If one considers the immense size and relatively mild usefulness of fusion reactors currently in existence, the recent announcement by Lockheed Martin that, within ten years, it hopes to bring a portable fusion plant to market which can be transported on the back of a truck should evoke images of a “pocket-sized” wonder technology. Alongside this announcement has also come a report from the Washington Post indicating that these reactors could be assembled in a factory, rather than as part of a massive construction project. 

Fantastic, apart from the lingering memory of rumors years ago, which also circulated through the Post, of successful “cold fusion”, the fulfillment of an epic human ambition, and, alas, a hoax.