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Build A Fusion Reactor

by christensent on December 23, 2010 Table of Contents Build A Fusion Reactor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Build A Fusion Reactor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: Assemble The Vacuum Chamber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: Prepare The High Vacuum Pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 3: Build Inner Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 4: Assemble The Deuterium System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 5: High Voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 6: Setup Neutron Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 7: Fire It Up (and cross your fingers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 5 6 7 7

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

Intro: Build A Fusion Reactor

Yes, you can build your very own nuclear fusion reactor in your house! But first, a few warnings: -This project includes lethal voltage levels. Make sure you know your high voltage safety or have a qualified electrical advisor. -Potentially hazardous levels of x-rays will be produced. Lead shielding of viewports is a must! -Deuterium, an explosive gas, will be used. Make sure to check for fuel leaks. -All the other inherent dangers of a home engineering project of this degree (a wide gamut of potential injuries, damage to the checking account, and the loss of general sanity)

Here are the minimum required materials: -A vacuum chamber, preferably in a spherical shape -A roughing vacuum pump capable of reaching at least 75 microns vacuum -A secondary high vacuum pump, either a turbo pump or oil diffusion pump -A high voltage supply, preferably capable of at least 40kv 10ma - Must be negative polarity -A high voltage divider probe for use with a digital multimeter -A thermocouple or baratron (of appropriate scale) vacuum gauge -A neutron radiation detector, either a proportional He-3 or BF3 tube with counting instrumentation, or a bubble dosimeter -A Geiger counter, preferably a scintillator type, for x-ray detection and safety -Deuterium gas (can be purchased as a gas or extracted from D2O through electrolysis - it is much easier and more effective to use compressed gas) -A large ballast resistor in the range of 50-100k and at least a foot long -A camera and TV display for viewing the inside of the reactor -Lead to shield the camera viewport -General engineering tools, a machine shop if at all possible (although 90% of mine was built with nothing but a dremel and cordless drill, the only thing you really can't build without a shop is scratch building the vacuum chamber)

Step 1: Assemble The Vacuum Chamber

A quality high vacuum chamber is required for the fusor to operate. Sometimes an appropriate chamber can be found on eBay, but generally it is best to make one. Parts can be scrounged for several hundred dollars, or purchased new for $500+. Get two stainless steel hemispheres, purchase two corresponding conflat-flanges (8" flanges in my case), bore out holes for accessory flanges, and then TIG weld it all together. Flanges are typically either of the KF or the conflat style. Conflat can be seen in the image below as the flanges with bolts, and KF (kwik-flange) are seen as those with only clamps holding an o-ring on the mating surface. Only weld on the inside, never on the outside (since virtual leaks can be formed if both inside and outside are welded). If you've never TIG welded before, it would be wise to have someone with experience do it as the welds must be flawless with no pin-sized holes or porous areas to hold a vacuum. After machining, thoroughly clean the chamber and avoid getting fingerprints in it since these will outgas, which means at vacuum pressure molecules in the oil of finger prints or machining oil will become vapor and make it hard to maintain plasma stability or reach a good ultimate vacuum level.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

Step 2: Prepare The High Vacuum Pump

Install the oil diffusion pump (or turbo pump if you have a bit of luck scrounging or a higher budget). Fill the pump with quality diffusion pump oil to whatever fill level the pump documentation suggests, attach the inlet to a valve which then connects to the chamber (see diagram), and attach the outlet to a mechanical backing pump capable of reaching at least around 75 microns (any higher and the diffusion pump will not operate properly or the oil will oxidize quickly). Make sure the pump is sufficiently cooled, many oil diffusion pumps require water cooling, smaller ones such as the one pictured can get by with a decent air flow. Once this is assembled, turn on the mechanical pump and wait for the vacuum to reach at least 75 microns. Next you can test the high vacuum pump by turning on the boiler on the diffusion pump. After it warms up (could take a while), the vacuum should rapidly drop below the single micron range.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

Step 3: Build Inner Grid

The inner grid (where the high voltage is applied) must now be built and attached to a high voltage feedthrough. It is best to use a metal such as tungsten for the grid wires since it has a very high melting point, and the grid will get extremely hot during high power runs. This can be built however you wish, as long as it resembles a spherical shape of roughly 1-1.5 inches in diameter (for a 6-8" chamber), it should work fine. The grid should be internally attached to an electrical feedthrough such as the one pictured in the second image. This feedthrough needs to be rated for the cathode voltage that will be used, typically 40kv is a good target voltage.

