
“I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA” - lsllc
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4tgsaz/iama_i_built_a_fusion_reactor_in_my_bedroom_ama/
======
sthatipamala
This kid is awesome but this particular comment really made me sad:

"Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not
help my grades. My counselor told me that I wouldn't get into the top colleges
because of this reason. I believed her and didn't apply to my dream colleges."

~~~
nlh
And at least from my experience, that is wrong wrong wrong.

I was a solidly B student in high school, but I had some extracurriculars (not
quite building fusion reactors) that I devoted an absurd amount of time to and
excelled at. And I got into MIT.

~~~
fletchowns
I would have to imagine these days average high school GPA for incoming
freshman to MIT is > 4.0

~~~
jsprogrammer
No need to imagine. It has been sampled and estimated: < 4.0 [0]

'04-'05 seems to be the last year MIT reported high school GPA's [1]; probably
because the number is meaningless.

[0] [http://www.acceptancerate.com/schools/massachusetts-
institut...](http://www.acceptancerate.com/schools/massachusetts-institute-of-
technology)

[1]
[http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/2005/c.html](http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/2005/c.html)

------
tristanj
A video of their reactor setup, including a part where they prep and run it.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92M5qcjDkaU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92M5qcjDkaU)

~~~
themartorana
This is great. A couple of high school kids just blew me away. I had to look
up safe radiation levels after watching their Geiger counter. (Apparent
answer: that's a lot of radiation, but a pretty short exposure.)

Side note: the view of the hills and mountains from the reactor room is
gorgeous.

~~~
tristanj
> _Side note: the view of the hills and mountains from the reactor room is
> gorgeous._

Agreed. The twins' fusor.net profile says the they live in Berkeley, CA, a
suburb across the bay from San Francisco. At 1min into the video I'm fairly
the shot is from Berkeley looking across the bay to San Francisco. The
mountains in the background look like the ones just south of San Francisco.

If you head a bit farther up the hill from where they say they live, the view
is quite pretty:
[https://simplyrunningonfaith.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/img...](https://simplyrunningonfaith.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/img_0751.jpg)

Actually now I think about it the city of Berkeley passed an ordinance
declaring it a Nuclear-free zone, so I wonder if this project is legal.

~~~
pmiller2
AFAICT, berkeley's nuclear free ordinance only covers weapons research and
development.

~~~
etjossem
The intent of the ordinance is also "to prohibit nuclear reactors." [1] No
person shall operate or build a nuclear reactor the City of Berkeley, and that
would probably include this project.

That's not to say I agree with it. Berkeley has long been a hub of unhealthy
NIMBYism, and this law is a leftover from the Cold War. I'd like to see that
change.

[1]
[http://www.codepublishing.com/CA/Berkeley/cgi/NewSmartCompil...](http://www.codepublishing.com/CA/Berkeley/cgi/NewSmartCompile.pl?path=Berkeley12/Berkeley1290/Berkeley1290.html)

------
ChuckMcM
I read these things and I smile because the stories will help others step
outside their self imposed limitations and do things. When I was growing up I
had a number of people who allowed me to dream big things and try them out
when others would consider them too much work or too crazy. I got there by
reading stories about some of the earliest inventors of our time and their
home spun laboratories.

There is a lot you can do with a supportive family.

~~~
50CNT
I had a strict no "high-anything" rule for my basement bedroom. No high
temperatures, no high voltages, no high amperages, no high velocity, no high
pressure, no high vacuum, no high anything :(. At least I made my desktop
sound like a jet engine, so that's something.

~~~
naasking
At least you can still experiment with vacuum pressures!

~~~
foobarian
Liquid nitrogen here we come!

------
kriro
I have to wonder if college is actually the right choice altogether. The
brothers basically learned everything on their own and most importantly
actually shipped. Seems like a solid investment for some tech company to just
offer them a job doing whatever research work they want for a year or two and
seeing how it goes. Supposedly there's a job shortage in tech...here's an
opportunity to sign a couple of HS students that build a reactor (and some
other cool things) for kicks. I mean yeah sure they didn't build a fancy
webapp but surely people at Tesla, Google whoever read Reddit.

