College Freshman Builds Fusion Reactor 680
Aiua writes "The Deseret Morning News is reporting that a Utah State University freshman has built a nuclear fusion reactor and compares how the student is similar to Philo T. Farnsworth (the inventor of the television and designer of the plans for a fusion reactor)."
Wow. (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know. If its real, that's excellent. But my BS-o-meter is screaming.
The vacuum of space (Score:3, Interesting)
Either way, that would be one part you could omit if this were launched into space. Could anyone familiar with how this thing works tell me if it would run in space?
Science and the science fair... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Um.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean, it's cool, but... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Clever hoax? (Score:4, Interesting)
Are We Agreed?
Re:Cool... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wow. (Score:5, Interesting)
I had a boss once who built a Farnesworth-style fusor from scrounged parts sometime back in the late 60's or early 70's. He told me he kept it behind his desk for years.
At the time he ran the Nuclear Effects - Solar Thermal Test Facility at White Sands Missile Range (basically a BIG concentrating mirror for simulating the intense heat of a nuclear blast and its effect on materials). Frequently they would get VIP visitors dropping in from the Pentagon, major universities, etc. He would always take the visitors on a walking tour of the facility. He would flip the machine on ahead of time and turn on a geiger counter he kept next to his desk. At the end of the tour he would take the visitors to his office. Usually the visitors would notice the clicking sound after a few minutes of chit-chat and ask "what's making that sound?" He would then dead-pan "oh that's nothing, that's just the radiation from my fusion reactor" and wave the geiger counter back and forth across the machine, generating lots of above background clicking.
The fusor was completely safe and the neutron radiation from it was well within safe limits, but frequently the visitors would require a bit of calming down after his little joke.
I think at least one general thought he had created a fusion power source and wanted to classify the whole deal and immediately fund development. Don't imagine he was too happy when he found out it used alot of energy and produced only a few neutrons.
Re:[sigh] Slight false alarm (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I think these devices are far more likely to generate succes than the current breed of "tokamak" style reactors. They've had 20 years and upteen billion dollars, and still think it will take anotehr 20 years longer.
I for one think it's lucicrous (to the point of conspiracy), and if fusion can be generated so easily through these devices, then it is certainly worth more funding/research.
But then again, what do I know?
Re:Farnsworth and TV (Score:4, Interesting)
Not sure if this is a very odd troll or not. Anyway, for the benefit of the public... Morse invented the wired telegraph, so he's got no claim on wireless telegraphy and is irrelevant to the issue. Marconi was transmitting Morse code in 1895, whereas Tesla started transmitting voltage in 1893. So yes, Tesla was transmitting wirelessly first, but it was in 100,000 volt discharges of electricity -- hardly the sort of transmission you'd like to receive in your headphones! And plainly not intended to be a telegraph.
Tesla was a cool guy and invented lots of interesting stuff, but people have a tendency to get all cultish about him and ascribe all sorts of miracles to him. Rather than claiming Marconi's work as his, you'd do his memory a better service by honouring him for his own achievements (like AC power).
Fusion that GENERATES electricity (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the things I came across was Fusor [fusor.net], which is essentially a site for people who do this as a hobby.
The most interesting thing I found was a link to the work of a gentleman named Eric Lerner. He actually has a workable, scalable, power-generating reactor [crosswinds.net]. His is based on "dense plasma focus". Thing is, he's already got the thing to 1 billion degrees - and he's going for the big time - the aneutronic p-B11 reaction. That only generates alpha particles - which can be directly converted into electricity. No nasty turbines or steam! Pretty amazing.
The Radioactive Boy Scout (Score:3, Interesting)
Does anyone remember this story [findarticles.com]?
cribRe:Ahem- John Logie Baird? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Um.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Especially when the word in question is Russian. The term is a contraction of "TOroidal KAmera with MAgnetic field". "Kamera" is Russian for "chamber".
Re:Um.... (Score:5, Interesting)
If by dying early you mean that 65 years old is "early," then sure... But for someone who conceived the principles of television at 13 years old and holds 300 U.S. and foreign patents, I'd say he did pretty good for himself in his lifetime. If only people spent more time thinking and inventing and less time reading
Not something you see everyday... (Score:3, Interesting)
Is it just me, or was this a lucky find? I mean, even before 9/11, finding nuclear devices was pretty hard.
Re:Generating neutrons is easy (Score:3, Interesting)
You're right, that is a simple way to generate neutrons--for those who happen to have radium lying around the house.
Actually, I suppose some people do, and it's giving them lung cancer--radon is a decay product of radium.
Finally, a word of warning about beryllium. The bulk material isn't terribly nasty--it's not particularly readily absorbed through the skin, and ingested beryllium mostly passes through the digestive tract. Powders can be quite harmful, however, causing--appropriately enough--berylliosis [ornl.gov].
Re:Farnsworth? (Score:3, Interesting)
Farnsworth was also the first to build a working electronic television, although Zyorkin had a larger corporate backing. (The legal fight between the two is quite interesting reading).
Re:Um.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Um.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, some list members have recently figured out how (in theory) to use something called a wakefield accelerator to get many orders of magnitude more powerful ion guns than anything Farnsworth could ever build, and these toys are buildable by the amateur machinist.
Many list members (including myself, although I still a month or so away from "first plasma" in my first fusor) are building this hardware right now.
Impressive scrounging Abilities (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, I built a fusion reactor in college too. Seriously. It's on my resume. Of course, I was a junior by the time I got it built. I didn't want to go with the Farnsworth design though - everyone knows how it underperforms (although it ~could~ be improved). Mine was a beam collider, more similar to the works of Rostoker or Maglich. It produced a LOT more fusion - I had to limit my time near it while it was on, in order to keep my dose down to reasonable levels. Darwin Awards, I know. Seriously, I was careful, and received about a Rad or two in the years I worked on it (more from x-rays than neutrons). Lead is your friend, water and borax too. I wish my college professors had been as supportive as the ones at USU appear to be. They discouraged undergraduate research, thinking we didn't know enough to do anything real (of course, skipping class to go work on FUZZY didn't get on their good side).
Yes, Farnsworth fusors are old news. I still think they are cool - the primary reason big science moves so slow is that it is so big. I don't know why more colleges don't build ones and let their kids play around with them. They're cheap! Get enough people messing with them and maybe something will come of it.
Strangely enough, I grew up in Utah too. Must be something in the water...
Re:Eeep, damn! (Score:3, Interesting)
There are several physicists that have attempted to grab it all through patents (Miley, Bussard), and there are plenty of people who read the board and never contribute, only leach ideas to add to their own patent filings, but there are a number of people that still openly contribute VERY good ideas.
On the self-sustaining account, a number people doubt it, but I don't... There are some really neat aspects to the fusor, and there are MANY unexplored operating characteristics.
I bet that once we get a few amateur devices with pairs of synchronized wakefield accelerators firing into a reasonably designed virtual inner grid, with some rudimentary magnetic shielding of the grid and geometry optimized for recirculation, I bet we'll start seeing more accounts of self-sustaining reactions. Of course, theres the added problem that at those reaction rates the device had better be buried in a concrete bunker in the backyard...
Raise the grid voltage, change your ion source from deuterium gas to laser vaporized boron, and we can start playing with the mythical p+B11-> 2 beta reaction, and start playing with direct conversion! That's just too cool... I'd be happy to get a few picowatts of DC out of the reactor, that's my personal goal.
Re:Um.... (Score:3, Interesting)
-Fred [umich.edu]