Building a homemade nuclear reactor in NYC

[n2doc]

By Matthew Danzico
BBC News, Brooklyn, New York



Many might be alarmed to learn of a homemade nuclear reactor being built next door. But what if this form of extreme DIY could help solve the world's energy crisis?

By day, Mark Suppes is a web developer for fashion giant Gucci. By night, he cycles to a New York warehouse and tinkers with his own nuclear fusion reactor.

The warehouse is a non-descript building on a tree-lined Brooklyn street, across the road from blocks of apartments, with a grocery store on one corner. But in reality, it is a lab.

In a hired workshop on the third floor, a high-pitched buzz emanates from a corner dotted with metal scraps and ominous-looking machinery, as Mr Suppes fires up his device and searches for the answer to a question that has eluded some of the finest scientific minds on the planet.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_and_canada/10385853.stm

[aquart]

1. FUSION? He built a fusion reactor?????

That idiot Stephen Davis doesn't know there's a difference between fission and fusion. I have no idea why the MSM was trying to scare me with that "nuclear reactor" talk.

Article doesn't say anything about making it cost effective.

[Xithras]

2. Most of histories greatest inventions have come out of someones garage.

A nation without inventors has no future. A nation where all of the inventors are owned by the corporations has no freedom.

Small inventors are an essential part of a free society. I'm glad to see this guy, and others like him, pursuing their ideas.

[saras]

3. Number 39

He's actually the thirty-ninth private citizen to successfully build a fusion reactor, not the first.

And as long as corporations refuse to fund research that might lead to unprofitable, though useful, results, this is the only way science IS going to get done.

[trotsky]

4. Well I should hope someone's working on this.

We only have 5 years left before we need to have these available:

[pokerfan]

5. Inertial Electrostatic Confinement

Originally invented by Philo Farnsworth (the inventor of electronic television). The trick is developing one that generates net positive energy.

Hopes at the time were high that it could be quickly developed into a practical source of fusion power. However, as with other fusion experiments, development into a generator has proven difficult. Nevertheless, the fusor has since become a practical neutron source and is produced commercially for this role. It has been assembled in low-power forms by hobbyists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor

[Occulus]

6. The IEC design was refined by Bussard

and is currently in development by a Navy-funded lab in Santa Fe. Bussard was confident- absolutely convinced- that his calculations showed that the power output and gain would scale with ever-larger devices.

If the scaling laws are shown to be true (and they're on their eighth experimental device, having met all previous scientific goals), we will have a commercially-viable fusion reactor design.

[LongTomH]

7. There seems to be a whole subculture working on this!

Take a look at Fusor.net, the website for amateur fusion experimenters. I have some skepticism about fusion as a possible energy source; but, I find this absolutely fascinating.