The pros for college are access to lab stuff and some smart people + what you
learn. I believe they can do the learning on their own just fine and well
access to cool tech toys is also readily available at most tech
companies...and there's also a lot of smart people around.

------
eggy
I made a lengthy comment below about my son, but now after watching the
YouTube video, I am sad I do not have the resources to let him have such
equipment.

My son pulls off some cool experiments all on his own (I stay out of it apart
from the phone call consultation, or YouTube video call) with salvage and
other workarounds, with the money he earns and my contributions.

These brothers have a freakin' mini-Tony-Stark lab in their house! Good for
them and their parents. I like to see money spent this way rather than
traveling team sports and uniforms. My take is sciency types, aka nerds,
indulge more in solitary sports - rock climbing, skating, biking if they have
time away from building a frigging nuclear fusion reactor in the bedroom!

~~~
facepalm
Don't fret - constraints can be a boon, too, making your son more creative. It
is not really important to build a fusion reactor, you can just as well build
other cool things that cost less.

Or you can learn business and marketing skills, which you will need anyway if
you want to do something great.

For example, your son could set up some sort of Kickstarter collecting money
for his fusion reactor. Or get in touch with universities asking for help. And
so on.

I mean I agree that resources make a difference - for example I have heard
many science project winners actually had help and got to use their parents
labs. But don't let it dissuade you, don't give up.

~~~
eggy
Thanks guys. This is why I visit HN regularly to read and hear others, and
voice my own humanity.

He started down the Kickstarter, Patreon road, but after a slew of failed and
negative stories this past year on unfulfilled projects, angry supporters, he
decided to go it his own.

He does juice out as much as he can with what he has to overcome any given
constraints, but that only goes so far. Believe me, I am now living in the
rice fields of East Java, and sometimes no amount of time or creative thinking
wins the day for certain things out here (lack of cobra anti-venom, or time to
get it). I do enjoy the challenge though, and have done some cool stuff on a
shoe-string budget.

He's starting his won business fixing things people otherwise throw out - The
ReAnimators! (not of the Lovecraftian movie). Sort of like the old TV/Radio
repair shops that are gone. The business would not be too viable years back,
but there is a lot of movement this way - the environment, built-in
obsolescence (which is now being challenged by consumer groups and repair-
oriented companies in court), and the joy of keeping the old piece of junk you
are comfy with!

------
yeahwhatever10
Stuff like this always reminds me of this kid (adult now):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Wilson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Wilson)

~~~
glfharris
It's the same group, and probably very similar devices. the fusor.net website
is a community for building these things and has loads of plans and tips.

~~~
hooo
Do you know of site that has a directory of such forums? I find these forums
of experts very fascinating but not that easy to find.

------
jaytaylor
This is pretty neat, and I managed easily located plans for a DIY fusion
reactor at home [0]. I'm curious if OP's build differs from these plans, and
if so, how/why.

Digging into the wikipedia article I found this interesting/surprising:

Recent Developments [1]:

 _" Most recently, the fusor has gained popularity among amateurs, who choose
them as home projects due to their relatively low space, money, and power
requirements. An online community of "fusioneers", The Open Source Fusor
Research Consortium, or Fusor.net, is dedicated to reporting developments in
the world of fusors and aiding other amateurs in their projects. The site
includes forums, articles and papers done on the fusor, including Farnsworth's
original patent, as well as Hirsch's patent of his version of the invention."_

Apparently there's an entire online community of amateur home nuclear reactor
builders [2].

