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12-Year-Old Boy Reportedly Builds A Nuclear Fusion Reactor (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Guardian:
An American 14-year-old has reportedly become the youngest known person in the world to create a successful nuclear reaction. The Open Source Fusor Research Consortium, a hobbyist group, has recognised the achievement by Jackson Oswalt, from Memphis, Tennessee, when he was aged 12 in January 2018....
The enterprising teenager said he transformed an old playroom in his parents' house into a nuclear laboratory with $10,000 (£7,700) worth of equipment that uses 50,000 volts of electricity to heat deuterium gas and fuse the nuclei to release energy. "The start of the process was just learning about what other people had done with their fusion reactors," Jackson told Fox. "After that, I assembled a list of parts I needed. I got those parts off eBay primarily and then oftentimes the parts that I managed to scrounge off of eBay weren't exactly what I needed. So I'd have to modify them to be able to do what I needed to do for my project...."
[S]cientists are likely to remain sceptical until Oswalt's workings are subject to verification from an official organisation and are published in an academic journal. Still, the teenager may now have usurped the previous record holder, Taylor Wilson, who works in nuclear energy research after achieving fusion aged 14.
The enterprising teenager said he transformed an old playroom in his parents' house into a nuclear laboratory with $10,000 (£7,700) worth of equipment that uses 50,000 volts of electricity to heat deuterium gas and fuse the nuclei to release energy. "The start of the process was just learning about what other people had done with their fusion reactors," Jackson told Fox. "After that, I assembled a list of parts I needed. I got those parts off eBay primarily and then oftentimes the parts that I managed to scrounge off of eBay weren't exactly what I needed. So I'd have to modify them to be able to do what I needed to do for my project...."
[S]cientists are likely to remain sceptical until Oswalt's workings are subject to verification from an official organisation and are published in an academic journal. Still, the teenager may now have usurped the previous record holder, Taylor Wilson, who works in nuclear energy research after achieving fusion aged 14.
He aged two years in the last 13 months.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Also, he said he built a time machine in his garage based on a 1976 Toyota Corolla. The only problem was he couldn't get it up to 88 mph.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Well, its not really a reactor if it can't sustain a reaction.
I can see the conversation.
"Hey Jackson, can you come out and play?"
"Not right now. I'm building a fusion reactor."
"Okay, maybe tomorrow."
The device in question is a fusor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor which does involve actual nuclear fusion. They aren't easy to build but they do engage in actual fusion. They are used for a bunch of practical purposes, including as neutron generators. Hobbyists have built them before. Still, a 12 year old doing it is pretty impressive.
No, it's you.
Teens do build fusors, look it up. Very doable.
No, that would make it not a "sustainable reactor" - which nobody claimed it to be.
Because all 12 year old boys have $10,000 to do whatever they want with.
Next, the small thermonuclear device will win first prize at the science fair, winning over a CO2 volcano.
I think the term "reactor" came from chemical engineering, meaning a vessel in which a *reaction* takes place. So in that sense, what was built was a "reactor".
In a nuclear fission context, it implies a device capable of supporting a sustained and controllable reaction, in which sense this is *not* a "reactor".
But by that criteria, there are no nuclear fusion reactors in the world. It's not unusual for fusion researchers to call fusion devices such as tokamaks or magnetic mirrors "reactors", even though they cannot sustain a reaction. So in that sense it *is* a "reactor".
It's less important what you call a thing as being clear what you mean, which of course in an age where most news sources have shed their science desks in favor of opinion journalism is a rare thing.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I'd say you, for jumping to a conclusion about something you don't know anything about. That's kind of the definition of stupidity.
Creating a fusion reactor isn't particularly hard, and many, many people have done it. The cheap and easy fusor design doesn't produce usable energy, however, and that's why it's only used for research, or as a cheap Neutron source. The design goes back to the same guy who invented television, Philo T Farnsworth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor
It's fine to not know about the Fusor and how easy it is to build a fusion reactor. It's not fine and rather stupid to tell other people it can't possibly be true.