Step 4: Assemble The Deuterium System

Deuterium gas is used as the fuel for this fusion reactor. You will need to purchase a tank of this gas (unless you wish to do electrolysis on heavy water, this process will not be documented here but nothing more than a small Hoffman Apparatus is required - higher purity gas can be gotten from a compressed tank). Attach a high pressure regulator directly to the tank, add an extremely fine-metering needle valve after this (or a laser drilled orifice in the range of 5 microns), then attach this to the chamber. A ball valve can also be installed between the regulator and the needle valve since needle valves are not shutoff valves. See the attached diagram now updated with the deuterium handling system.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

Step 5: High Voltage

If you can purchase a power supply (occasionally but not commonly found surplus) appropriate for fusion use, the high voltage becomes very simple. Simply take the output of the 40kv negative supply and attach it to the chamber with a physically large high voltage 50-100k ohm ballast resistor in series (large enough that its length will not flash-over if 40kv is applied to it in a plasma run-away or arc discharge). The difficulty is that it is often difficult if not impossible to find an appropriate fully assembled DC supply of this voltage level that is affordable to the amateur scientist. Pictured is my high frequency ferrite transformer pair, with a 4-stage multiplier seen behind it. If a fully assembled power supply (typically manufactured by either Glassman or Spellman), there are a few options: -Find an x-ray transformer, and if necessary either reverse the rectifiers for negative polarity or add rectifiers if it has none (an x-ray transformer core won't have rectifiers, it probably will if it is in its oil tank) -Build a switching high frequency ferrite power supply. This is what I did, however it requires a bit of EE experience since several aspects must be resonant and if it is ever taken out of tune, the transistors will burn out. Probably not the best option for people with little electrical background.

Step 6: Setup Neutron Detection

The proof of fusion (and a quantitative analysis of how much fusion) is obtained through detecting neutron radiation, the byproduct of a D-D fusion reaction. There are three options which will be described. They are in order of descending ease of setup. -A Neutron Bubble Dosimeter A bubble dosimeter is a small unit with a gel in it that forms bubbles when ionized by neutron radiation. This is the easiest form of neutron detection available since all you have to do is unscrew the top and set it next to the fusor. Some of the drawbacks are that it is an integrative detector which means all you get is a total neutron emission number over the time that it was used, rather than an instantaneous neutron rate. Additionally, they are somewhat hard to get since the only company to make them is Bubbletech in Canada, which has a minimum order of 3 with steep shipping and handling (expect to spend $700+ if ordering directly from them not in a group buy). Additionally, they tend to be fairly worn out after a year of shelf life (although I've kept mine in a refrigerated storage container at 50*F and it seems to be like new after I think more than a year). The advantage is that calibration data is provided with purchase and of course it is easy. -Silver Activation When silver is placed near the reactor (with a moderator [paraffin wax, water, HDPE, etc] between it and the neutron source, since only thermal neutrons will activate the material) it becomes slightly radioactive with decent neutron fluxes. It has a short half life of only a few minutes, but if you quickly put a geiger counter next to the silver, counts can be detected. In my best runs, I have gotten a piece of silver to about 250CPM over background on a CDV-700 geiger-counter. The disadvantages of this are that it requires a decent neutron flux (at least about 100,000 neutrons/s) which is above the average "beginner's first run" neutron rate. Also, it is somewhat difficult to calibrate, and the counts can't be taken until after the fusor has been shut off. -A Proportional Tube Tubes can be purchased which are filled with either BF3 or Helium-3 (some very old tubes are Boron-10 lined inert gas tubes). These tubes, similar to a geiger counter, can be used with a counting device to detect electrical pulses when neutrons pass through the tube. Either an all-in-one counter can be used, often made by a company called Ludlum, or a modular counting system can be made using NIM modules. The tube is surrounded by about 2 inches of moderating material such as wax or water. This is by far the most accurate and useful form of neutron detection, however the cost of a new tube is prohibitive to most people, and they are extremely rare on the surplus market. Also, counting equipment can become quite costly. NIM Configuration: If you chose to make a NIM setup as I have, the typical layout is a charge sensitive pre-amplifier at the head of the proportional tube, which is plugged into both a high voltage power supply generating positive polarity voltage appropriate for the tube (in the range of 800V-2kV generally). The amplifier also hooks into a shaping amplifier, which is followed by a Single Channel Analyzer (for setting the detection discrimination level), followed by a pulse counter and/or rate meter. Shown in the first picture is my NIM setup, the second picture is the pre-amplifier attached to a moderated helium-3 tube, the third picture is a bubble detector after being exposed to neutrons.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

