Nuclear fusion reactor built by12-year-old Oswalt!

BOY WONDER Jackson Oswalt, 12, made a working atomic fusion experiment in his parent’s spare room using $10,000 worth of vacuums, pumps and chambers brought from eBay. Oswalt, from Memphis, Tenesse, now 14, is believed to be the youngest person to build a functioning nuclear fusion reactor.
The machine was built from customised vacuums, pumps and chambers bought on eBay by his parents. His contraption smashes together atoms with enough force to fuse them into one and this process releases energy trapped inside the atoms.

His parents funded the year-long endeavour, which they say took ‘everyday grinding’, but admit to knowing little about the undertaking. They spent up to $10,000 funding the project.
Jackson’s father, Chris, said he allowed his son to work on the project but ensured his safety by having experts speak to Jackson to educate him about the hazards working with radiation and thousands of volts of electricity poses.
This enormous voltage is an energy intensive process which, Jackson admits, takes in more energy than it produces.
His findings were verified by an online forum of amateur physicists.
“My grandfather taught me how to weld, and a teacher at my school helped,” said Jackson, who accomplished that feat after building a nuclear reactor at his Central Gardens home last year.

Potential in scientific research
Jackson says that he saw that potential in science and scientific research, so that’s where he decided to direct his energy. He started by doing a lot of online reading about important achievements in various fields.
“I came upon a person named Taylor Wilson who was the youngest person to build a nuclear fusion reactor, and to see that someone around my age had actually achieved something like building a nuclear reactor, immediately drew me in. I did weeks of research and I finally decided that that was something I wanted to do.”
Over the next several months, he threw himself into the work of producing nuclear fusion. His DIY project at home began to shape his academic interests at his school, MUS, and he started to think about what he could pick up there that would help him reach his goal. “I started to take in classes that I wouldn’t normally take in, like accelerated math and science, and stuff like that.” One of the first big hurdles, he recalls, was the shopping list.

Star achiever Oswalt
The Fusor Research Consortium currently lists members as fusioneers. However, at his record young age, Oswalt appears to be its star achiever. Jackson says that he saw that potential in science and scientific research, so that’s where he decided to direct his energy. He started by doing a lot of online reading about important achievements in various fields.
Over the next several months, he threw himself into the work of producing nuclear fusion. His DIY project at home began to shape his academic interests at his school, MUS, and he started to think about what he could pick up there that would help him reach his goal. “I started to take in classes that I wouldn’t normally take in, like accelerated math and science, and stuff like that.”
One of the first big hurdles, he recalls, was the shopping list. “Initially, the challenge was getting all the items because these are not necessarily things you’ll find at the hobby store. So after I tracked down all that stuff from eBay mostly, I had to then change some of it to do what I needed it to do. I thought that would be the hardest part of the whole thing, but the hard part turned out to be actually getting it all to work together.”
The start of the process was just learning about what other people had done with their fusion reactors, Oswalt told Fox News. After that he assembled a list of parts he needed. He got those parts off eBay primarily and then often times the parts that he managed to scrounge off of eBay weren’t exactly what he needed. So, he had to modify them to be able to do what he needed to do for his project.
Information on how to build the machine was found online and on January 19 last year, mere hours before his 13th birthday, nuclear fusion was successful. The previous record for the youngest successful mastermind behind a nuclear fusion reactor was held by Taylor Wilson, who achieved it aged 14.

Isotope of hydrogen
Deuterium gas—an isotope of hydrogen—is heated in a plasma core with 50,000 volts of electricity within a vacuum chamber to force the atoms together.
The contraption smashes together atoms with enough force to fuse them into one and create vast amounts of energy and was built in a converted bedroom. Deuterium gas —an isotope of hydrogen—is heated in a plasma core with 50,000 volts of electricity.
The reactor smashes the atoms together by heating them inside an airless plasma core with 50,000 volts of electricity. After inspection of his setup and results, the Fusor Research Consortium recognized Oswalt, now 14, as a “fusioneer” — apparently making him the youngest in the world to reach the goal.

