WHOOPS! Sorry folks, that one kinda got away from me... WHOOPS! Sorry folks, that one kinda got away from me...Its not fusion, he's created a plasma sphere - the same kind of thing you can buy at any kitschy gift shop for about $75 or so. Real fusion implies getting more energy out that what you put in, and there's nothing here within the link that indicates this simple fact.
I can just hear his mom opening the door to the garage,
"Would you stop doing that before you blow up the whole state and didn't I tell you to take out the garbage!"
The real clue that something does not ring true in this story is there is no mention of radiation.
The reaction between two atoms of deuterium is:
D2 + D2 yields He3 + neutron + gamma
What this implies is that for an output as low as one watt, the young man would need a lot of shielding, or he would irradiate himself to death.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think "charging with electricity" causes fusion. *rolls eyes*
For those of you with the time, Robert Bussard recently had a lecture at Google where he explained his progress in his past twelve years of research on electrostatic confinement fusion:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/18/0616205
The video is 92 minutes long, and it expands on some reports that have leaked out.
Essentially, he is asking for about $200M in new funding to produce a practical power-generating fusion reactor in less than five years.
Show me Helium3 and a neutron from the thing.
As I teen I was intent on creating fusion also.
Any physicists here? Doesn't seem like that would work.
Bump to read in my next halflife...
ah, here it is, from 2003...
Freshman's nuclear fusion reactor has USU physics faculty in awe
deseretnews.com | 9-16-03 | Alan Edwards
Posted on 09/17/2003 11:18:21 PM EDT by wafflehouse
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/984600/posts