[apillar]

Wait a minute! Hold the phone! Do they seriously mean a FUSION reactor or is the reporter confusing it with a minaturized fission reactor? Because if they seriously have invented a small working fusion reactor that would be the biggest science news in 100 years as the most optimistic experts say a fusion reactor that produces more energy than it consumes is still about 50 years away.

[Doctor 2Brains]

for later

[Paladin2]

....a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet, which could fit on the back of a large truck,...

A 0.50 laser would be a good thing to have should Zombies apocalypse.

[RinaseaofDs]

I went out to the story and read it. Not a typo.

They said ‘compact FUSION reactor’ uses deuterium-tritium - for now. This one will produce some waste. Future ones using hydrogen won’t.

[BlueStateRightist]

This would be huge if true. As in, “change the world” huge. Something tells me the environmentalists/leftists would lobby for its outlaw. For no rational reason except the word “nuclear” is a part of the technology.

[tet68]

10 times smaller than current reactors

I wasn’t aware that there WERE any current Fusion
reactors....????

[Lee'sGhost]

No shi’ite!

[redgolum]

If true (and I remain suspicious of the reporting), then this will change the world.

Or be banned.

[zencycler]

No, it really is fusion ... here’s the press release straight from the source:

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2014/october/141015ae_lockheed-martin-pursuing-compact-nucelar-fusion.html

[blam]

I’ve been hearing that they’ll be in use in ten years for fifty years now.

[quietly desperate]

It’s not April 1, is it?

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[Cboldt]

Lots of articles if you gooogle lockheed fusion. I would say they mean fusion, not a Reuters typo.

[ConservingFreedom]

If true, it's another triumph for the profit motive.

[DoughtyOne]

When someone says they have a great new idea/plan along these lines, I either want to see it in operation, or I want them to acknowledge many things can happen along the road to successful implementation.

I hope this pans out. I remain a person that isn’t convinced it will.

[Constitution Day]

Time to buy stock in Mr. Fusion!

[thackney]

the feasibility of building a 100-megawatt reactor measuring seven feet by 10 feet, which could fit on the back of a large truck

There is a whole lot more to a nuclear power plant than just the reactor. The reactor produces heat. You need steam turbines, generators, cooling tower, etc...

[Socon-Econ]

Great news if true, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

[The KG9 Kid]

100mW fusion reactor that fits on the back of a truck?!

[Moonman62]

Tom McGuire, who heads the project, said he and a small team had been working on fusion energy at Lockheed’s secretive Skunk Works for about four years, but were now going public to find potential partners in industry and government for their work.

...

“Potential partners,” otherwise known as suckers. If this had promise Lockheed would keep it for themselves. What they are really want is some easy money.

[FredZarguna]

If they've really got a self-sustaining fusion reactor, this is an awfully low-key announcement. A Q > 1 fusion reactor [of any size] would be the biggest news since, well, pretty much ever.