I am a bit confused to say whether I am delighted with the news or not. Well, a high school student Thiago Olson has successfully built a Nuclear Fusion Reactor at his home. I must appreciate his know-how.
Olson spent two years to look for parts and hardware stuff such as High-voltage X-ray transformer, neutron bubble dosimeter etc. on eBay.
In November 2006, a few tiny bubbles in his neutron dosimeter told him that he’d achieved success: Fusing hydrogen nuclei into helium. Olson’s nuclear reactor is pretty bad-ass, producing 200 million-degree plasma at its core - or, as Olson points out, ’several times hotter than the core of the sun’.
I think it’s the right time I should start the rough work to make a nuclear reactor on my own. Just kidding guys!
Via: techeBlog
Comments
This is non-sense, but reminds me all the excitement in the late 80`s about the ”cold-fusion”.
Have a look at the page of the ONLY international project studying the possibility of generating electricity by nuclear fusion:
http://www.iter.org/
The reason for being just one multinational project is that the cost has gone so high that no single nation is able to afford it anymore: do you really believe a high-school student has built one alone?
Dear Shuloff
Olson’s apparatus by no means will work for producing commercial power because it takes more energy to run than it produces. But he has succeeded in creating a minuscule flash of hot plasma.
And yes, we have talked about the ITER earlier too and know the value of the positive upshot of the research work that will open the door to cleaner and abundant energy.
Cheers! At least the guy has done somethinh, which I dont think is everyone’s cup of tea.
Dr. Robert Bussard, formerly of the AEC, thinks he has a way of reducing the losses so this could be a net power generator:
Easy Low Cost No Radiation Fusion
BTW the cost of the first Bussard Fusion Reactor prototype is $200 million.
Production costs would be much less.
What nation couldn’t afford 10s or hundreds of these devices?
Electrical costs would come it at aroun .1 cent per KWh. (About 1/10th of current costs).