Posted on 03/23/2007 7:34:58 AM PDT by LiberationIT
In 2006 Thiago Olson joined the extremely sparse ranks of amateurs worldwide who have achieved nuclear fusion with a home apparatus. In other words, he built the business end of a hydrogen bomb in his basement. The plasma "star in a jar"—shown at the left—demonstrated his success.
For two years, Olson researched what he would need and scrounged for parts from eBay and the hardware store. Flanges and piping? Check. High-voltage X-ray transformer? Check. Pumps, deuterium source, neutron bubble dosimeter? Check, check, check. “I have cross-country and track, so during those seasons I don’t have much time to work on it,” says Olson, a high school senior in Michigan. “It’s more of a weekend project.” Last November the machine finally delivered the hallmark of success: bubbles in the dosimeter. The bubbles indicate the presence of neutrons, a by-product of fusion—an energy-releasing process in which two hydrogen nuclei crash together and form a helium nucleus. Fusion is commonplace in stars, where hydrogen nuclei fuse in superhot plasma, but temperatures that high are hard to achieve on Earth. Still, the prospect of creating all this energy while forming only nonradioactive helium and easily controlled neutrons has made harnessing fusion one of the most sought-after and heavily funded goals in sustainable energy.
(Excerpt) Read more at discovermagazine.com ...
ping
Wonder what the merit badge for this looks like?
Last night he was hustled into a black SUV and has not been heard from since.
Since his name isn't Mohammed, I think it's cool.
It's a simple looking badge... but it glows it night.
Thanks for pulling the picture in.
Mr Fusion is coming soon? Ping
Damn! Imagine if he'd put some real time into it!........
Gee, and my son and I are working on his science project to demonstrate the iodine clock reaction. I feel completely inadequate.
Dang kids!
Gotta watch'm every minute.
He must be the one that makes the fire on Scout campouts.
I can see the possibilities here. Olson gets radiated, starts wearing spandex and becomes NUKEMAN!
Hey kid, you'll put an eye out with that thing. Congratulations though.
So how did he fuse atoms without, well, nuking the neighborhood?
I'm not a tech guy so I'm a little confused.
He used very small atoms........
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