[0] [http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-
Reactor/](http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-A-Fusion-Reactor/)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor#Recent_developments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor#Recent_developments)

[2] [http://www.fusor.net/](http://www.fusor.net/)

~~~
glfharris
fusor.net is the hub for these things, it's really quite an impressive
resource. He says in the AMA he's registered there.

------
chrisbennet
Reminds me of Phineas and Ferb:

"Aren't you a little young to be building a nuclear reactor?"

"Yes, yes we are."

------
stanlarroque
This is so great to see young people accomplish such greatness, compared to
world news lately

------
eggy
Amazing work by this young man! My children will love this.

My son and daughter are both doing well, but my son loves to experiment
outside of school.

I have been encouraging my son to experiment and learn, and he has taken it to
a higher level than I had imagined. I have bought him a telescope, and a 3D
printer over the years. He works for his own equipment and supplies too. More
each year.

Some of his experiments or demonstrations are recreated and slightly modified
YouTube projects, and others are very original. I always tell him that being
able to duplicate somebody else's work is good practice to learn proper rigor
and familiarity with equipment and practices.

He is now a senior in high school, maintaining an A+ (>= 95) average in honor
and AP classes. He won best Chemistry project in the whole county.

His biggest complaint is the amount of homework schools still dish out,
several hours (3 to 4) each night. It takes away from his self-teaching and
experimentation. Disclaimer: I am not too keen on public or institutionalized
education. I think you learn more by doing projects that tie-in various
disciplines, and accordingly I dropped out of college in the 80s to follow my
passions. I've done well for myself considering I grew up below the poverty
line when I was younger.

I was smelting metals in the 90s in my rural backyard without the internet or
YouTube, and playing with TV cathode ray tubes in the late 70s. The former I
could not have done where I grew up in Brooklyn, the latter was good to do
most anywhere while tube sets were still around ;) I once tied the negative
lead of a 9 volt DC transformer to my then sick Mom's big toe, and the other
to a potted fern with copiously-watered soil, and then touched her same top
foot with a connecting lead from the plant! Yes, stupid, but I was 10, and I
had just read Frankenstein. Plus my parents were very positive about my
inquisitive nature and doings. Mom passed in her older years, but never forgot
the incident in a proud way.

My son is thinking on going to Germany for school due to the quality of
education, and the fact that it is now free (almost, minus taxes and other
expenses) for foreigners as well as citizens. He is also considering just
starting on his own after high school, since he has acquired my distaste for
institutionalized learning. The short of this bias: age-segregation, broken
curriculum, non-integrated areas of study, homework and memorization over
problem solving, etc. You can't even do certain experiments in school because
they are considered too dangerous, or inappropriate. I do not try and push him
too much either way. My ex-wife, is more conservative, and is hoping he will
go to university.

Time will tell...

~~~
sn9
Your son may enjoy universities with project-based curricula like Olin
College.

~~~
eggy
Thanks for helping me pull my head out of my ass. I never heard of Olin; I'll
check it for sure.

It looks like a great school!

------
thefastlane
"living things should not be within 35 feet as x-ray radiation is quite high"

hopefully this is a house in a low-density suburb and not an apartment.
amazing achievement, but at the same time very dangerous to be generating
x-rays out of your bedroom.

~~~
vinceguidry
He probably didn't actually run it in his bedroom, just built it there.

~~~
themartorana
Um...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92M5qcjDkaU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92M5qcjDkaU)

(From another top-level comment.)

~~~
vinceguidry
Yeah, after I posted, I saw a comment saying his mom would leave the house
whenever he wanted to run a test. Crazy.

~~~
enraged_camel
On the other hand, that's one hell of a mom. I figure most moms these days
would shut the project down from the get-go.

------
frik
Let's hope there is some supervison.

There had been kids who built atomic reactor in their parents house and garden
shed. Needless to say it's nowadays a superfund site and some people suffer
from poising and radioactive materials. I think there is even a documentary
about the boy scout guy who built a atomic reactor and afaik it was on HN
before.

[disclaimer: While the reaction vacuum chamber seen in the video can be found
at universities and is certainly less harmful than an open atomic reactor (see
real boy scout guy story from above), it never the less involves substances
that have to be handled with great care]

Edit: the boy scout guy David Hahn built an radiactive reactor at home, he was
17 years:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn)

~~~
zamalek
That was most likely a fission reactor.

In this case it is a deuterium-deuterium fusion reactor and both the fuel and
the waste (helium 3) are pretty safe to handle. The device is only radioactive
while it is operating.

That being said, he did say that he got tons of help from professors so at the
very least he knows exactly how to remain safe.

