How to Make Energy Like Iron Man

According to the movie, the arc reactor that powers Tony Stark's suit generates 3 GJ/sec, which is equivalent to 3000 megawatts -- enough watts to power three million homes -- per second. The idea of a bionic suit is not particularly new, and most of the aspects of Tony Stark's creation are technically feasible. However, powering them all in a single suit would take more energy than is produced from a typical nuclear reactor, and it's this detail that keeps Iron Man a work of science fiction. In the movie, however, the arc reactor is a cold-fusion device, possibly using a magnetic field to generate the requisite pressure.

Instructions

1. 

   Re-design the Tokamak. The tokamak device is a Russian design for cold fusion dating back to the 1950s. It attempted to use plasma spinning in a donut-shaped magnetic field to generate the conditions necessary for fusion of deuterium and tritium. When the design proved less than practical, other methods of heating were used, including radio waves and electric current. The basic shape and concept of the tokamak device are reminiscent of Stark's arc reactor.

2. 

   Explain condensed matter energy. In 1989, two scientists caught the world's attention with speculation they'd observed cold fusion in a table-top electrolysis cell. The process produced unexpected heat which the team attributed to nuclear fusion. After other attempts failed to recreate the result, the idea was discredited. The concept continued to be explored in the early twenty-first century without any conclusive evidence.

3. 

   Perfect the Polywell. A much more recent foray into cold fusion technology was developed within the US Navy. The polywell also uses a magnetic field to generate conditions for nuclear fusion. Essentially a polyhedron with solenoids attached to the faces, the polywell uses powerful electromagnets surrounded by a cloud of electrons to create a superheated plasma. Though it theorized the basic polywell design could yield a net generation of power, the most recent prototype test as of the Iron Man movie required more energy than was produced.

Tips & Warnings

• Not only is the correct design essential, the materials used must have the properties necessary to produce the huge amounts of energy used by the Iron Man suit. Platinum group metals, such as palladium, are highly conductive, and may have been responsible for the alleged cold fusion in the 1989 experiment. Also, choosing the correct nuclear fuel for fusion will determine whether the design is capable of producing net energy.

• As anyone who's seen the movie knows, the science and technology involved in producing the Iron Man suit can be very dangerous!

Resources

• Iron Man
• Iron Man's Suit Defies Physics
• Tokomak
• Polywell