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Offline blobranaTopic starter

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DIY fusion
« on: November 21, 2006, 01:05:24 PM »
On the surface, Thiago Olson is like any typical teenager.
He's on the cross country and track teams at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills. He's a good-looking, clean-cut 17-year-old with a 3.75 grade point average, and he has his eyes fixed on the next big step: college.
But to his friends, Thiago is known as "the mad scientist."
In the basement of his parents' Oakland Township home, tucked away in an area most aren't privy to see, Thiago is exhausting his love of physics on a project that has taken him more than two years and 1,000 hours to research and build -- a large, intricate machine that , on a small scale, creates nuclear fusion.

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Offline bloodline

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2006, 02:58:30 PM »
Yeah... riiiiiiiiiiiiight....
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Offline X-ray

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2006, 04:54:11 PM »
@ Blobzie

If he is indeed a mad scientist then he may be a suitable mate for you   :-)
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Offline PMC

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2006, 09:37:02 PM »
If this guy can get his fusion device to fit under the bonnet of an Alfa Romeo V6 and most importantly make it sound like an Alfa Romeo V6 then I'll buy ten...

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Offline Agafaster

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #4 on: November 22, 2006, 12:28:46 PM »
hey blobrana,
I guess these chaps didnt read more...

I've seen this kid before - it IS a fusion reactor, but its only a demonstrator, and is only REALLY useful for generating a neutron flux, as a by product of the fusion.

IIRC its a farnsworth fusor...
-edit-
yup ! it is! (just read.)

the article is misleading about the waste products, D+D will ALWAYS produce neutrons.
now- p+B11 (proton + Boron-11) is more interesting...
3 alpha particles + energy; could be used to generate electricity relying on the double positive charge of the ejected alphas nicking electrons from the vessel's metal wall creating a potential difference...
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Offline blobranaTopic starter

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #5 on: November 23, 2006, 12:42:19 PM »
Hum,
the deuterium is the difficult one  to separate, with all the hassle of  distilling at different boiling points, but luckily i think you can get it  via mail-order. Which i presume is exactly what the teenager did.

However just creating a neutron machine is still a long way short of  producing an overall gain in practical energy via fusion.
But it is early days yet i guess.
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Offline Agafaster

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #6 on: November 23, 2006, 02:07:17 PM »
Quote

blobrana wrote:
Hum,
the deuterium is the difficult one  to separate, with all the hassle of  distilling at different boiling points, but luckily i think you can get it  via mail-order. Which i presume is exactly what the teenager did.


well I wouldnt fancy trying it!!
I think the BPs of H2O and D2O are only a fraction of a degree apart - I guess the easiest (but least productive) method would be to split the water, and use the mass/charge ratio to good effect in a spectrometer - but what would you gain? not a lot!

incidentally I watched The Heroes of Telemark the other day.
good film!

Quote

However just creating a neutron machine is still a long way short of  producing an overall gain in practical energy via fusion.
But it is early days yet i guess.


indeed, but the neutrons really are the big problem facing current fusion research - degradation of the supporting structures by neutron irradiation, and actually getting the energy locked up in those pesky neutrons to name but two!

wouldnt it be nice if there were a reaction that didnt produce them, but produced only charged particles ? ;-)
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Offline Karlos

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #7 on: November 23, 2006, 03:34:08 PM »
Quote

Agafaster wrote:

wouldnt it be nice if there were a reaction that didnt produce them, but produced only charged particles ? ;-)


D + He-3 -> He-4 + H ?

(couldnae get superscript working to represent it properly)

Pity about Helium 3 being as rare as hens teeth...
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Offline metalman

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #8 on: November 24, 2006, 01:20:13 AM »
@Karlos
Quote
rare as hens teeth...


Hens' Teeth Not So Rare After All

Hens Teeth


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Offline Karlos

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2006, 12:37:47 PM »
Quote

metalman wrote:
@Karlos
Quote
rare as hens teeth...


Hens' Teeth Not So Rare After All

Hens Teeth




I was going to say "rocking horse sh*t", but I already have a link for that one :lol:

Helium 3 is pretty damn rare. Short of "gas mining" Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune, you aren't going to get serious commercial quantities of the stuff.

That said, some people think the moon might be a source having been blasted with the solar wind for several billion years...
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Offline Agafaster

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #10 on: November 27, 2006, 02:24:36 PM »
Quote

Karlos wrote:
Quote

Agafaster wrote:

wouldnt it be nice if there were a reaction that didnt produce them, but produced only charged particles ? ;-)


D + He-3 -> He-4 + H ?

(couldnae get superscript working to represent it properly)

Pity about Helium 3 being as rare as hens teeth...


yeah, but

D + D -> He3 + n / T + p (roughly even split)
He3 + T -> He4 + n
not to mention the other 2nd order reactions - you have to watch the potentials, and these reactions occur at roughly the same energy potential.

what I actually suggest is

p + B11 -> He4 + He4 + He4
by producing an excited C12 which emits an alpha, leaving a Be8 which quickly splits into two alphas since 8 nucleons arent allowed.
even then, you get side reactions involving B10 (the other isotope) impurities, and D impurities in the hydrogen, causing neutrons, but admittedly way less than the D + D reaction.

the trouble is that the energy potentials are [color=0000ff]Yooje !![/color][/b][/i]

...but it could be done in an Electrostatic Confinement process or using plasma focus looky here...
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Offline Agafaster

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #11 on: November 27, 2006, 02:26:32 PM »
quote]
metalman wrote:
@Karlos
Quote
rare as hens teeth...


Hens' Teeth Not So Rare After All

Hens Teeth


[/quote]

thats cheating! ones a mutant, the other is scientists messing around manipulating and experimenting...
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Offline metalman

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #12 on: November 28, 2006, 04:23:30 AM »
Quote

Agafaster wrote:
quote]
metalman wrote:
@Karlos
Quote
rare as hens teeth...


Hens' Teeth Not So Rare After All

Hens Teeth




thats cheating! ones a mutant, the other is scientists messing around manipulating and experimenting...[/quote]

"a naturally occurring mutant"  :lol:
 
 "All's fair in love and war" :  Machiavelli's Clizia
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Offline Agafaster

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Re: DIY fusion
« Reply #13 on: November 30, 2006, 03:11:24 PM »
well, to be fair, thats how my missus refers to the male gender...
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