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I, for one, am interested in his creating a fusion reactor at 14. I suppose from a regulatory perspective it's easier than fission, because the materials are sa
by alanctgardner2 14y ago
I, for one, am interested in his creating a fusion reactor at 14. I suppose from a regulatory perspective it's easier than fission, because the materials are safer and there's no risk of a runaway reaction (we wish). But while I've heard accounts of fission in garages and such, I'd never heard of anyone doing fusion. Ostensibly because of the exotic materials and energy required.
This piece is pretty fluffy, does anyone have something more technical about his first reactor design?
- Tloewald 14y agoVery vague indeed. Back when I was in college (the 80s) at least one of our physics professors had a home brew particle accelerator -- which will let you do fusion very inefficiently. I suspect we are talking about some device that can do fusion very inefficiently and can measure the energy output relative to input rather than in any way being a stepping stone to a workable design (e.g. a spark generator probably qualifies).
- arethuza 14y agoProbabably a fusor, according to the Wikiepedia article "Fusors have been assembled in low-power forms by hobbyists." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor
- kveykva 14y agoApparently correct. As noted by direction from http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/01/living/teen-nuclear-scientist/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/01/living/teen-nuclear-scientist/... to http://www.fusor.net/ http://www.fusor.net/
- jashkenas 14y agoOne of my coworkers has achieved fusion in his "garage" (rented warehouse space in Brooklyn, to be exact). He's now working on a polywell reactor, and blogs about it frequently: http://prometheusfusionperfection.com http://prometheusfusionperfection.com