An amateur scientist who asked, 'I made my own fusion reactor in my bedroom when I was in high school, do you have any questions?'
An American high school student reported that he had succeeded in making a fusion reactor in his bedroom and causing a fusion reaction, and posted on the bulletin board reddit, 'I made my own fusion reactor, but have any questions?' doing.
IamA (I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom) AMA !: IAmA
This is a fusion reactor made by twin brothers Kuba Anglin and Noah Anglin.
You can see how you make your own fusion reactor in the following movie.
So, various questions are asked on the bulletin board, and Mr. Kuba answers.
Q: Q:
How much did it cost to make the experimental equipment?
Kuba:
The total is 6,000 dollars (about 630,000 yen). I did a 3D design part-time job to collect money. I also sought help from many friends and family.
Q: Q:
Did you know what it was when you told your parents that you were building a fusion reactor in your bedroom? It sounds like a scary thing to an amateur.
Kuba:
My mother called the police and fire department. Twice. By the way, my father is a firefighter. Every time we experiment, my mother leaves home. We've become very supportive now, but we're still worried about our safety.
Q: Q:
Is this legal?
Kuba:
Okay. To my knowledge.
Q: Q:
Why did you decide to make it?
Kuba:
Mainly to learn from experience. I learned a lot from this fusion project. Plasma physics, vacuum systems, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, nuclear physics, etc. We hope that the fusion reactor we have built will be used for future research. Also, I made a lot of connections. There are some top-level university professors and entrepreneurs there.
In addition, in response to this answer, there is a reply 'I know the person who will want to talk to you', so it seems that there is a possibility that 'connection' will increase further.
Q: Q:
Are you planning to make a small fusion reactor and put it in a robot suit?
Kuba:
(Iron Man's) Tony Stark might do it ...
Q: Q:
Isn't it dangerous to have such a fusion reactor at home?
Kuba:
Those who do not approach within 35 feet (about 10 meters) because the amount of X-ray radiation is large when conducting experiments, but it weakens in proportion to the square of the distance, assuming that the X-rays spread radially. Is good. I have a Geiger counter, but it has been confirmed that the amount of radiation has not increased at a distance of 35 feet. The power supply can be operated remotely.
Q: Q:
Do X-rays have an adverse effect on electronic devices?
Kuba:
X-rays can be detected with a digital camera. It will be displayed as a white dot like this.
Q: Q:
What do you think she would say when she entered the room?
Kuba:
A cameraman came to shoot from the campus magazine. She didn't know what to say.
Q: Q:
Roughly estimate, how many such small reactors do you think there are in the world?
Kuba:
We are the 16th and 17th high school students in the world who completed the fusion reactor. I think about 50 amateur scientists in the world make their own devices like this.
Q: Q:
Didn't you enter the science contest?
Kuba:
The fusion project was just completed a few months ago and it was too late to enter the contest. There are several science contests on the theme of nuclear fusion, and the research that won the highest award was also nuclear fusion.
Q: Q:
How do you detect fast neutrons?
Kuba:
It is a neutron bubble dosimeter. This is basically a gel-filled tube that holds a small bubble of special liquid. When a neutron hits a droplet, it vaporizes into a visible bubble.
Q: Q:
What are you planning to make next?
Kuba:
So far, I have made three Tesla coils. One is for music, the other is a CO2 laser that burns wood, and the third is a nuclear fusion reactor, so the bedroom is no longer like a science fiction laboratory. Next, I would like to work on an induction furnace. Because it's so cool.
Q: Q:
What is the worst possible situation in a fusion experiment?
Kuba:
It's an implosion . At the lowest pressure, the pressure inside the chamber reaches 6 trillionths. In addition, the plasma in the reactor reaches hundreds of millions of Kelvin. This is not a special danger in itself, but high energies can cause problems with the vacuum system.
Q: Q:
How long will it take for your fusion reactor to be able to supply household electricity?
Kuba:
The reactor is very inefficient. I would be lucky if I could get one trillionth of the energy I entered. However, I thought it would be a good platform for research, so I decided to make one.
Q: Q:
What is the cause of inefficiency?
Kuba:
I think that energy is lost mainly when ions collide with internal conductors.
Q: Q:
I think you have achieved great academic research at the age of 19, but what are you studying now and what kind of research do you want to do in the long run?
Kuba:
The '3 hours a day extracurricular study' that I continued during middle school and high school did not help my grades. My instructor said that I couldn't reach the top-level universities, and I didn't apply to the universities I longed for because I believed it. I regret this choice, but I have hope for the future. I plan to take the University of California Santa Cruz next spring. There is no recruitment in nuclear engineering, so it is in the field of electronic engineering ...
In response to this answer, he said, 'What are the teachers thinking?' And 'Did you get a very valuable lesson early on?' You shouldn't lend me a lesson. '
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