Step 7: Fire It Up (and cross your fingers)

Time to turn it on (don't forget to cover any viewports/cameras with lead! Also x-rays can pour out of ceramic feedthroughs so point them away from people. It is a good idea to be monitoring for x-rays where any people are present). The basic procedure is: -Turn on the roughing pump and wait for sufficient backing pressure, turn on the diffusion or turbo pump and wait for it to fully warm up or achieve running speed -Throttle the chamber back (with the valve between the diffusion/turbo pump and the chamber) -Ever so slightly open the needle valve to the deuterium tank -Turn up the high voltage until either plasma establishes on the camera, or you've reached 40kv and nothing has happened (don't forget, you only get one chance in your life to screw up with voltages of this degree) -If nothing has happened, keep admitting more gas and the pressure should keep going up. Plasma should form around 40kv at about 10-15 microns of deuterium. If all goes well, you should see on your camera the image below, and you should be detecting neutrons at this point. Operation is quite a balancing act, since the voltage is controlled by both the power supply, but also by Paschen's Curve and Ohm's Law relating to the pressure in the chamber. Great patience is required to "Get the hang of it", but after doing so it becomes quite simple to run. Operation can be aided by an ion-gun which will not be discussed in this article.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

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Comments
50 comments Add Comment view all 251 comments

vincent7520 says:
If I build one and press the switch,will be the Master of the World ? or is it not worth the pain ?

Mar 12, 2011. 3:38 PM REPLY

Lefranois says:
What is the usefulness?

Jan 24, 2011. 8:57 AM REPLY

christensent says:
It is a neutron source which can be used in neutron activation experiments

Jan 24, 2011. 10:01 AM REPLY

echaa says:

Mar 11, 2011. 7:39 PM REPLY When you built it, did you intend for it to be anything other than a neutron source? Would it be possible to get power out of it, and to get more power output than input?

llanyort says:

Mar 4, 2011. 9:24 AM REPLY some people are ignorant. dude, build this sucker and screw them. i enjoyed reading about "how to's" and "why's?" about this project. thanks... i learned something new.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

PDRWLSN says:

Jan 2, 2011. 8:01 PM REPLY If I knew of anyone in my nieghborhood building one of these I do believe I'd take action to prevent it from being completed. That said, do your neighbors have any idea? Also, after publishing this, are you not concerned the authorities will be outside soon with a no-knock warrant?

avengingwatcher says:

Feb 25, 2011. 9:24 PM REPLY Things that are more likely to cause you harm than anyone intelligent enough to build this: Car accidents, propane grills, lighter fluid, cigarette fires, rocks kicked up from lawnmowers, carbon monoxide poisoning, skin cancer, prostate cancer, amusement park rides, food poisoning from undercooked meat, rewiring your house, TSA body scanning machines(if you fly frequently) I wish that I was being hyperbolic in this, but I'm not. You are frequently hit by x rays in daily use at doctors and dentist offices and devices far more dangerous than this were used by shoe salesmen at one point to check for proper shoe fit. Statistically you would have to be sharing a wall with one of these and the bottle of deuterium would have to rupture from the nozzle in which case the damage would come from a projectile bottle with a possible flash fire as the gas burned off to suffer and real ill effects from this. Aside from that I could literally create something far more dangerous with ingredient you have in YOUR kitchen cabinets. Also I think you're misunderstanding nuclear and radioactive, which are two different things. You cannot create a radioactive bomb from this Side conversation, does your name stand for paging dr wilson?

teamtestbot says:
Where does it stop with people like you?

Jan 3, 2011. 12:12 AM REPLY

PDRWLSN says:
People like me?

