This looks to be a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor and is a very common hobby fusion project. A very powerful electric field drives the fusion. No positive energy output from this style of device has ever been reported.
It is “common” (as in not unique), but assembling a fusor and getting actual neutrons from it is still a very big deal, especially for a 12 years old. I am a nuclear engineering enthusiast at 35, I know a lot about these devices, but I doubt I could build a fusor on my own at home. It is a big engineering project.
Note that a lot of "fusors" are actually "demo fusors", i.e. they run at too low energy to produce detectable fusion even if you did fuel them with deuterium. A "demo fusor" just produces plasma that looks similar without doing real fusion.
This article is about the real thing, which is substantially more difficult to build.
It is impossible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor#Radiation The issue is bremsstrahlung radiation. I only have high-school physics education, but AFAIU basically because the charged particles are constantly turning inward, the constant negative acceleration radiates energy away. The faster the particles move in the device, the harder the deceleration, the more energy they give up relative to the input energy. These losses overcome the system before the break-even point. The same process limits the energies that can be achieved in non-linear particle accelerators, like the Large Hadron Collider; it's why the accelerator ring diameter has to grow to achieve higher particle energies. The LHC has a circumference of 27 kilometers. Fusors are... slightly smaller. You don't really need to do the math or understand the physics to appreciate that Fusors are a dead-end.
It's worth reading the whole article. The Fusor design has a long and fascinating history. One of the original inventors, Farnsworth, invented television.
It'e been proven that this particular design can't achieve net power, but other designs probably can. Scientists are especially confident about the tokamak, for example. (And of course, thermonuclear bombs definitely achieve net power.)
Well, you are free to provide a better design.
Problems are many, mostly the very high temperature and pressure needed to achieve fusion ... no material can stand that so you need to have your fusion happening floating which needs energy etc.
Apparently one of the problems with this device is that much of the energy is lost when the ions strike the inner electrodes and that got me thinking. What if there were a way to construct a sort of thin inert buffer on the electrodes with say a noble gas, to facilitate ion collisions over ion conduction?
Worth mentioning there are a number of hobbyists/enthusiasts doing this, and there's no reason to be skeptical about the result itself. The link in this post is deep in the same site, but http://www.fusor.net/board/index.php is pretty active.
This particular achievement is notable because Jackson Oswalt might have been the youngest person to home-build a fusor, or at least the youngest to have spoken up about it.
Also worth noting that this is a year old. Looks like he's been plugging at it since then:
I worked with a young guy that built one of these in high school. About a year after we parted ways I was just randomly considering how long various things I built would last. Then it occurred to me that the hydrogen atoms that he snapped together and let loose are still likely floating around out there, and could conceivably be in the same configuration a hundred billion years from now.
Don't feel bad -- it's very possible some of the CO2 that you breathe out every day will still be in the same configuration a hundred billion years from now as well.
Yup. I was at a ML meetup and one of the kids who was only 12 or so knew advanced level coding and Tensorflow. Another one was a 16 year old who had been coding C++ for more than half a decade. They both credit a lot of it to the internet and the ease of learning which books to acquire.
And also regular wealth. Have you seen the photos of it? It looks like a pre-assembled Radio Shack kit. Probably cost thousands of dollars in professionally machined parts.
> He has also repeatedly told my that my high school will be writing me a recommendation letter good enough to get me a 4-year scholarship to the school of my choice. This justified the price of the reactor for my parents.
And his mother is a CPA working for local Memphis government. When asked about Jackson’s achievements, she just shrugs and laughs. I don’t think this is a case of the ol’ “kid’s science project” for him by his parents.
It's mind boggling what dedicated kids can achieve with parental backing and scientist mentors. In Wilson's case places like The Black Hole surplus store (https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/18130) also greatly helped. Sadly such places are getting rarer.
This is pretty inspirational. Im curious how much a setup like this must cost though? Cursory investigations into vaccuum costs seem pretty prohibitively high for a 12 year old, even most middle class parents. Very cool though.
Looks to be around $1.5-3k USD in his setup photos, likely less if he's using some used/surplus equipment, which is quite possible. Stainless fittings and tubing are surprisingly affordable. About $250 for the Deuterium.
Edit: sibling points out it may be $10k. I wonder if that price includes other equipment not shown. If not, apologies for the gross underestimation ($1.5-3k seemed reasonable - most of the equipment pricing can be looked up).
Readit News
This article is about the real thing, which is substantially more difficult to build.
Hopefully mother nature decided he would be the chosen one to make fusion reactor net positive
It's worth reading the whole article. The Fusor design has a long and fascinating history. One of the original inventors, Farnsworth, invented television.
This particular achievement is notable because Jackson Oswalt might have been the youngest person to home-build a fusor, or at least the youngest to have spoken up about it.
Also worth noting that this is a year old. Looks like he's been plugging at it since then:
https://www.foxnews.com/science/teen-builds-working-nuclear-...
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Just the right amount it seems.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19211810
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In fact, if the claims are true, he will have beaten Wilson's record as youngest person to have produced nuclear fusion using a fusor.
Dead Comment
It's mind boggling what dedicated kids can achieve with parental backing and scientist mentors. In Wilson's case places like The Black Hole surplus store (https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/18130) also greatly helped. Sadly such places are getting rarer.
Edit: sibling points out it may be $10k. I wonder if that price includes other equipment not shown. If not, apologies for the gross underestimation ($1.5-3k seemed reasonable - most of the equipment pricing can be looked up).