A months-long challenge
Getting the equipment to work properly was a months-long challenge, but “After a while, it became pretty simple to realize how it all worked together…Eventually all those pieces of the puzzle came together to make a good project.”
Oswalt’s parents said that beyond ensuring he protected himself from the dangers of radiation and electrocution by having him consult with experts, they had little understanding of his work.
However, “Being a parent of someone that was as driven as he was for 12 months was really impressive to see,” his father Chris Oswalt said. “It was everyday grinding.”
Fusion is the process by which a gas is heated up and separated into its constituent ions and electrons. It involves light elements, such as hydrogen, smashing together to form heavier elements, such as helium. For fusion to occur, hydrogen atoms are placed under high heat and pressure until they fuse together.

Temperature more than 150 million°C
When deuterium and tritium nuclei – which can be found in hydrogen – fuse, they form a helium nucleus, a neutron and a lot of energy.
This is done by heating the fuel to temperatures in excess of 150 million°C and forming a hot plasma, a gaseous soup of subatomic particles.
Strong magnetic fields are used to keep the plasma away from the reactor’s walls, so that it doesn’t cool down and lose its energy potential.
These fields are produced by superconducting coils surrounding the vessel and by an electrical current driven through the plasma.

Plasma has to be confined
For energy production, plasma has to be confined for a sufficiently long period for fusion to occur.When ions get hot enough, they can overcome their mutual repulsion and collide, fusing together.
When this happens, they release around one million times more energy than a chemical reaction and three to four times more than a conventional nuclear fission reactor.
A similar process, albeit on a far larger scale, is what powers the sun.
This enormous voltage is an energy intensive process which, Jackson admits, takes in more energy than it produces.
The commercial viability of nuclear fusion as a source of electricity remains to be accomplished as all previous attempts are also energy pits.

Those who made similar attempts
A schoolboy from Memphis is believed to be the youngest person to ever build a nuclear fusion reactor.
He completed it when he was just 12 years old.
Jackson Oswalt built the machine from customised vacuums, pumps and chambers bought on eBay by his parents.
It cost the family a total of $10,000 and heats deuterium to a plasma using 50,000 volts of electricity.
Jamie Edwards from Preston was 13 when he built his own nuclear reactor back in 2014.
He said he was inspired after stumbling across videos of the original boy genius – Taylor Wilson.
He was funded in his endeavour with a £3,000 budget from his headteacher.
Taylor Wilson found widespread fame when he built his own nuclear reactor aged 14 in 2008.
The machine was capable of smashing atoms in a plasma core at over 500 million degrees Fahrenheit—40 times hotter than the core of the sun—in his parents’ garage.
He then won a $50,000 prize at a science fair for creating an an anti-terrorism device.
He then skipped college after receiving a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship and has done two TEDTalks.
Before the successes of these geniuses was David Hahn, known as the ‘Radioactive Boy Scout’.
He built a nuclear reactor in his potting shed and shut down a neighbourhood of 40,000 in 1996.
In a bid for a Boy Scout merit badge, David took to his mother’s potting shed and built a breeder reactor. It became so irradiated a neighbour claimed to have seen it glow.
—Internet

Star achiever Oswalt
The Fusor Research Consortium currently lists members as fusioneers. However, at his record young age, Oswalt appears to be its star achiever. Jackson says that he saw that potential in science and scientific research, so that’s where he decided to direct his energy. He started by doing a lot of online reading about important achievements in various fields.
Over the next several months, he threw himself into the work of producing nuclear fusion. His DIY project at home began to shape his academic interests at his school, MUS, and he started to think about what he could pick up there that would help him reach his goal. “I started to take in classes that I wouldn’t normally take in, like accelerated math and science, and stuff like that.”
One of the first big hurdles, he recalls, was the shopping list. “Initially, the challenge was getting all the items because these are not necessarily things you’ll find at the hobby store. So after I tracked down all that stuff from eBay mostly, I had to then change some of it to do what I needed it to do. I thought that would be the hardest part of the whole thing, but the hard part turned out to be actually getting it all to work together.”
The start of the process was just learning about what other people had done with their fusion reactors, Oswalt told Fox News. After that he assembled a list of parts he needed. He got those parts off eBay primarily and then often times the parts that he managed to scrounge off of eBay weren’t exactly what he needed. So, he had to modify them to be able to do what he needed to do for his project.
Information on how to build the machine was found online and on January 19 last year, mere hours before his 13th birthday, nuclear fusion was successful. The previous record for the youngest successful mastermind behind a nuclear fusion reactor was held by Taylor Wilson, who achieved it aged 14.

