one will let you blow up a couple of scores of nukes in the atmosphere, on a recurring basis. The thought of launching hundreds of nukes into space to a ship built in orbit is not exactly an easy proposition either.

Still, should an extinction-level meteor ever show it's face, it would be useful.

For fun : some original footage of the prototypes in flight (using high explosives) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Sv5y6iHUM

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Re:Compact nuclear fusion reactor is 'very likely to work,' ... by webmaven on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @11:57AM (#24640125)

Strange. I've read about Orion-type vehicles off-and-on for several decades, and the impression I always had was that the shield would be a hemisphere, or parabolic, rather than shaped like a nosecone.

Am I missing something? How do the lower parallel sides help capture the energy of an explosion below the shield?

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Re:Compact nuclear fusion reactor is 'very likely to work,' ... by ArnoVW on Thursday October 01, 2020 @01:44AM (#24647739)

I've always understood it to be a plate. That way the vector of the forces is in the direction of travel. A parabolic shape would have to resist sideways forces.

A bit like this:

  https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2016/09/16/project-orion-a-nuclear-bomb-and-rocket-all-in-one/

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Re:Compact nuclear fusion reactor is 'very likely to work,' ... by de_watcher on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @05:49AM (#24637020)

Blocked by the slowness of the space industry.

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