[ RadSafe ] Reactor in the Basement!

[Jaro]

At least the article avoids making the endlessly repeated phony claim of the
big fusion establishment, that its the "energy source of the sun."
If that were the case, they wouldn't need hundred-million-degree
temperatures, and they wouldn't need deuterium or tritium.
Of course admitting that its really the energy source of hydrogen bombs,
doesn't sound nearly as attractive to politicians, the media, and the
public....

 Jaro
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl]On Behalf
Of NIXON, Grant
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 5:35 PM
To: james.g.barnes at att.net; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Reactor in the Basement!



Indeed Jim. Kind of reminescent of the Pons & Fleischman Utah fiasco of
1989. "Indeed, there are no neutrons..." Good thing too!

Grant

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of james.g.barnes at att.net
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 5:08 PM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Reactor in the Basement!

Actually, this raises two issues I've always wondered about:

1)  "A few x-rays:"  I have always thought that energetic fusion
generated intense x- and gamma ray flux.  Is that true?

2)  Similarly, always though fusion resulted in intense neutron
emission.  Is that correct?

Jim Barnes


-------------- Original message from cehn at aol.com: --------------


> TEEN GOES NUCLEAR: He creates fusion in his Oakland Township home
>
> November 19, 2006
> BY GINA DAMRON
> (Detroit) FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
>
> On the surface, Thiago Olson is like any typical teenager.
> He's on the cross country and track teams at Stoney Creek High School
in
> Rochester Hills. He's a good-looking, clean-cut 17-year-old with a
3.75 grade
> point average, and he has his eyes fixed on the next big step:
college. But to
> his friends, Thiago is known as "the mad scientist."
> In the basement of his parents' Oakland Township home, tucked away in
an area
> most aren't privy to see, Thiago is exhausting his love of physics on
a project
> that has taken him more than two years and 1,000 hours to research and
build --
> a large, intricate machine that , on a small scale, creates nuclear
fusion.
> Nuclear fusion -- when atoms are combined to create energy -- is "kind
of like
> the holy grail of physics," he said. In fact, on www.fusor.net, the
Stoney Creek
> senior is ranked as the 18th amateur in the world to create nuclear
fusion. So,
> how does he do it?
> Pointing to the steel chamber where all the magic happens, Thiago said
on Friday
> that this piece of the puzzle serves as a vacuum. The air is sucked
out and into
> a filter. Then, deuterium gas -- a form of hydrogen -- is injected
into the
> vacuum. About 40,000 volts of electricity are charged into the chamber
from a
> piece of equipment taken from an old mammogram machine. As the machine
runs, the
> atoms in the chamber are attracted to the center and soon -- ta da --
nuclear
> fusion. Thiago said when that happens, a small intense ball of energy
forms.
> He first achieved fusion in September and has been perfecting the
machine he
> built in his parents' garage ever since.
> This year, Thiago was a semifinalist for the Siemens Foundation's
National
> Research Competition. He plans to enter the Science and Engineering
Fair of
> Metropolitan Detroit, which is in March, in hopes of qualifying to be
in the
> Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in New Mexico in May.

> To his mom and dad, he's still reminiscent of the 5-year-old who
toiled over a
> kid-friendly chemistry set and, then at age 9, was able to change the
battery in
> his older brother's car. Now, in a small room in the basement, Thiago
has set
> up a science lab -- where bottles marked "potassium hydroxide" and
"methanol"
> sit on shelves and a worn, old book, titled "The Atomic Fingerprint:
Neutron
> Activation Analysis" piled among others in the empty sink.
> Thiago's mom, Natalice Olson, initially was leery of the project, even
though
> the only real danger from the fusion machine is the high voltage and
small
> amount of X-rays emitted through a glass window in the vacuum chamber
-- through
> which Olson videotapes the fusion in action. But, she wasn't really
surprised,
> since he was always coming up with lofty ideas. "Originally, he wanted
to build
> a hyperbolic chamber," she said, adding that she promptly said no.
But, when he
> came asking about the nuclear fusion machine, she relented.
> "I think it was pretty brave that he could think that he was capable
to do
> something so amazing," she said.
> Thiago's dad, Mark Olson, helped with some of the construction and
electrical
> work. To get all of the necessary parts, Thiago scoured the Internet,
buying
> items on eBay and using his age to persuade manufacturers to give him
discounts.
> The design of the model came from his own ideas and some suggestions
from other
> science-lovers he met online.
>
_
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