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“I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”
- tristanj 10y agoA video of their reactor setup, including a part where they prep and run it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92M5qcjDkaU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92M5qcjDkaU
- themartorana 10y agoThis is great. A couple of high school kids just blew me away. I had to look up safe radiation levels after watching their Geiger counter. (Apparent answer: that's a lot of radiation, but a pretty short exposure.) Side note: the view of the hills and mountains from the reactor room is gorgeous.
- tristanj 10y ago> Side note: the view of the hills and mountains from the reactor room is gorgeous. Agreed. The twins' fusor.net profile says the they live in Berkeley, CA, a suburb across the bay from San Francisco. At 1min into the video I'm fairly the shot is from Berkeley looking across the bay to San Francisco. The mountains in the background look like the ones just south of San Francisco. If you head a bit farther up the hill from where they say they live, the view is quite pretty: https://simplyrunningonfaith.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/img_0751.jpg https://simplyrunningonfaith.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/img... Actually now I think about it the city of Berkeley passed an ordinance declaring it a Nuclear-free zone, so I wonder if this project is legal.
- pmiller2 10y agoAFAICT, berkeley's nuclear free ordinance only covers weapons research and development.
- tristanj 10y agoMakes sense. The pair seem to know what they're doing, so they probably checked city law beforehand to make sure everything is alright.
- etjossem 10y agoThe intent of the ordinance is also "to prohibit nuclear reactors." [1] No person shall operate or build a nuclear reactor the City of Berkeley, and that would probably include this project. That's not to say I agree with it. Berkeley has long been a hub of unhealthy NIMBYism, and this law is a leftover from the Cold War. I'd like to see that change. [1] http://www.codepublishing.com/CA/Berkeley/cgi/NewSmartCompile.pl?path=Berkeley12/Berkeley1290/Berkeley1290.html http://www.codepublishing.com/CA/Berkeley/cgi/NewSmartCompil...
- cwkoss 10y agoAmazing accomplishment from such a young team.
- Kinnard 10y agoMaybe add a "Show HN: "
- c22 10y agoThis looks more like a "Show reddit".
- clarkrinker 10y agoIn before "is it energy neutral?"
- ceph_ 10y agoHe already answered that it's nowhere near the breakeven point. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4tgsaz/iama_i_built_a_fusion_reactor_in_my_bedroom_ama/d5h62nq https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4tgsaz/iama_i_built_a...
- throwanem 10y agoIt's a Farnsworth fusor, of course it's not. It's an enormous accomplishment for a couple of high school kids all the same - kind of makes you think of Rocket Ship Galileo, minus the moon Nazis.
- swsieber 10y agoThis makes me think of "October Sky"
- 2muchcoffeeman 10y agoWhen people see something like this, I think they immediately think of Tony Stark, or the Wright Brothers. Something quite romanticized. This teenage is probably smarter than I am, but he's not breaking even in his bedroom. He also mentions building a laser. > a wood burning CO2 laser turret I'd be interested in the details about that. I did some research about what it would take to build a basic laser years and years ago, but gave up when I saw the kind of chemicals I'd need to handle. I wasn't confident I could deal with the chemicals correctly in my tiny apartment.
- detaro 10y agoI've looked into that as well. There are a bunch of lasers that are DIY-able, and AFAIK dye-based lasers are the only ones that really require "chemicals". TEA lasers are basically just a few pieces of metal and high-voltage, seen them at high-school level quite a few times: http://www.sparkbangbuzz.com/tealaser/tealaser7.htm http://www.sparkbangbuzz.com/tealaser/tealaser7.htm CO2 lasers are relatively complex and are easiest if you buy some parts readymade, but can be completely homebuild as well: http://jarrodkinsey.org/co2laser/co2laser.html http://jarrodkinsey.org/co2laser/co2laser.html There are tons of ressources online, a good overviw over different possibilities and basic information can be found here: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserfaq.htm#faqtoc http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserfaq.htm#faqtoc
- stanlarroque 10y agoThis is so great to see young people accomplish such greatness, compared to world news lately
- sthatipamala 10y agoThis kid is awesome but this particular comment really made me sad: "Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not help my grades. My counselor told me that I wouldn't get into the top colleges because of this reason. I believed her and didn't apply to my dream colleges."