Jan 3, 2011. 12:50 PM REPLY

Xellers says:

Jan 3, 2011. 6:27 PM REPLY Yes, people like you: ignorant and afraid. If operated at home with proper shielding and safety precautions, this "reactor" poses absolutely no threat whatsoever under any conditions to anyone outside of the operator, and in most circumstances, even this is unlikely. Also, there is no legal way for you to "take action" against this because all of the necessary components of this system, including the deuterium gas fuel, can be legally purchased and owned by a resident of the United States. Indeed, there is absolutely no reason for the author to be concerned that the authorities will take notice - this reactor cannot be used to produce any sort of dangerous materials and contrary to what you may or may not believe, there is literally no way for it to "melt down" to explode. In fact, he is nowhere near the first private owner of such a DIY system, and he won't be the last, not if I have anything to say about it! People like you are afraid of what they don't understand and try to shut out people who do understand, instead of doing a little bit of research; people like you are afraid of lawsuits, of being forced to take responsibility, and they are afraid of anything that doesn't have a dozen "FDA Approved" labels or safety seals from some other government agency plastered all over it. Your mentality is that you should eliminate anything that you don't understand because it might be a threat to you, my mentality is that you should experiment and take risks. Of course, taking risks does not equate to intentionally doing something that is stupid, reckless, and dangerous. However, attempting to safely assemble a device that cannot hurt you or anyone else around you does not seem dangerous to me, it seems like a risk we ought to take. As Gever Telley put it in his brilliant TED talk, "5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do", it's quite sad how in today's world, companies print choking hazard labels all over any piece of plastic ever manufactured and safety warnings on anything sharper than a golf ball. Finally, before you try to tell me about how this information could be dangerous in the wrong hands, I'm going to tell that it couldn't be. The pressure required to actually achieve traces of any sort of fusion reactions in so low that you need an oil diffusion pump along with a very specially designed vacuum system in order to get anywhere near it. With a higher pressure system, you might be able to use solder to join it together, however, the solder flux that this method requires would easily create leaks that would prevent the system from reaching anywhere near fusion pressure. This means that you will need a very expensive, precision manufactured chamber. Although the oil diffusion pump (along with the backing pump you will need to drive it) could probably be bought second-hand from eBay for a couple hundred dollars, the rest of the actual vacuum system would cost at least $400 to $500 more. Then, considering that you still need some sort of high voltage power supply, a deuterium system, deuterium gas from a chemical supplier, shielding material, and some high vacuum gauges, the cost of this type of project easily exceeds $1500 or even $2000. However, even if all the parts are purchased, assembling the system is no walk in the park, you need access to welding equipment to fashion the inner grids, and you need to know how to assemble the vacuum system without any leaks. If it's any consolidation to you, this is not a project that some random amateur experimenter could assemble in a few afternoons. An undertaking of this magnitude requires a tremendous amount of time, money, effort, and skill.

TRONhack3r says:

Feb 23, 2011. 3:15 PM REPLY Thanks for the information some of this sounds out of my budget. I have the nst transformer for producing the voltages needed for this but i dont have that vaccum pump do think there is some way to impoverish that? cause I am just a kid and i cant afford that... Feb 16, 2011. 5:20 AM REPLY ok i agree with you we need to take risks and most good things come out of thaking risks so yea an so far as the reactor if any body wants to build it i say go for it cus its leagel and you wont get into troubel unlesss you do somthing retared with it like i dont know fuison reactor missel i dont know but whatev Jan 19, 2011. 4:22 AM REPLY Sorry it was so long before my reply, I was on vacation. For starters let me say it's sad to know anyone would be disappointed to see safety warnings on anything. YOU probably would not be here now if it weren't for them, your folks didn't raise you to respect others opinions, good thing they told you as a child not to put the kitty-litter in your mouth. As for ignorance, that would be you. "If operated at home with proper shielding and safety precautions this "reactor" poses no threat to anyone outside the of operator" ( driving at night with your headlights on is quite safe, you did remember to turn them on, right?). I'm not going to believe any builder is competent enough to take the proper precautions untill the builder proves so. How long do you think it'll be before something like this shows up at a kegger? What happens when the builder has one too many and his/her buddies goes into the room and goes like" wow man this is way coool, lets reheat my fries"? And yes there is way for me to "take action", I live in a residential neighborhood with zoning laws, anything questionable can be brought to the zoning board for approval or denial. Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with someone building this... as long as its built safely in a location not residential. Fear, you again, afraid of someone elses opinion. There are lots of young, smart, creative people out there, let them create something from

atomicwaterstudios says:

PDRWLSN says:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

their own imagination not just copy someone elses.

