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Michigan Teen Creates Fusion Device
Josh Lindenmuth writes "The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Thiago Olson, a 17 year old Michigan teen, was able to create a small fusion device in his parents' basement. The machine uses a 40,000 volt charge and deuterium gas to create the small reaction, which he says looks like a 'small intense ball of energy.' The teen's fusion device is obviously not a self-sustaining reactor, but it still shows how fusion technology is becoming more accessible. Hopefully this points to a future where large scale fusion reactors are both economical and widely used."
What is there in the water in Michigan? A few years ago a teen in Michigan created a nuclear fission reactor; now this guy one ups him and creates fusion ?
Where did he get the Deuterium from?
His site: http://fusor.net/board/view.php?site=fusor&bn=fuso r_images&key=1150855195
Can anyone independently verify that fusion is actually occurring here? Is he really creating Helium in the chamber?
What did he use to shield the neutrons or did he just suck them up?
Personally, if I put a dilute gas in a vacuum chamber, apply a voltage and see a small ball of fire, I think plasma. Why is this not just a plasma? How do we know it's fusion?
And what is a "hyperbolic chamber"???????
Note: creating a plasma at 17 years old in a garage would still be very cool. Maybe not slashdot-front-page cool, but still cool.
I was thinking that perhaps it is that sort of glowing blue that you get in movies. Or perhaps the glowing green that gets associated with radiation?
OK, congrats that this seems to have worked. But a teen experimenting at home with 40.000 volt and Deuterium - am I the only one who thinks this is frightening?
Idha khatabahum lijahiluna qalu salaman
Sounds like a Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor
so really nothing new.
It's pretty easy to come by deuterium actually. You simply electrolyze heavy water. See this website http://www.rtftechnologies.org/physics/deuterium-e lectrolysis.htm for an example of heavy water electrolysis. He's a college student that has done much much more, check out HIS fusion reactor[s] http://www.rtftechnologies.org/physics/.
Making a fusion reactor is relatively easy, albeit somewhat dangerous, like you said.
From here:
As with any nuclear-related project, safety must be taken into consideration.
[...]
* Radiation; this should be the least of your worries until about 15,000 volts of acceleration potential. At this point, x-rays start to emanate from viewports due to electron and ion bombardment of metals in the chamber. Always use a camera or mirror to peer into the viewport. X-rays can cause burns and lead to cancer. Above 40,000 volts, x-rays will start to come through the stainless steel chamber walls. At this point, you will need to use lead shielding. Neutron radiation is the most dangerous form of radiation known to man, but the fusor does not put out enough of it to be dangerous until about 45,000 volts. It can easily be shielded with water, wax or plastic. You can also minimize your exposure by standing well away from the fusor, or by operating it for only 20 minutes per week.
More safety info.
Really, it's that pesky part where we try to actually make it produce energy and break even that is stumping us right now.
Qualitas edurus commercium, nullus penitus net rimor, nullus deus beneficium
A quick look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnsworth-Hirsch_Fus or reveals that this is a fairly simply, but clever experiment. He is a bright kid, and one day he'll most likely become a physicist. Or perhaps not - whereas the device is simple enough to build, I haven't been able to find a place to buy deuterium, unless you want to talk to a guy called Al (last name of 'Qaeda').
Uh, let's write a story that make it look like he "creates" a standard Fanrnsworth-Hirsch Fusor (built for science fair projects, low level neutron sources, and just shits & grins for 50 years) and make the kid look like a genius.
Technical skill? Yes. Advanced knowledge? Yes.
But primarily, ability to follow directions available everywhere? Yes.
He may very well be a genius, but it is as likely that he's a genius at self-promotion as anything. There are many high-quality science projects he could have done, but add the words "nuclear" and "fusion" and you attract a lot of media attention. He'll make a good string theorist...
JD
Depends on the materials. Fire is energy, and can be various colors, depending on what's being reacted (burned), as well as the oxygen mix, etc. (which is also part of the fuel). Energy can be every color in the visible spectrum, as well as outside our visual spectrum (we can't 'see' radiation, but it's a form of energy). As far as what color was seen with the 'small intense ball of energy' I would guess white light, because if it wasn't, you'd assume they'd describe it with the color (IE: "small intense ball of blue energy"). But it's just a blind guess based on the wording, not the type of fusion.
Indeed, when I was a teen, I built Tesla coils. The spark gap alone peaked at ~14kV with a lot of energy. And they routinely produced > 1MV (calculated) from the top caps.
:)
I did this in the back garden (hammering a steel pole into the lawn gives a good earth point). It seems the neighbours on one side didn't like or understand my odd looking machines, because they moved out shortly afterwards. Admittedly it interfered with every electric system in the neighbourhood, and there was a time whe I was experimenting with two industrial microwave transformers connected in antiphase (for the primary circuit, you understand), and powering them up would cause the lights to dim in every third house down the street, but hey...
Some people just fear science, I guess.
(And yes, I'm not dead, by some miricle, and I've had two kids since)
biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
The sex ratio of radiation workers' offsprings is often altered, in favour of girls.
You can read this for example. Other studies show similar effects on (nuclear) submariners, etc.
AFAIK nothing can produce more energy than it uses.
So we could say... Energy can be neither created nor destroyed.
Or... The energy of the world is constant. Or any of the other
30 ways to state the first law of thermodynamics.
But by bringing this up you completely miss the point of
the statement you are trying to criticize.
There are two meanings for "energy". There is the physical
meaning, in which the 1st law applies. And there is the practical
meaning, in which energy means useful energy.
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
Or some real batteries, like what you would find in at an older telecom switch office.
They are only 48 volt stacks, but the cells are huge. One cell would be about 18" in diameter and about 36" tall, and 24 of these are wired in series to produce 48 volts. The power flows out to the office over large copper bus bars, not wires. If anyone out there knows the peak current capacity of a typical wet cell plant like they had in the old 1AESS offices, could you post it here?
Better yet, a link to photos? The individual cells where open top pyrex jars with the lead plates and insulators suspended into them from the top. It was a little weird seeing a room with that much lead and acid sitting out in the open like that.
While there are a lot of comments about this being a well-known device for fusion, it seems the practical application of this is a neutron source. The experience of actually building the machine is invaluable. If you've ever built something complex, you know that simply knowing about how something is built and actually having built it are very different things. By building, he's likely gained a lot of practical knowledge that can be applied to future projects. He could describe the process, drawing from his own experience instead of just what he's read.
Newsorthy? Not necessarily, but that's no reason to make it seem like what he's done is without merit.
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