I wonder what's up with Lockheed's reactor prototype at this point. This is some truly badass engineering, but the complexities involved inevitably make you wonder if there's an easier way. "Only Germans can build it" does not bode well for mass production worldwide.
>"Only Germans can build it" does not bode well for mass production worldwide.
That is in the context of first try though. i.e. It sounds like they need to over-engineering it in the face of uncertainty. Once someone pulls it off successfully & publishes the details the 2nd attempt should be a lot easier.
Since this is a research reactor, they probably had to make more structural compromises to accommodate more sensors, injection ports, etc than what a power plant version would need. I bet once they played with it for a few years they would have s better idea of what they actually need for a more practical version.
This design is fundamentally hard, I don't think the removal of ports will make it much simpler. Same with Tokamak. Lockheed's design (as disclosed) is much simpler. OTOH Lockheed's design is also vaporware until they publish their experimental data. They've supposedly done hundreds of firings by now, but haven't disclosed any data.
