A researcher at the Universidad politécnica de Madrid (UPM) has patented a nuclear fusion reactor by inertial confinement that, apart from be used to generate electric power in plants, can be applied to propel ships.
This invention is the result of a work carried out by the Professor José Luis González Díez from the Higher Technical School of Naval Engineering of the UPM, who has contributed to solve the problem of contamination risk associated with the generation of nuclear fission power. It is a design of a fusion nuclear reactor by laser ignition of 1000 MWe that uses as fuel hydrogen isotopes that can be extracted from water allowing us a significant saving in fuel.