NASA Glenn Lattice Confinement Fusion white papers
NASA Glenn
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These are the NASA Glenn programme documents behind the two 2020 Physical Review C results: the white paper Lawrence Forsley, Theresa Benyo, Pamela Mosier-Boss and Bruce Steinetz wrote to make the case for scaling, the virtual workshop Glenn hosted in 2020, and Forsley's 2024 progress presentation. Together they say what the journal papers could not. NASA and the US Navy have demonstrated lattice confinement fusion and the fusion-fast-fission of natural uranium and thorium, using deuterium packed into a metal lattice so densely that the electrons screen the Coulomb barrier and fusion proceeds with no magnets, no lasers, no particle beams and no enriched uranium. The fast neutrons that fusion releases then split fertile actinides. The team places the work at technology readiness level 2 and names exactly what would move it: scaling the actinide load from under a hundred milligrams to ten grams, and pushing operating temperature well past 100 degrees Celsius.
Why it matters hereChapter 12 is the site's first door out of the vacuum and into a working power source, and this is the programme's own account of where it stands — what has been demonstrated, at what readiness level, and which two numbers have to move next.
What it claims
01NASA and the US Navy have demonstrated Lattice Confinement Fusion and the fusion-fast-fission of natural uranium and thorium, building on decades of co-deposition research at SPAWAR, the Naval Surface Warfare Centers and NASA Glenn.White paper 20210026340, Abstract and Background
Published and peer-reviewed02The technology needs no power-hungry magnets, lasers or particle beams, and requires no fissile isotopes — so it avoids the weapons-proliferation concerns of uranium-235 enrichment or plutonium-239 separation, and there are indications its fast-fission products are more benign than those of conventional fission reactors.White paper 20210026340, Abstract
On the bench now03The mechanism is density and screening: heavily deuterated materials reach cold, neutral plasma densities approaching electron Fermi degeneracy at about 10²³ ions per cubic centimetre, and fusion-ready electron-screened isotopes at that density lower the fusion Coulomb barrier and enhance fusion rates, with the resulting fast neutrons fissioning fertile actinides.White paper 20210026340, Science
Published and peer-reviewed04The named next measurements are concrete: scale the actinide co-deposition system from under 100 mg of depleted uranium or thorium to 1 gram and then 10 grams, and raise device operating temperature from under 100 degrees Celsius at atmospheric pressure to higher temperatures using eutectic salts and nanomaterials.White paper 20210026340, Research and Development
On the bench now05By 2024 the protocol had been patented and commercialised through Astral Systems, and lattice confinement fusion in a compact neutron generator gave a fiftyfold increase in neutron flux with 99 per cent of the output attributed to LCF.Presentation 20240013692, opening slide
On the bench now06The programme rates itself at NASA technology readiness level 2 with more than 60 US and foreign peer-reviewed papers behind the patented protocols, expects TRL 5 within three years on scaled output, and projects watts to hundreds of kilowatts of electrical power and process heat for space power, nuclear electric propulsion and distributed terrestrial power.White paper 20210026340, Abstract and Technology Readiness Level
What to watch
The way in
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20210026340US Government works held in the NASA Technical Reports Server, publicly downloadable: white paper 20210026340, workshop proceedings 20205006546 and presentation 20240013692.
How to cite it
NASA Glenn (2020) NASA Glenn Lattice Confinement Fusion white papers. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20210026340
Where it sits in the curriculum