Isotope of hydrogen
Deuterium gas—an isotope of hydrogen—is heated in a plasma core with 50,000 volts of electricity within a vacuum chamber to force the atoms together.
The contraption smashes together atoms with enough force to fuse them into one and create vast amounts of energy and was built in a converted bedroom. Deuterium gas —an isotope of hydrogen—is heated in a plasma core with 50,000 volts of electricity.
The reactor smashes the atoms together by heating them inside an airless plasma core with 50,000 volts of electricity. After inspection of his setup and results, the Fusor Research Consortium recognized Oswalt, now 14, as a “fusioneer” — apparently making him the youngest in the world to reach the goal.

A months-long challenge
Getting the equipment to work properly was a months-long challenge, but “After a while, it became pretty simple to realize how it all worked together…Eventually all those pieces of the puzzle came together to make a good project.”
Oswalt’s parents said that beyond ensuring he protected himself from the dangers of radiation and electrocution by having him consult with experts, they had little understanding of his work.
However, “Being a parent of someone that was as driven as he was for 12 months was really impressive to see,” his father Chris Oswalt said. “It was everyday grinding.”
Fusion is the process by which a gas is heated up and separated into its constituent ions and electrons. It involves light elements, such as hydrogen, smashing together to form heavier elements, such as helium. For fusion to occur, hydrogen atoms are placed under high heat and pressure until they fuse together.

Temperature more than 150 million°C
When deuterium and tritium nuclei – which can be found in hydrogen – fuse, they form a helium nucleus, a neutron and a lot of energy.
This is done by heating the fuel to temperatures in excess of 150 million°C and forming a hot plasma, a gaseous soup of subatomic particles.
Strong magnetic fields are used to keep the plasma away from the reactor’s walls, so that it doesn’t cool down and lose its energy potential.
These fields are produced by superconducting coils surrounding the vessel and by an electrical current driven through the plasma.

Plasma has to be confined
For energy production, plasma has to be confined for a sufficiently long period for fusion to occur.When ions get hot enough, they can overcome their mutual repulsion and collide, fusing together.
When this happens, they release around one million times more energy than a chemical reaction and three to four times more than a conventional nuclear fission reactor.
A similar process, albeit on a far larger scale, is what powers the sun.
This enormous voltage is an energy intensive process which, Jackson admits, takes in more energy than it produces.
The commercial viability of nuclear fusion as a source of electricity remains to be accomplished as all previous attempts are also energy pits.

Those who made similar attempts
A schoolboy from Memphis is believed to be the youngest person to ever build a nuclear fusion reactor.
He completed it when he was just 12 years old.
Jackson Oswalt built the machine from customised vacuums, pumps and chambers bought on eBay by his parents.
It cost the family a total of $10,000 and heats deuterium to a plasma using 50,000 volts of electricity.
Jamie Edwards from Preston was 13 when he built his own nuclear reactor back in 2014.
He said he was inspired after stumbling across videos of the original boy genius – Taylor Wilson.
He was funded in his endeavour with a £3,000 budget from his headteacher.
Taylor Wilson found widespread fame when he built his own nuclear reactor aged 14 in 2008.
The machine was capable of smashing atoms in a plasma core at over 500 million degrees Fahrenheit—40 times hotter than the core of the sun—in his parents’ garage.
He then won a $50,000 prize at a science fair for creating an an anti-terrorism device.
He then skipped college after receiving a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship and has done two TEDTalks.
Before the successes of these geniuses was David Hahn, known as the ‘Radioactive Boy Scout’.
He built a nuclear reactor in his potting shed and shut down a neighbourhood of 40,000 in 1996.
In a bid for a Boy Scout merit badge, David took to his mother’s potting shed and built a breeder reactor. It became so irradiated a neighbour claimed to have seen it glow.
—Internet