Javin007 says:
This is my favorite part: "your folks didn't raise you to respect others opinions"

Feb 8, 2011. 2:12 PM REPLY

Your entire rant/tirade/spew is all about your lack of respect for other people, both their opinions and their capabilities. Hell, you've explicitly said you'd "take action" to stop the build of this just because you're too ignorant to understand what it is, or what it can do. "I'm not going to believe any builder is competent enough to take the proper precautions untill the builder proves so." Just as a reminder, here in America we enjoy a certain amount of freedom. Such as the freedom to build and invent without having to prove to every ignorant nutter out there that we're qualified by THEIR standards when they don't even understand the concepts of the build. One could just as easily say that you are no longer allowed to eat solid foods without proving to us that you're fully qualified to chew (by our standards). He doesn't have to answer to you, nor should he. If you actually understood what this build involved, you would also understand the potential hazards, which in a worse case scenario (ie: he's built this in the middle flat of an overpopulated apartment, hasn't actually taken any of the precautions he's mentioned, and absolutely everything is built perfectly wrong) MIGHT be some minor apartment damage (about the same as if your water heater blew) and about as much X-Ray exposure as you get yearly from your microwave... But you'd know this if you actually did a little research before slamming down on the panic button. I thought this was crazy informative, incredibly interesting, and something that I would never be able to afford, or desire to build. But the information on HOW it was done was quite valuable.

teamtestbot says:
Wow, if this is the mindset of Americans today, we're totally boned.

Jan 19, 2011. 12:14 PM REPLY

"I'm not going to believe any builder is competent enough to take the proper precautions untill the builder proves so." You have the wrong conception of the burden of proof here. I don't believe YOU have the authority to understand what the proper precautions are or what the competencies are to judge it intelligently unless YOU prove it to me. How about that? "How long do you think it'll be before something like this shows up at a kegger?" What kind of response is that? Your following statements show that you have NO CONCEPT of how the device works. Again, I ask, what authority do YOU have to judge? You have none in this case. Why does it matter that the area is "not residential"? I'll say that zoning laws are prohibiting the young, smart, creative people that you apparently like from doing things in their own homes, where it's their own business, and not yours. "There are lots of young, smart, creative people out there, let them create something from their own imagination not just copy someone elses. " This statement says alot about you. It takes creativity AND intelligence to understand and explore the principles of nature. It takes creativity AND intelligence to manufacture a device that does it for you. And while it's been built before, it takes creativity AND intelligence to understand that you can get something out of it for yourself by building one anyway. Once again, you show that your perspective is one of cowardice and fear of the unknown instead of what promotes understanding of these sorts of subjects among the public - inquisitiveness and a willingness to communicate. Instead of "bringing it to the zoning board", again, an act of authoritative oppression. Get out of my country, will you?

durgledoggy says:

Jan 19, 2011. 12:58 PM REPLY There is a good chance this person is a troll. Nobody, surely, is that stupid. If people really exist who are that closed-minded, that ignorant, that unwilling to understand anything but their own day to day processes then ... well I fret for the future of America.

SeniorShizzle says:

Jan 8, 2011. 1:11 PM REPLY "Yes, hello. Is this the FBI counter-terrorism task force? Good. Hi, I live at 2345 New Hope Lane. I'm really scared. I think my neighbor is building some sort of nuclear device in his garage. When I questioned him about it he said that the machine was was designed to generate immense heat and energy from radioactive atoms while generating generous amounts of radiation as a side effect. He's always walking in and out with all sorts of trefoil-labeled canisters and talking in some middle eastern language over the phone. He's scheduled to take a trip to New York City next week. It's a one-way ticket with the return flight scheduled to Bogota the same evening. Help me!" No legal way, huh?