- 50CNT 10y agoOn the other hand he mentions that he might apply to other colleges in his junior year, with various recommendations from MIT, UC Berkley and UC Santa Cruz. So not all is lost.
- themartorana 10y agoCan't imagine a college that wouldn't jump at the opportunity now. Might be a solid first lesson on the real world - people that don't understand will be naysayers, and those that do will marvel at your work.
- up_and_up 10y agoMaybe he should just take a year off? Keep working on this or other cool projects and apply next year. Might be worth it if he lands a serious scholarship from an elite school. Speaking from experience, taking a gap year was the best decision I ever made.
- Kinnard 10y agoSame here: he could do a killer program like this(which I did) and apply when he gets back: https://www.wheretherebedragons.com/ https://www.wheretherebedragons.com/
- RockyMcNuts 10y agolooks a bit more like 'where there be cash... to take kids on guided tours of exotic locales' :)
- vinceguidry 10y ago
- amelius 10y agoWho backed these guys financially? And how much did they spend?
- nbclark 10y agoThe AMA says 6k. They got it from working part-time and family
- yeahwhatever10 10y agoStuff like this always reminds me of this kid (adult now): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Wilson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Wilson
- rando444 10y agoalso this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn
- glfharris 10y agoIt's the same group, and probably very similar devices. the fusor.net website is a community for building these things and has loads of plans and tips.
- hooo 10y agoDo you know of site that has a directory of such forums? I find these forums of experts very fascinating but not that easy to find.
- thefastlane 10y ago"living things should not be within 35 feet as x-ray radiation is quite high" hopefully this is a house in a low-density suburb and not an apartment. amazing achievement, but at the same time very dangerous to be generating x-rays out of your bedroom.
- vinceguidry 10y agoHe probably didn't actually run it in his bedroom, just built it there.
- themartorana 10y agoUm... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92M5qcjDkaU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92M5qcjDkaU (From another top-level comment.)
- vinceguidry 10y agoYeah, after I posted, I saw a comment saying his mom would leave the house whenever he wanted to run a test. Crazy.
- enraged_camel 10y agoOn the other hand, that's one hell of a mom. I figure most moms these days would shut the project down from the get-go.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoI read these things and I smile because the stories will help others step outside their self imposed limitations and do things. When I was growing up I had a number of people who allowed me to dream big things and try them out when others would consider them too much work or too crazy. I got there by reading stories about some of the earliest inventors of our time and their home spun laboratories. There is a lot you can do with a supportive family.
- 50CNT 10y agoI had a strict no "high-anything" rule for my basement bedroom. No high temperatures, no high voltages, no high amperages, no high velocity, no high pressure, no high vacuum, no high anything :(. At least I made my desktop sound like a jet engine, so that's something.
- naasking 10y agoAt least you can still experiment with vacuum pressures!
- foobarian 10y agoLiquid nitrogen here we come!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- taneq 10y ago> no high voltages So electron beams ahoy then? "But muuuum! -45kV is a LOW voltage!"
- MagnumOpus 10y agoHe also excluded "high velocity". No electron beams alas.
- 10y ago
- stevecalifornia 10y agoIf they weren't doing this in a suburb I'd say 'Congrats'-- but to knowingly be generating x-rays in a residential neighborhood is really, really selfish and disrespectful to neighbors.
- ams6110 10y agoThey had measurements showing that outside the room there was nothing above background counts. Still, I think if it had been me I'd have some lead shielding around it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- gnoway 10y agoI think this is overstating the risk a little bit. Looking at the video linked elsewhere, this was run in a bedroom on the second or even third floor of a single-family residence. He mentions not being able to detect x-rays more than 35ft from the device. I think a neighbor would have to be trying to get in range to be affected. Here's the video again, queued up to the view out the bedroom window: https://youtu.be/92M5qcjDkaU?t=1m5s https://youtu.be/92M5qcjDkaU?t=1m5s
- enraged_camel 10y agoOn the other hand, if the neighbor's cat starts growing a third ear, they know who to blame! ;-)
- zamalek 10y agoOne of the the few times where the inverse square law is helpful.
