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Teen Builds Nuclear Bomb Detector
DaneM writes "An enterprising teenage boy named Taylor Wilson, 17, has created a homemade, hand-held nuclear bomb detector. It utilizes a small fusion reactor that he made when he was 14, and detects nuclear materials by shooting neutrons at closed containers and exciting any nuclear materials inside — which, in turn, causes more radiation to be produced, and is detected by the device. This may provide a simpler, more effective alternative to searching containers visually, one-at-a-time. No information is given about how safe such a practice is. Taylor also has some choice things to say about how science is, in fact, very cool."
Less than it consumes.
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Nope, the bomb's fissile material is subcritical until the point of explosion, when it's compressed by an explosive charge (in crude terms, actually an explosive lens) into supercriticality. While subcritical, no amount of neutron bombardment will trigger it.
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
Fusion reactor is within reach of a hobbyist. It consumes energy but produces fusion. It is not a power generator.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
The fusor is used to send a neutron beam through the package under test. If it contains enriched uranium or plutonium, the interaction with neutrons will cause it to emit far higher levels of neutron flux and gamma radiation than most other materials
And if he does that trick on a barely subcritical mass of uranium 235 or plutonium, it goes bang.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Praise #2: He's not satisfied with just building the thing, he wants to apply the thing. That's what I find truly commendable.
So he goes off and learns a lot of good science and engineering in how to look for special nuclear material. Dennis Slaughter, of Lawrence Livermore National Lab, was featured on the front page of the American Nuclear Society's Nuclear News magazine in November of 2007 for his "nuclear car wash." Basically the same idea: use a neutron generator (a big one, in this case) and look for signatures of delayed neutrons in response.
So, what Taylor has done isn't revolutionary, but I'm sure it's a lot cheaper than any other neutron active interrogation system out there. Good for him. And, again, awesome job for hunting for useful applications of technology.
"Diplomacy is something you do until you find a rock." --Richard Pound