TRONhack3r says:

Feb 23, 2011. 3:23 PM REPLY This thing makes soft x-rays and neutrons you should be safe if you dont use it all the time. If you Tv gets hot it to can produce soft x-rays. Oh yeah and the title is misleading its a fusor not a nuclear reactor.

ambermoony says:

Jan 8, 2011. 10:18 PM REPLY I'm sorry, but filing false claims with any law enforcement agency is far from legal, and even further from moral.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

thirtyfivefox says:
Its called perjury.

Feb 8, 2011. 5:40 PM REPLY

teamtestbot says:
Considering that your entire call is composed of lies and fabrications, yes, it's very illegal.

Jan 8, 2011. 11:35 PM REPLY

SeniorShizzle says:
See my comment blow. It helps to read.

Jan 9, 2011. 12:19 AM REPLY

teamtestbot says:

Jan 9, 2011. 7:32 AM REPLY Much of our problems comes from the "speculative" nature of willfully ignorant people like you having any credibility with law enforcement. Any regulatory agency worth their mettle and understanding what this apparatus is will see through all of your claims as wildly baseless upon investigation. Sadly, modern law enforcement has proven itself time and again to act on hare-brained accusations based on fear and lack of education about the matter at hand. I understand the point of your post is to illustrate what CAN happen given a member of our disgustingly non-technical public, but your posting history leads me to believe that you are sincere. Oh, speaking of reading, all the reasons why your report is false have already been played out repeatedly in the comments. Why, again, must you spread ignorant rumor?

SeniorShizzle says:

Jan 9, 2011. 1:49 PM REPLY Yeah thanks for the civics lesson there champ! I really needed it and you sure set me straight. On the subject, I'm not sure we live in the same country. The one I live in is called "America." Also, aside from the plane tickets, which one of the statements I made is false? Which one? Please, enlighten me. You think you're holier than me and the rest of our "disgusting" population, then please, prove it.

thirtyfivefox says:

Feb 8, 2011. 6:10 PM REPLY What you just described can be construed as perjury. You have conspired to use executive and judicial powers in order to further your own gains against a person who has have not committed any crime and only executed constitutionally protected freedoms (primarily the pursuit of happiness, which is no doubt the reason why inventors invent). Your argument represents the worst form of American ideology and one of the reasons why it pains me so much to be a veteran in this country. I would request you read deep into the constitution and realize what you are describing violates the very basis of ethics and morality that our forefathers attempted to achieve. People have the right to invent and push the bounds of technology, I realize that this scares people sometimes but we can't keep persecuting the Galileos, Epicureans, and Teslas of our modern era. This website embraces the fact that knowledge is free and the world isn't just how large corporations, even bigger government, and overzealous clergy tell us it should be. If you can't deal with that, perhaps you should hop back on Google and find yourself another page. Jan 10, 2011. 5:08 AM REPLY

teamtestbot says:
"He said".

No engineer in his right mind would characterize this creation as anything you described. Furthermore, the level of detail you provide it with is not something an average member of the public (that has any science education at all) will reasonably report verbatim to an authority body. "Generate immense amounts of heat"? "...while generating immense amounts of radiation as a side effect"? Come on, that's advertising material. Overall, nice troll (as I'm sure you meant to in the first place), but pretty much just that. Go call my bluff and try it some time, would you? Oh, and guess what? I live in America too. But among people who reject your culture of fear and safety and who try to educate the public and the curious about it whenever possible. That may be the difference.

TRONhack3r says:
you are totally right on the money!

Feb 23, 2011. 3:27 PM REPLY

SeniorShizzle says:

Jan 8, 2011. 11:24 PM REPLY If you notice nothing I said is false. You can choose to omit the part about Bogota if you want ;) The part about the middle eastern language is speculative, every person speculates as it's a natural part of the psychological condition brought on by nervousness. Any cop will tell you that. Not to mention that in post-9/11 America such a claim would be taken very seriously. The result, a 100% guarantee that no charges or indictions would be placed against you.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

audiophile says:

Mar 14, 2011. 2:24 PM REPLY you may be right. And the neighbor will probably get a knock on the door from the police. The police will question the man with the fusor and will probably be a little freaked out, stay in the mans house while preventing him from touching anything on the suspicious device until someone that know what their doing arrives. At which point the expert will assure the police that the device is harmless (providing that the builder took proper precautions as deuterium doesnt play to nicely with oxygen) and then come to the caller and tell them thats its alright and that there is no danger. It is true that since 9-11 we live in a different america. It is an america where everyone is afraid of what lurks around the corner. whether it be a suspicious neighbor, an odd looking suitcase, or a strange website that looks like it could steal our credit card if we click the wrong thing. Indeed it is a scary world we live in now but the primary thing to fear is fear it self. Fear leads to irrationality, ignorance, and a hatred to things which we think have a potential to harm us. We fear what we dont understand but how can we fear something when we fail to take the time accurately assess if something actually poses a clear and present danger to us. this is the part where i conclude with some epic mission statement for the world that embodies all of the preceding but im hungry. TO WENDY'S Also, i look forward to the day when someone posts an instructable for Mr. Fusion

bend says:
nothing I said is false... except that false part...

Feb 12, 2011. 10:00 AM REPLY

Xellers says:
***EPIC FACEPALM!!!!!***

Jan 8, 2011. 4:56 PM REPLY

Not only have you proven yourself to be an ignorant racist through your post, but you've also proven that you've got no idea what you're talking about. This time, there's no need for me to respond to your idiocy, I'll just let others figure it out for themselves.

SeniorShizzle says:
Wat?

Jan 8, 2011. 6:00 PM REPLY

cdousley says:

Jan 12, 2011. 7:50 PM REPLY whoah i think seniorshizzle here is just trying to make a point about how people would react to seing something like this and just the way people are i dont know why everyone is being so mean to him

Xellers says:

Jan 12, 2011. 8:50 PM REPLY That doesn't seem like what he is saying at all - it looks more like he's (unsuccessfully) trying to defend "PDRWLSN". Both of them are wrong, and "SeniorShizzle" is a racist, therefore, we are trying to set them straight.

cdousley says:

Jan 15, 2011. 4:23 PM REPLY no i think hes saying that people like PDRWLSN who dont know anything about this would be scared by it and call the police. thats what it sounds like to me.

teamtestbot says:

Jan 15, 2011. 9:19 PM REPLY But that in itself is what concerns me about the modern West. And I specifically call out First World, Western nations on this because it is us who have let our curiosity of the natural world and its principles lapse so much in favor of a life of material comfort but outrageous ignorance. I am disappointed that the first reaction we are told to have to something we do not fully understand is to "call the authorities". What authorities? As if the authorities have any deeper understanding of the subject matter at hand? Instead of knee-jerking and doing what amounts to telling the teacher in a grade school setting, what happened to our curiosity and our willingness to *communicate*? To talk to the other person and find out what it is they are doing? To ask about why the thing works the way it does? The culture of fear that modern governments have planted in people like PDRWLSN and maybe SeniorShizzle is one which is completely counterproductive to progress in technology and human advancement. It's a fear garden. Artificially cultivated and harvested by world governments to keep their citizens under control and satisfied with a bureaucrat's definition of normalcy.

thirtyfivefox says:
Correction on a typo... the first split atom was in the 40's...

Feb 8, 2011. 6:26 PM REPLY

thirtyfivefox says:

Feb 8, 2011. 6:21 PM REPLY I think we just became friends, teamtestbot... I'm glad i'm not the only one who sees the world this way... . We were on the cusp of atomic theory long before Christ even walked the planet, and subatomic theory has been around for over a hundred years, the first time we split an atom was in the 50's yet here we are now and the average population of America continues to degrade year after year in general education but more specifically in both fields of math and science. We saw educational trends like these in the dark ages and its fear mongering people that pushed it forward as well (read here the church). The million mom march and the like are BS. Its time for rational people to stand forward and quell the ignorant.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

Jamo_G says:

Mar 14, 2011. 2:24 AM REPLY I think this discussion tree should be forever encapsulated in a soft but laminated cover manual titled: America: Home of the Free, Land of the Creative. Maker(bot) bless AMERICA!

