Teenager's claim that he achieved nuclear fusion in his parents' basement gains notice

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061123/NEWS03/611230377

An Oakland Township teen said he has been surprised by the national attention he has gotten over his claim that he achieved nuclear fusion with a homemade machine in his parents' basement.

On Wednesday, Thiago Olson, 17, a student at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills, said he was thinking over offers to appear on "Late Night with David Letterman" and Fox News.

Despite the interest from national media and countless blogs and Web sites, some scientists have questioned the validity of his project. Thiago has not had his claim verified by experts. He has discussed his project with his physics teacher and scientists he met on the Web.

Thiago said he achieved fusion -- when nuclei combine to create energy -- in a machine that works by injecting a form of hydrogen gas into a vacuum chamber and charging it with electricity. This causes atoms to collide and releases neutrons.

[spoony]

1. Nice to know what the neighbours are doing, lol

Reminds me of the "nuclear boy scout" story, where a kid built a reactor. He made quite the mess of his block.

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html

[pitohui]

7. jesus, "david hahn is now in the navy"

why isn't he now in jail, i guess radioactive contamination of your neighbors is just fine and dandy when a cute white boy does it

[BlueStorm]

31. I think it's called "The Radioactive Boy Scout." n/t

[spoony]

32. Right you are :) n/t

[NNN0LHI]

2. Here is a photo of the contraption he built

If you thought putting your kid's bike together was hard, you'd better sit down. Thiago Olson, a 17-year-old from outside Detroit, went and built himself a nuclear fusion reactor in his parents' basement. It took him over 1,000 hours, which is probably more time than you spent on that Huffy, but that's one impressive DIY project. The setup involves a vacuum chamber that gets filled with deuterium gas which then gets zapped with 40,000 volts of electricity. What results is a small amount of nuclear fusion.

[ThomWV]

3. Someone Wanna Explain To Me Where The Kid Got Deuterium Gas?

Has the kid been down to Savannah River lately?

[trumad]

4. Deuterium Gas

That's what I got after thanksgiving dinner last night...

[pitohui]

5. oh i'm sure it's a hoax EOM

,

[eliphaslevi]

10. The sun is a perfect example of fusion

It is also made up of mostly hydrogen and helium gases.

[pitohui]

12. er i hate to be the one to tell you this but...

the sun is approx. 93 million miles away

it is not down the street in the fucked-up neighbor kid's basement

we have zoning laws for a reason, if you wouldn't allow exxon to set up shop on your street, you certainly shouldn't allow freakin' hobbyists to set up nuclear laboratories

this kid is an attention seeker but if he's for real he's violating so many environmental laws that it is not even funny

[drm604]

15. Why is he "fucked-up"?

This is an advanced level amateur project that has been done by a number of amateurs. It's called a fusor. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor
and here: http://www.fusor.net/
It's takes an intelligent and skilled amateur to do it, along with many hours of work.

There's no danger to the neighborhood. As far as I know he's not violating any environmental laws, do you have any cites to the contrary? He is risking some low level radiation exposure to himself, or possible electrocution but only if he doesn't do things properly. Those dangers exist only for people in the immediate vicinity of his equipment. In other words, people standing next to him in the basement.

This story was discussed in DU's Science forum: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x25264

Here's a good article on it: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061119/NEWS03/611190639

Deuterium by the way is a stable isotope of hydrogen, meaning that it is NOT radioactive. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterium

He is not working with radioactive materials and the by-product, helium, is not radioactive, flammable, or poisonous.

[Catch22Dem]

17. Why's he "fucked up?"

You don't know anything about this kid. What he's doing isn't radioactive, so what's the environmental risk? It's not like he can blow anything up with what he built, so what's all the aggression about?

[drm604]

21. Don't you hate

seeing this kind of ludditism and anti-intellectualism in what is supposed to be the pro-science party?

[Catch22Dem]

30. Just knee-jerk

Hear the words fusion and immediately think 3-Mile-Island.

[eliphaslevi]

35. Fusion is safer than Fission

No harmful permanent radiation & no chances for a meltdown. Just shut off a switch and the reaction is stopped.

[originalpckelly]

14. No it isn't, he's been around this website:

Fusor.net:
http://fusor.net/

He's like many other people. No one realizes how easy it is to build something which creates fusion, it's just that the fusion doesn't break even, or in other words produce more energy than it takes to fuse the atoms.

[grytpype]

8. Walmart?

[eliphaslevi]

9. Suppliers are easy to find

http://www.thomasnet.com/south-carolina/deuterium-gas-32842148-1.html

[MGD]

11. How about this? Boil 600,000 ml of water at exactly 100 degrees celcius until 100 ml remains

then separate that remaining 100 ml of heavy water via electrolysis and obtain your deuterium gas.

