Lockheed Martin has obtained a patent for a compact fusion reactor
I&#x27;ll just leave this here (mentioned in the middle of a list in the article):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Lockheed_C-5_Galaxy" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Lockheed_C-5_Galaxy</a><p>------<p>EDIT: I&#x27;m surprised at the downvote.  Anyway I&#x27;ll explain my thinking for sharing that link.  I was surprised at the importance of being &quot;container-sized&quot; size since within limits who cares how big a fusion reactor&#x27;s building is.   On land.  In the sea or air is a different matter - and when you see the word &quot;Lockheed Martin&quot; most people do think of planes.<p>This is mentioned in the article, in this sentence:<p>&gt;According to the company website on the CFR, the reactor could be powerful enough to run an aircraft carrier, power a plane the size of a C-5 Galaxy airlifter, provide electricity to cities with anywhere from 50 to 100,000 people, and maybe even speed up a trip to Mars.<p>So Lockheed Martin already has planes of a large enough size that such a power plant could make sense.<p>That&#x27;s pretty amazing if you imagine it.  I mean, nuclear submarines already have reactors - why not a plane?<p>A quick google &quot;airplane nuclear reactor&quot; returns:<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Nuclear-powered_aircraft" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Nuclear-powered_aircraft</a><p>and<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion</a><p>but no practical models.  (The first of these two links starts with the words &quot;A nuclear-powered aircraft is a concept for an aircraft intended to be powered by nuclear energy.&quot; and goes on to say none have been produced.)<p>So if Lockheed Martin already makes planes that big, then it might be natural and amazing for them to explore containerization of the power plant for that reason.<p>After all, what other space or size&#x2F;weight constraints are there for nuclear power plants?  Where else does it bother anyone whether it&#x27;s container-size or the size of a two or three or six story building?<p>So, this is the reason for my leaving the link to the specific airplane mentioned in the article.