Xellers says:

Feb 8, 2011. 9:32 PM REPLY Actually, the first "splitting of an atom", or nuclear disintegration, that was completely under the control of the experimenters was in 1932. Cockroft and Walton used a high voltage linear accelerator to fire protons at lithium nuclei. However, this factual correction aside, what exactly do you mean by "we were on the cusp of atomic theory long before Christ even walked the planet"? If by "atomic theory" you mean the recognition that the macroscopic world might be built from tiny atoms in the microscopic world, then you are correct. However, if you mean to say that ancient people (before the age of Christ) came anywhere near understanding these atoms at even a rudimentary early 20th century level, then you are sadly mistaken. Also, if by "subatomic theory" you mean the recognition that atoms might be built from smaller units, then you are correct. However, if by this you mean modern particle physics and the quark model and the standard model, then I'm afraid that those didn't really exist before the 1960s and 1970s. Much of moderns physics is actually a lot more modern than you might think! All in all, I agree with your point. However, I think that it would be best to get your facts straight before posting - an argument full of factual errors is not really an argument at all.

thirtyfivefox says:

Feb 8, 2011. 11:43 PM REPLY I did indeed intend to describe what the greeks had discovered to be a ver rudimentary understanding of atoms, though they did I'n fact coin the term. This is why I mentioned that they were on the cusp. As for modern subatomic theory it is still subatomic theory. Quarks and any smaller theoretical particles are quantum theory. I typo'ed the 50's but I was not aware of a successful fission prior to the early 40's, so thank you for that point. I'm aware of how much we have advanced even if i don't have the precise clarity that the physicists practicing that field might have. Other than my typo I'm not sure how many factual errors you have actually seemed to have found? If you agreed with my point than perhaps you wouldn't mind messaging me privately with the small discrepancies that you noticed so I don't feel like you are only trying to smear me on the boards. I think for the most part we are on the same page in consideration of the main topics in this forum. Take it easy! :-)

SeniorShizzle says:
Subatomic means *Sub*-Atomic, smaller than atoms, like quarks.

Feb 9, 2011. 6:53 AM REPLY

Javin007 says:

Feb 8, 2011. 2:18 PM REPLY I can show you exactly how much knowledge the "Authorities" have regarding stuff like this. I had 4 fire engines, 2 cop cars, and an ambulance show up at my apartment and almost cut down the door because a couple of bints that went through my apartment looking for excuses to evict me told them I had a "dangerous chemical emergency" in there. (It was a small tin of dental amalgam I used to make fake teeth for the theater.) www.Javin-Inc.com/foxchase This is what we've come to in America. Not even your own home is safe from the ignorance of people in general. Mister Peter Wilson here is a shining example of this.

cdousley says:
Yes your absouloutly right!

Jan 16, 2011. 3:54 PM REPLY

Techguy2396 says:

Jan 3, 2011. 7:07 PM REPLY Nice build, but I think it would be far easier to do - not to mention cheaper - if you custom made your own parts with a homemade blast furnace, and cast metal. Aluminum should work just fine. And the metal can be degassed, while in the molten state, which should make it ideal for use in a vacuum. Yes - it does need to be a precision chamber. But that does not necessarily preclude the possibility of casting your own.

TRONhack3r says:
thanks for the idea!! ^_^

Feb 23, 2011. 3:30 PM REPLY

Xellers says:

Jan 3, 2011. 7:44 PM REPLY That's certainly a possibility if you have access to high quality tools and equipment and you have the necessary experience, but any slight imperfection leads to degassing, preventing a high enough level of vacuum. Also, if you really mess it up, then you risk imploding the whole chamber!

christensent says:

Jan 2, 2011. 8:10 PM REPLY As far as I know my neighbors are not aware, but I live outside the city, my nearest neighbor is more than a tenth of a mile away. A distance where neutron counts would be effectively zero (as in not even close to background radiation levels). I am not really concerned about them coming, since it is pretty much fully legal (the only possible gray area is the x-rays, but since it is properly shielded, there isn't much worry there - as I mentioned earlier, other people with fusors have had the government come check it out and were all given the OK to

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/

proceed). Also, I have my name and work on a fusion site that is much more watched by the government than instructables, so this is of little concern to me.

TRONhack3r says:
this is a nice build but i think you could have probably made it look better

Feb 19, 2011. 10:21 PM REPLY

hotrod1 says:
Dude i thought this was a prop or a joke, but this is really hardcore. What exactly can this be used for?

Feb 16, 2011. 5:13 PM REPLY

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/