Or you could order it from here: http://www.isotope.com/cil/products/displayproduct.cfm?prod_id=6173

[ThomWV]

13. My Mistake - Brainfart - Was Thinking Of Tritium

[Warren DeMontague]

27. I knew a kid in high school who built a bong that looked just like that. nt

[MnFats]

6. deuterium gas....heavy hydrogen isotope

Deuterium is a heavier and stable isotope of ordinary hydrogen. (Deuterium is also referred to as "heavy hydrogen.") It is a colorless, odorless, nontoxic, diatomic, flammable gas. Similar to molecular hydrogen, the diatomic Deuterium molecule has both ortho and para-isomerism. At room temperature, Deuterium exists as a 2:1 equilibrium mixture of ortho-para isomers.


Deuterium Gas Application

Deuterium gas is used in nuclear power, fusion power, lasers and lighting. It can be used to prepare deuterated biological compounds, deuterated lubricants, deuterated optical fibers and in electronics as a replacement for hydrogen in the annealing or sintering of silicon based semiconductors, flat panel displays, and solar panels.

Spectra Gases Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are available and should be used in regard to first aid, methods of storage, handling and general use of Deuterium.

but we all knew that, right? Simple!

hell, i don't even know most of the five-dollar words in this encyclopedia entry!
I managed to get a C+ in chemistry!

[Selatius]

16. I want my MR. FUSION, right NOW!

See, you fuel the flux capacitor by placing matter into the fusion reactor like this:

[Guaranteed]

18. Sure he did- just like they did in a beaker, last time,

only the place didn't blow up. For some reason.

[drm604]

20. Yes, he very possibly did.

See my reply #15: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2795622&mesg_id=2795884

It's completely different from the cold fusion claims. It doesn't claim to be a net energy producer, it's a hobbyist project (albeit a very advanced one) and nothing more. A number of people have done this since the fifties.

[Vinca]

19. I'd hate to be competing against this guy at the school science fair.

Do you think he really did it??

[leftofthedial]

22. What's He Building?

What's he building in there?
What the hell is he building
In there?
He has subscriptions to those
Magazines... He never
Waves when he goes by
He's hiding something from
The rest of us... He's all
To himself... I think I know
Why... He took down the
Tire swing from the Peppertree
He has no children of his
Own you see... He has no dog
And he has no friends and
His lawn is dying... and
What about all those packages
He sends. What's he building in there?
With that hook light
On the stairs. What's he building
In there... I'll tell you one thing
He's not building a playhouse for
The children what's he building
In there?

Now what's that sound from under the door?
He's pounding nails into a
Hardwood floor... and I
Swear to god I heard someone
Moaning low... and I keep
Seeing the blue light of a
T.V. show...
He has a router
And a table saw... and you
Won't believe what Mr. Sticha saw
There's poison underneath the sink
Of course... But there's also
Enough formaldehyde to choke
A horse... What's he building
In there. What the hell is he
Building in there? I heard he
Has an ex-wife in some place
Called Mayors Income, Tennessee
And he used to have a
consulting business in Indonesia...
but what is he building in there?
What the hell is building in there?

He has no friends
But he gets a lot of mail
I'll bet he spent a little
Time in jail...
I heard he was up on the
Roof last night
Signaling with a flashlight
And what's that tune he's
Always whistling...
What's he building in there?
What's he building in there?

We have a right to know...

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

25. Paranoia - Rock n/t

[keithjx]

26. Tom Waits is the MAN.... n/t

[enki23]

23. it's called "bullshit." you can look that up, if you like.

.

[Solon]

28. Actually its not...

Creating a fusion reaction is easy, creating a self-sustaining fusion reaction is what is hard.

[Scooter24]

24. It's been done by a teen before (2003)

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,510054502,00.html

LOGAN — A widespread belief among physicists nowadays is that modern science requires squadrons of scientists and wildly expensive equipment.

Craig Wallace and Philo T. Farnsworth are putting the lie to all that.

Wallace, a baby-faced tennis player fresh out of Spanish Fork High School, had almost the entire physics faculty of Utah State University hovering (and arguing) over an apparatus he had cobbled together from parts salvaged from junk yards and charity drops.

The apparatus is nothing less than the sine qua non of modern science: a nuclear fusion reactor, based on the plans of Utah's own Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television.

The reactor sat on a table with an attached vacuum pump wheezing away. A television monitor showed what was inside: a glowing ball of gas surrounded by a metal helix.

...

[boolean]

29. This is nothing new

As already mentioned by others in this thread, this is not new. He's not getting more energy out of this thing than he's putting into it. Nothing to see here, move along....

[joe_sixpack]

33. Damn, and we thought we were cool

when we were concocting water pipes in our parent's basement. Way to go kid.

[Minnesota_Lib]

34. My goodness, how times have changed since I made my first bottle rocket