- drjesusphd 10y agoIt's helpful all the time, since it allows stable orbits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand%27s_theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand%27s_theorem
- chrisbennet 10y agoReminds me of Phineas and Ferb: "Aren't you a little young to be building a nuclear reactor?" "Yes, yes we are."
- archagon 10y agoWow! I wonder what exact steps are involved in getting from "I want to build a fusion reactor" to actually having a working prototype in your room. He mentions fusor.net; am I right in assuming that there are entire communities dedicated to building this kind of stuff? What is their history? How did they get started? Were they around before the internet? Fascinating!
- jaytaylor 10y agoThis is pretty neat, and I managed easily located plans for a DIY fusion reactor at home [0]. I'm curious if OP's build differs from these plans, and if so, how/why. Digging into the wikipedia article I found this interesting/surprising: Recent Developments [1]: "Most recently, the fusor has gained popularity among amateurs, who choose them as home projects due to their relatively low space, money, and power requirements. An online community of "fusioneers", The Open Source Fusor Research Consortium, or Fusor.net, is dedicated to reporting developments in the world of fusors and aiding other amateurs in their projects. The site includes forums, articles and papers done on the fusor, including Farnsworth's original patent, as well as Hirsch's patent of his version of the invention." Apparently there's an entire online community of amateur home nuclear reactor builders [2]. [0] http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/ http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor#Recent_developments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor#Recent_developments [2] http://www.fusor.net/ http://www.fusor.net/
- glfharris 10y agofusor.net is the hub for these things, it's really quite an impressive resource. He says in the AMA he's registered there.
- sbierwagen 10y agoHe made it into the Neutron Club, people who have generated neutrons from fusion reactions: http://www.fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=13 http://www.fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=13
- eggy 10y agoAmazing work by this young man! My children will love this. My son and daughter are both doing well, but my son loves to experiment outside of school. I have been encouraging my son to experiment and learn, and he has taken it to a higher level than I had imagined. I have bought him a telescope, and a 3D printer over the years. He works for his own equipment and supplies too. More each year. Some of his experiments or demonstrations are recreated and slightly modified YouTube projects, and others are very original. I always tell him that being able to duplicate somebody else's work is good practice to learn proper rigor and familiarity with equipment and practices. He is now a senior in high school, maintaining an A+ (>= 95) average in honor and AP classes. He won best Chemistry project in the whole county. His biggest complaint is the amount of homework schools still dish out, several hours (3 to 4) each night. It takes away from his self-teaching and experimentation. Disclaimer: I am not too keen on public or institutionalized education. I think you learn more by doing projects that tie-in various disciplines, and accordingly I dropped out of college in the 80s to follow my passions. I've done well for myself considering I grew up below the poverty line when I was younger. I was smelting metals in the 90s in my rural backyard without the internet or YouTube, and playing with TV cathode ray tubes in the late 70s. The former I could not have done where I grew up in Brooklyn, the latter was good to do most anywhere while tube sets were still around ;) I once tied the negative lead of a 9 volt DC transformer to my then sick Mom's big toe, and the other to a potted fern with copiously-watered soil, and then touched her same top foot with a connecting lead from the plant! Yes, stupid, but I was 10, and I had just read Frankenstein. Plus my parents were very positive about my inquisitive nature and doings. Mom passed in her older years, but never forgot the incident in a proud way. My son is thinking on going to Germany for school due to the quality of education, and the fact that it is now free (almost, minus taxes and other expenses) for foreigners as well as citizens. He is also considering just starting on his own after high school, since he has acquired my distaste for institutionalized learning. The short of this bias: age-segregation, broken curriculum, non-integrated areas of study, homework and memorization over problem solving, etc. You can't even do certain experiments in school because they are considered too dangerous, or inappropriate. I do not try and push him too much either way. My ex-wife, is more conservative, and is hoping he will go to university. Time will tell...
- lostlogin 10y ago
- eggy 10y agoI made a lengthy comment below about my son, but now after watching the YouTube video, I am sad I do not have the resources to let him have such equipment. My son pulls off some cool experiments all on his own (I stay out of it apart from the phone call consultation, or YouTube video call) with salvage and other workarounds, with the money he earns and my contributions. These brothers have a freakin' mini-Tony-Stark lab in their house! Good for them and their parents. I like to see money spent this way rather than traveling team sports and uniforms. My take is sciency types, aka nerds, indulge more in solitary sports - rock climbing, skating, biking if they have time away from building a frigging nuclear fusion reactor in the bedroom!
