Fusion physicists I know are very sceptical that this design can work. It's a variant on a known design with a known problem: the plasma leaks out of the ends of the magnetic containment. It's also unclear why Lockheed would be publicising it this way at this point, unless it's a naked ploy for more funding from the DoD, and an attempt to bring in money (and possibly pressure) from non-classified sources.
That being said, if they've genuinely cracked it, the game changes so much as to be unrecognisable.
From the Aviation Week article that flexie linked:
"The team acknowledges that the project is in its earliest stages, and many key challenges remain before a viable prototype can be built."
They don't actually say it, but it sounds like they've only got computer models to work with at this point. Not very likely that they've actually cracked it.
Push the oil and natural gas markets lower, pile on all the other factors pushing them down right now, and further harm Russia's economy.
I'm half joking, but I'd keep an eye out for more unusual energy related press releases, to see if that'll confirm that it's a media blitz aimed at the oil market etc.
For what it's worth, in the Google [X] talk last year, they briefly mentioned running actual plasma confinement experiments (although I guess not reaching fusion conditions or that would probably have been publicized).
> the plasma leaks out of the ends of the magnetic containment
According to this link[1] posted by another commenter, they create a "axisymmetric mirror by positioning zones of high magnetic field near each end of the vessel so that they reflect a significant fraction of plasma particles escaping along the axis of the CFR."
When you're dealing with a plasma at 20 million kelvin, the leftovers from that "significant fraction" that don't get reflected can really ruin your day...
LLNL scientists almost tested a similar device (see 'MFTF') but the project was cancelled in 1986 before it was turned on.
It is possible though that though earlier attempts failed because the computational resources and the plasma dynamics modeling available at the time were not sufficient to design such a reactor.
I would guess that we have a much better understanding of plasma physics and faaaaar greater ability to model it now - that could lead to designs that can mitigate previously discovered issues with the concept.
Historically, the problem with the cylinder + mirror configuration is that there are discontinuities (corners) at the seams where the mirrors join on at the end. So you lose a lot of plasma there. Interested to see how they've overcome that.
Maybe it's the reverse. It is a PR to make an impression that the fusion is just around the corner to discourage other nations from investments into tokamaks and improved fission reactors, out of impression that this fusion breakthrough will make them all soon obsolete.
That being said, if they've genuinely cracked it, the game changes so much as to be unrecognisable.