Fusion engine
Sarna News
Description
The fusion engine is what powers BattleMechs, aerospace fighters and other vehicles (at least one tank, the Von Luckner, is said to have a fusion engine). It functions by harnessing the power of a fusion reaction, as occurs in the core of the Sun. A BattleMech's fusion engine can usually last for decades on a few kilograms of hydrogen. Unlike the research reactors of the real world, a Battlemech's fusion engine runs on "light" hydrogen, protium, rather than hydrogen's heavier isotopes deuterium and/or tritium. [1]
A great deal of heat is released by the engine, which can negatively affect the vehicles pilot or even the vehicle itself. Simply moving the vehicle creates heat, though this is often a small amount. The greatest source of heat comes from firing the vehicles weapons, especially energy weapons.
In a BattleMech, the fusion engine rests in the center torso. It cannot be relocated elsewhere in the BattleMech, though certain types of engine may intrude into the side torso bays as well. The weight of the engine is proportionate to the mass of the vehicle and its desired maximum speed. Hence a light Mech can use the same engine as an assault Mech, but move much faster.
Fusion engines usually will only shut down if damaged, and they are absolutely no risk of being a fusion bomb. [2] There have been a number of cases of fusion engines being "over revved" and exploding with devestating force, but this is more akin to a boiler explosion than a true nuclear explosion. More often a destroyed engine will be punctured by weapons fire. Because the plasma is held in a vacuum chamber (to isolate the superheated plasma from the cold walls of the reactor; contact with the walls would super-chill the plasma below fusion temperatures), a punctured reactor can suck in air where the air is superheated. Normal thermal expansion of the air causes the air to burst out in a brilliant lightshow often mistaken for a "nuclear explosion" that is only a risk for unarmored infantry close to the destroyed 'Mech.
Such dramatic failures are rare, though. It is difficult to sustain the fusion reaction and very easy to shutdown. Safety systems or damage to containment coils will almost always shut down the engine before such an explosion occurs. The massive shielding of the engine (in the case of standard fusion engines, this is a tungsten carbide shell that accounts for over 2/3 of the weight of the engine) usually buys the safety systems the milliseconds needed to shutdown the engine when severe damaged is inflicted.
History
Fusion technology was achieved by the Western Alliance in 2021.[3] Almost a century later, fusion technology had progressed to the point of using protium, the most abundant isotope of hydrogen.[1]
Research into fusion engine technology has yielded improvements over the many centuries of BattleMech use. Extralight Fusion Engines, Light Fusion Engines, and Compact Fusion Engines are now available in addition to the Standard Military Fusion Engine.
Models
Fusion Engine is manufactured on the following planets:
Bibliography