Really? What do I do with that number?
AFAIK it DOES sustain a reaction. It just doesn't produce more energy than it consumes, so it's not a source of energy.
Here is Make magazine's article on "Learn How to Build a Nuclear Fusor":
https://makezine.com/projects/make-36-boards/nuclear-fusor/
Wtf?
Sig?
Indeed. It doesn't even take $10,000 - you can build a fusor with less than $500 worth of second-hand equipment. Handy if you need a convenient neutron source, or a bad case of radiation poisoning, but not much else.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
equipment that uses 50,000 volts of electricity
Just by converting that "uses" into "generates", we would get usable fusion power! He is soooo close! Why not trying with a bigger dictionary or something? He should definitively scale his vocabulary up! LOL.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
When I was twelve, I had trouble scraping together 10 bucks. Rich kids, hmph.
Bloom County Elementry School would like to state that the school evacuation during the Science Fair was not a drill. The NRC has safely removed the dangerous device from the school.
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
Oh come on. Nobody even goes to raid smoke detectors for radioactive material, you can buy plutonium off the shelf and order deuterium oxide right from Canada. Pure do it yourself kit.
I'm pretty sure the do-it-yourself kit also includes radiation poisoning, shorter life span, and investigation by a nuclear regulatory agency since the persons involved would be glowing to the radiation detectors in pretty much any western city...especially since a simple radioactive dye will trip them.
Om, nomnomnom...
Ah, I see, it is indeed "fusion", but in a completely useless way.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Keep on going and make Lithium. We will need more for batteries.
... you can buy plutonium off the shelf ...
Where? The only commercial source of plutonium I have ever heard of are ionization smoke detectors (like the KV-1) sold in the Soviet Union, but apparently not made in decades. These don't show up on eBay much (I check from time to time). List a source, or you are blowing smoke.
and order deuterium oxide right from Canada.
I don't know of a regular commercial Canadian source (isotope vendors usually don't sell to the public), do you? If so, list them here. I do know of a U.S. source though, United Nuclear, as far as I know this where all fusor makers get their material (and where I got mine).
I'm pretty sure the do-it-yourself kit also includes radiation poisoning, shorter life span, and investigation by a nuclear regulatory agency since the persons involved would be glowing to the radiation detectors in pretty much any western city...especially since a simple radioactive dye will trip them.
Not with a Farnsworth Fusor. These only put out a few million neutrons a second. Assuming a high performing unit with 10 million, that is 10,000,000 * 2.5 MeV * 1.6*10^-13 J/MeV = 4*10^-6 J/s. A rad is 0.01 J/kg of tissue, so a 50 kg kid would require 0.5 J to get a one rad whole body dose. If the actual absorption from the fusor were 10% of its emission (he isn't wrapped around it), then he would have to sit next to it for 2 weeks without a break to get to 1 rad exposure. Radiation poisoning (overt toxicity) sets in around 200 rads in a short period, no acute symptoms would show up if this is spread out over weeks, much less the 8 years of sitting next to the fusor he would need. He could get up to a 2000 rad lifetime exposure sitting next to it his whole life (80 years) but would never show radiation symptions. His cancer risk would be bumped a bit though.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
You for making noises without knowing shit.
Q:Do you understand what a fusor is?
(A:No, no you don't)
Q:Do you understand what a fusor is?
A: Assumptions just make you look stupid.
Om, nomnomnom...
Still, a 12 year old doing it is pretty impressive.
How impressive it is really depends a lot on how much help he got from his parents. They clearly provided very significant financial support...
Just be thankful that's all he did. With all the neutron and gamma radiation from the fusion reaction, the side effects could have been a lot more serious.
I got those parts off eBay primarily
"Aren't you a little young to be building a fusion reactor??"
"Yes ... yes I am."
you can build a fusor with less than $500 worth of second-hand equipment. Handy if you need a convenient neutron source, or a bad case of radiation poisoning, but not much else.
