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What is Lockheed Martin proposing to do?

The company currently has a roughly half-scale experimental device, and says that it is now gearing up to produce a compact 100-megawatt reactor. The small scale means that the team can design, build and test reactors in annual cycles, says project leader Tom McGuire. The goal is to have a prototype in five years that can sustain short-term reactions — lasting perhaps 10 seconds — and a commercially viable product that can compete with coal-fired power plants in 10 years.

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What would it mean if the company succeeds?

By mimicking the stars and harnessing the energy that is released when hydrogen isotopes fuse into helium at high temperatures, the reactor could provide a virtually limitless supply of clean, climate-friendly power.

Simply developing a reactor that can sustain a reaction and generate significant quantities of energy would invite a Nobel prize. Developing a reliable 100-megawatt fusion reactor that can be built at or below the price of coal-fired power plants would fundamentally transform the global energy sector, and with it the global economy.

http://www.nature.com/news/lockheed-martin-s-fusion-goals-meet-scepticism-1.16169