------
sbierwagen
He made it into the Neutron Club, people who have generated neutrons from
fusion reactions:
[http://www.fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=13](http://www.fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=13)

------
archagon
Wow! I wonder what exact steps are involved in getting from "I want to build a
fusion reactor" to actually having a working prototype in your room. He
mentions fusor.net; am I right in assuming that there are entire communities
dedicated to building this kind of stuff? What is their history? How did they
get started? Were they around before the internet? Fascinating!

------
etruong42
Hypothetically, if you were the parent of such a child (or such an adult
offspring), how should you make sure that they stay safe if what they are
working on is beyond your capacity to evaluate?

------
fapjacks
I wish I had grown up in an environment flush with resources for this kind of
thing.

------
pitchups
The link is returning a 503 error: "all of our servers are busy right now.
please try again in a minute"

Looks like the Fusion Reactor story caused a meltdown of Reddit's servers :)

~~~
mcescalante
Was probably a hiccup, the AMA loads fine for me now, and I'm on free airplane
wifi :)

------
amelius
Who backed these guys financially? And how much did they spend?

~~~
nbclark
The AMA says 6k. They got it from working part-time and family

------
cwkoss
Amazing accomplishment from such a young team.

------
b34r
I'm mostly concerned that he's going to get sick from improper shielding or
something.

------
blazespin
Creating a neutron generators is pretty trivial. Get some pyro electric
crystal and apply heat. pyroelectric fusion nuetron genrator.

------
Kinnard
Maybe add a "Show HN: "

~~~
c22
This looks more like a "Show reddit".

------
clarkrinker
In before "is it energy neutral?"

~~~
throwanem
It's a Farnsworth fusor, of course it's not. It's an enormous accomplishment
for a couple of high school kids all the same - kind of makes you think of
_Rocket Ship Galileo_ , minus the moon Nazis.

~~~
2muchcoffeeman
When people see something like this, I think they immediately think of Tony
Stark, or the Wright Brothers. Something quite romanticized. This teenage is
probably smarter than I am, but he's not breaking even in his bedroom.

He also mentions building a laser.

> _a wood burning CO2 laser turret_

I'd be interested in the details about that. I did some research about what it
would take to build a basic laser years and years ago, but gave up when I saw
the kind of chemicals I'd need to handle. I wasn't confident I could deal with
the chemicals correctly in my tiny apartment.

~~~
detaro
I've looked into that as well. There are a bunch of lasers that are DIY-able,
and AFAIK dye-based lasers are the only ones that really require "chemicals".

TEA lasers are basically just a few pieces of metal and high-voltage, seen
them at high-school level quite a few times:
[http://www.sparkbangbuzz.com/tealaser/tealaser7.htm](http://www.sparkbangbuzz.com/tealaser/tealaser7.htm)

CO2 lasers are relatively complex and are easiest if you buy some parts
readymade, but can be completely homebuild as well:
[http://jarrodkinsey.org/co2laser/co2laser.html](http://jarrodkinsey.org/co2laser/co2laser.html)

There are tons of ressources online, a good overviw over different
possibilities and basic information can be found here:
[http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserfaq.htm#faqtoc](http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserfaq.htm#faqtoc)

------
stevecalifornia
If they weren't doing this in a suburb I'd say 'Congrats'\-- but to knowingly
be generating x-rays in a residential neighborhood is really, really selfish
and disrespectful to neighbors.

~~~
gnoway
I think this is overstating the risk a little bit.

Looking at the video linked elsewhere, this was run in a bedroom on the second
or even third floor of a single-family residence. He mentions not being able
to detect x-rays more than 35ft from the device. I think a neighbor would have
to be trying to get in range to be affected.

Here's the video again, queued up to the view out the bedroom window:
[https://youtu.be/92M5qcjDkaU?t=1m5s](https://youtu.be/92M5qcjDkaU?t=1m5s)

~~~
zamalek
One of the the few times where the inverse square law is helpful.

~~~
hexane360
Reminds me of this: [https://what-if.xkcd.com/29/](https://what-
if.xkcd.com/29/)

What's lethal at 3 inches probably isn't measurable at 50 feet.