I think you'd have a hard job doing it for $500 unless you really REALLY knew what you were doing, that's a tight budget. I'd be surprised if you'd get anything like enough out of a $500 fusor to get radiation poisoning.
You'd get a pretty glow and a few neutrons though.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I think the kid's name is Dexter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Why shouldn't they? We live in a prosperous country, and spend more than that on educating a child for a year. Kids wanting to learn something like this should be able to apply for a government grant for "interesting project done by a kid." Not many kids would take them up on it, and we could even insist on having completed easier and cheaper projects before that. There are under 5 million 12-year-olds in the US. Assuming only 2% want to do something as ambitious as build a fusion reactor, that's under a billion a year.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
So what? Plutonium isn't appreciably radioactive. Deutrium is much more so, but still a mere trickle compared to what you'd get feeding from feeding it into a $300 fusor.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
So what? Plutonium isn't appreciably radioactive. Deutrium is much more so, but still a mere trickle compared to what you'd get feeding from feeding it into a $300 fusor.
Deutrium isn't radioactive. You are thinking of Tritium which has a half-life of only 12.3 years which makes it quite radioactive even though the small size of the Tritium nucleus makes the energy per decay event quite small. And Plutonium is very radioactive with a half-life of only 24k years and a huge atomic number so a large amount of energy released per decay event. Its even more dangerous than Uranium as its also water soluble and also a poison. Also, d-t (deutrium-tritium) fusion releases neutronic radiation which is hard to shield and tends to effect internal organs. There is nothing safe about trying to make this specific reaction at home. Deutrium-Boron fusion would be safe (no neutrons released) but it take quite a bit more energy to cause it to happen.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
Fusion is something else. Nobody will build that privately for a long, long time.
That's not the only problem. The problem of how to harness 1,000,000C heat is still unsolved to put it mildly. The only real use for a fusion reactor is as a waste burner and it would be a really expensive one at that. Fusion power generation will likely be something that doesn't happen in our lifetimes. Perhaps 100s or 1000s of years from now but not anytime soon. We just don't know how to efficiently extract energy from that level of heat and don't have the materials to contain that level of heat either. We hold that heat in a magnetic bottle which uses so much power itself that its difficult to make the entire process produce energy instead of consume it.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
If only word problems in high school involved calculating how much radiation it would take to kill your lab partner or the teacher... We'd have a lot more and higher quality math and science students... Hmmm...
I'm pretty sure the do-it-yourself kit also includes radiation poisoning, shorter life span, and investigation by a nuclear regulatory agency since the persons involved would be glowing ...
Not with a Farnsworth Fusor. These only put out a few million neutrons a second.
So you don't get radiation poisoning and don't become (substantially) radioactive from the neutron flux.
But a Farsnworth-Hirsch or Hirsch-Meeks fusor puts out a LOT of X-rays, from loose electrons accelerated across tens of kV slamming into electrodes. So you can take a lot of damage quickly if it isn't properly shielded.
Fortunately X-rays in the relevant range of energies are moderately easy to stop. A good thick metal vacuum enclosure will do it. Use thick leaded glass for any viewports and/or don't make a practice of hanging around it when it's running.
Small, cheap, TV cameras are a fusor-user's friend.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Not quite. This is a fusor, aka Electrostatic Confinement Fusion. One of the ways to use that is to use proton-boron fusion, which generates nothing but alpha particles. If the electrostatic well is designed correctly, theoretically you could capture those in the outer grid, where they will steal two electrons, thus generating electron flow, aka electricity.
Robert Bussard was working on that, his company Polywell is still doing research into different grid designs.
"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
deuterium is in your tap water, another fun project for the enterprising high schooler
https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811...
No, you are ignorant.
Hobbists including teens have built fusors, they do fuse nuclei in very tiny amounts. Look it up.
Wrong, thermal blanket to collect energy from a fusion reaction is a solved problem.
And of course hobbyists have privately built fusors, and they do perform fusion.
