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Jonathan M. Andres
Ms. Sibson
English 110C
10/12/17
Cold Fusion Reactors:
Introduction:
Finally, a topic people of all different political views and perspectives can deliberate and
enjoy. If the term cold fusion means little to you, allow me to enlighten you. Cold fusion is a
form of nuclear energy that produces more energy than nuclear fission, and produces less waste.
This means that any person, if said person believe in global warming or the energy crisis, a
cheaper more powerful way of obtaining power for our cities and nations is near. One that
produces much less nuclear waste. To many this may sound too good to be true, and to a point it
is. Cold Fusion was deemed to be to advanced and difficult to achieve with current knowledge in
science and resources, But the company in charge of the project is known to be a head of its
time. Lockheed Martin a very popular and successful government contracting agency has
publicly announced their progress on this topic, which for many is strange because Lockheed
Martin is very known to keep their advances in technology almost entirely in the dark. They have
stated that within five years, from 2014, they plan on building a prototype of this cold fusion
reactor and put it to the test. Readers may ponder why I am interested in this topic at all. I am
interested in many reasons, not only for the energy solution proposed above but also: how this
will apply to foreign affairs in the middle east as well as other nuclear treaties and development.
Could there be a possibility of nuclear war never ever being considered by human kind? How
could this affect the development of second and third world countries? And more personally,
how will it affect the United States Navy Nuclear program (A program I am highly considering).
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Summary
So, what did this article disclose? The fact that Skunkworks has shown progress on their
fusion reactor. Through many pictures and milestones laid out by Tom McGuire, many see hope
that this will work. Many others, reasonably, believe its too soon, and estimate that cold fusion
is too far away. However, this author holds to a strong belief in the project manager. If Tom
McGuire meets his own milestones in time and provides evidence as to these advances, whats
not to believe. The greatest minds of our time are working together to try and achieve this.
The process of cold fusion is quite simple to explain. The Two rarer forms of hydrogen.
These nuclei are combined under immense heat and pressure to produce helium, and a neutron
carrying a lot of kinetic energy. The more difficult part of cold fusion is finding a reasonable way
to develop the heat and pressure necessary. The design given plans to heat the elements in the
nuclear reaction to a plasma using uncharged lasers. The Plasma is centered in the device, device
is shaped like a sphere, using the magnetic fields created by semi-conductors. The plasma must
be held for a significant period of time for maximum production or energy, because of the higher
Critique
Unfortunately, although this article is very interesting, I still feel for the strength and
importance of the topic greatly outweighs what is presented before the readers. There are so
many more questions I have about the fusion reactor, that this article simply doesnt have the
answers to. Frankly theres not a lot this article can deliberate on, Skunkworks usually doesnt
publicize their important information, and Nuclear fusion can only be explained so well in
Laymens terms. So, although I feel the article is hollower than I would like. It does a great job
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of presenting what it can. With the dumbed down physics, and limited information. It also does a
great job of increasing the awareness and pursuit of information regarding nuclear fusion. So in
that sense I think it is the perfect tool for informing the common public of where we stand on
nuclear fusion.
Conclusion
To the surprise of many nuclear fusion may be closer than we think, or maybe it isnt. the
point of this article is that Lockheed Martins skunkworks is working on a project, that could
revolutionize the world. Energy issues as we know them to be now can merely cease to exist. So
I highly recommend this article to those who want to learn a little more about nuclear fusion.