- dammitcoetzee 10y agoOne of the things I discovered later in life was that all the things I thought I was too poor to do in highschool were never actually limited by the amount of money I had. It was mostly the work I was willing to put in. After some of the things I've done now... If I had just sat down and thought about it, I could have come up with a way.
- facepalm 10y agoDon't fret - constraints can be a boon, too, making your son more creative. It is not really important to build a fusion reactor, you can just as well build other cool things that cost less. Or you can learn business and marketing skills, which you will need anyway if you want to do something great. For example, your son could set up some sort of Kickstarter collecting money for his fusion reactor. Or get in touch with universities asking for help. And so on. I mean I agree that resources make a difference - for example I have heard many science project winners actually had help and got to use their parents labs. But don't let it dissuade you, don't give up.
- eggy 10y agoThanks guys. This is why I visit HN regularly to read and hear others, and voice my own humanity. He started down the Kickstarter, Patreon road, but after a slew of failed and negative stories this past year on unfulfilled projects, angry supporters, he decided to go it his own. He does juice out as much as he can with what he has to overcome any given constraints, but that only goes so far. Believe me, I am now living in the rice fields of East Java, and sometimes no amount of time or creative thinking wins the day for certain things out here (lack of cobra anti-venom, or time to get it). I do enjoy the challenge though, and have done some cool stuff on a shoe-string budget. He's starting his won business fixing things people otherwise throw out - The ReAnimators! (not of the Lovecraftian movie). Sort of like the old TV/Radio repair shops that are gone. The business would not be too viable years back, but there is a lot of movement this way - the environment, built-in obsolescence (which is now being challenged by consumer groups and repair-oriented companies in court), and the joy of keeping the old piece of junk you are comfy with!
- pitchups 10y agoThe link is returning a 503 error: "all of our servers are busy right now. please try again in a minute" Looks like the Fusion Reactor story caused a meltdown of Reddit's servers :)
- mcescalante 10y agoWas probably a hiccup, the AMA loads fine for me now, and I'm on free airplane wifi :)
- frik 10y agoLet's hope there is some supervison. There had been kids who built atomic reactor in their parents house and garden shed. Needless to say it's nowadays a superfund site and some people suffer from poising and radioactive materials. I think there is even a documentary about the boy scout guy who built a atomic reactor and afaik it was on HN before. [disclaimer: While the reaction vacuum chamber seen in the video can be found at universities and is certainly less harmful than an open atomic reactor (see real boy scout guy story from above), it never the less involves substances that have to be handled with great care] Edit: the boy scout guy David Hahn built an radiactive reactor at home, he was 17 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn
- zamalek 10y agoThat was most likely a fission reactor. In this case it is a deuterium-deuterium fusion reactor and both the fuel and the waste (helium 3) are pretty safe to handle. The device is only radioactive while it is operating. That being said, he did say that he got tons of help from professors so at the very least he knows exactly how to remain safe.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- blazespin 10y agoCreating a neutron generators is pretty trivial. Get some pyro electric crystal and apply heat. pyroelectric fusion nuetron genrator.
- fapjacks 10y agoI wish I had grown up in an environment flush with resources for this kind of thing.
- kriro 10y agoI have to wonder if college is actually the right choice altogether. The brothers basically learned everything on their own and most importantly actually shipped. Seems like a solid investment for some tech company to just offer them a job doing whatever research work they want for a year or two and seeing how it goes. Supposedly there's a job shortage in tech...here's an opportunity to sign a couple of HS students that build a reactor (and some other cool things) for kicks. I mean yeah sure they didn't build a fancy webapp but surely people at Tesla, Google whoever read Reddit. The pros for college are access to lab stuff and some smart people + what you learn. I believe they can do the learning on their own just fine and well access to cool tech toys is also readily available at most tech companies...and there's also a lot of smart people around.
- b34r 10y agoI'm mostly concerned that he's going to get sick from improper shielding or something.
- etruong42 10y agoHypothetically, if you were the parent of such a child (or such an adult offspring), how should you make sure that they stay safe if what they are working on is beyond your capacity to evaluate?