Not quite. This is a fusor, aka Electrostatic Confinement Fusion. One of the ways to use that is to use proton-boron fusion, which generates nothing but alpha particles. If the electrostatic well is designed correctly, theoretically you could capture those in the outer grid, where they will steal two electrons, thus generating electron flow, aka electricity.
Robert Bussard was working on that, his company Polywell is still doing research into different grid designs.
I was unaware of proton-boron fusion so thanks. If its just alpha particles, why not just boil water with them? Its basically heat at that point. Getting the alpha particles to capture electrons seems hard and perhaps not the most efficient way to capture power but I don't know. It would be an interesting solution to the problem. Still have to make one that actually makes more power than it consumes though. And since the confinement consumes so much power that is hard. I know scientists always love exploring the unknown (ie extreme conditions), but for civilian fission and fusion power perhaps lower energy things are better. Thermal spectrum reactors are better than fast spectrum (this is one idea the nuclear scientists really missed back in the 60s) and some sort of lower heat/lower power fusion will probably be preferable to more extreme forms of fusion. Also, particle accelerators take lots of power so I'm not holding my breath.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
*facepalm*. This is dumb even for you.
Quite so.
Only I think you're thinking of protium-boron fusion being aneutronic, aka the p-B11 reaction. I'm not clear that D-B fusion is noteworthy path, but even if it is, you'd still be dealing with neutron-radiating D-D side reactions. Those side reactions put a damper on a lot of the otherwise promising aneutronic reactions.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
This was a D-T generator. Commercially these may be bought for ~$125k, and are used as industrial neutron sources for radiography. Not really that hard anymore...
... you can buy plutonium off the shelf ...
Where? The only commercial source of plutonium I have ever heard of are ionization smoke detectors (like the KV-1) sold in the Soviet Union, but apparently not made in decades.
Yes, back in 1985, plutonium was available at every corner drugstore, but in 2019 it’s a little hard to come by.
If you want to use it for electricity grids, direct conversion is supposed to be more efficient than going through the steam cycle.
Apparently, this alternative is even more theoretical and difficult than the typical fusion approaches with steam-based electricity generation.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
... you can buy plutonium off the shelf ...
Where?
It's used in things like neutron howitzers, you can buy up to 1 Ci 239Pu as part of a 239PuBe source if you meet the requirements and fill out the paperwork.
Interesting to see how different media are reporting this, from the Weekly World News-worthy:
Teen builds working nuclear fusion reactor
to:
Boy, 12, said to have created nuclear reaction
by a media outlet with a science reporter who actually knows about science.
Oh yes. Theoretically a polywell reactor is possible, but we have absolutely no clue how to build the confinement grids to generate an electrostatic well with the correct depth to achieve self-sustaining fusion. It still is an interesting research field to keep an eye on.
As for alpha particles capturing electrons? Nope, not hard. They're big ungainly particles, so if they hit anything they will draw electrons in and turn into helium atoms.
"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
"I managed to achieve fusion with ice bags taped to my diffusion pump to cool it before January 19th at 3:38pm (my birthday/time)"
http://www.fusor.net/board/vie...
He'll grow five inches in the next year.
...when you have parents that can throw huge amounts of money and help at a project.
~Any apparent grammatical or typographic errors are caused by defects in your display device.
Even if his device never achieved fusion, 50 kV is more than enough potential to produce copious X-Rays. A steel chamber is likely thick enough to stop most emissions at energy level, especially since you get a broad spectra *up to* 50 KeV. However, failure to get this right such as by using plain glass for windows can be nasty. Lower energy X-Rays can be worse since they tend to be absorbed by rather than sailing through tissue
If we knew how many μA or mA his Fusor draws in operation along with chamber material and thickness, it'd be pretty easy to calculate a ball-park of the intensity.
On a related note, Slashdot seems to have changed over the years. There are still high quality posts, but the ratio of quality vs. ignorant statements has become disappointing
~Any apparent grammatical or typographic errors are caused by defects in your display device.