homemade fusor (nuclear fusion reactor) - neutron and x-ray radiation, silver activation

[StiloNautica]

pretty cool!!

[SignatureCha0s]

What did you use for achieving that vacuum? My fusor along with the vacuum pumps can only get a 10^4 torr vacuum

[seanp1129]

Can you give a brief rundown on some of the equipment in the tower on the left of the reactor? I couldn't figure out what some of the electronics were.

[SanfranciscoUB]

You handle so much radioactive things due to your work I guess. I heard that if one play with so much radiation he/she would have cancer. I see you've got 2 year old videos playing with radiation. What is the purpose of putting yourself in this great danger?!

[bionerd23]

@SanfranciscoUB

1. evidence to disbelieve in the danger

2. curiosity

3. fun! life should be fun!

4. consider it a life-long experiment on hormesis. we'll find out if i get cancer sooner or later, i suppose. but maybe, i'll just die of a car accident before i can even get cancer. who knows? time will tell.

[cortexedge]

I think you wanted to write 0.025MeV

[tvalerianopereira]

Nice hands

[msounderson]

Neutron activation;-)

[Fusiontron]

Awesome. I'm looking to make one of my own.

[meagain2222]

I am very impressed with your instrumentation and control.

You are taking this very seriously.

The question really is can the fusor produce practical amounts of heat

energy?What about cold fusion?

[bionerd23]

@meagain2222

as i stated in the video, this is not my fusor. and, well... it's an experiment rather than a power plant, but it does produce sufficient heat to melt its own electrodes if run for too long or at too high voltages (~100kV = runtime of much less than a minute, or the reactor's inner electrode melts).

[vmelkon]

Homemade? That is hard to believe.

[infyrno917]

Love the video, it is very informative. If you're playing with high vacuum technology, why not attempt an electron microscope build? or maybe even a hard x-ray generator/laser? The Farnsworth fusor is neat and all, but without any He4 I don't see any practical use other than the learning experience.

[tnwnl]

Awesome! Especially the part where the guy operating the fusor holds his counter past the shielding... only noise :P

Also liked the demonstration of silver activation!

[lollazers]

I want to build a fusor now =o

So what would happen if you activated a fissile material like DU? Would it contribute neutrons back to the reaction?

And some guy mentioned 5 Sv at the chamber wall? That's hot. No, really.

[bionerd23]

@lollazers

depleted uranium is another word for uranium 238, and that is not fissile material. however, bombarding it with fast neutrons would result in U-238 -> neutron capture -> U-239 -> beta-decay -> Np-239 -> beta-decay -> Pu-239. it produces plutonium, and as has been done in "fast breeder reactors".

bombaring fissile U-235 with thermal neutrons would result in fission and additional neutrons, however.

[lollazers]

@bionerd23 Er crap, I got fissile and fissionable mixed up. But I guess that wouldn't work if you need both fast and thermal neutrons.

[dispatcher7007]

@bionerd23:

Careful! U238 may undergo fission with neutrons well above 1MeV, too. Would never sustain a chainreaction, thought...

[AskHack]

I need that and a 50 megawatt generator for my time warp experiment.

[antiprotons]

Yet again, you have the most wonderful videos on the entire web concerning radiation! Wonderful job!!!

Please continue!

[tarrasque420]

Cool nice. Am I understanding this correctly? H2 + H2 -> He4 now if I only knew how to transmute lead into gold.

[bionerd23]

@tarrasque420

yes, H2+H2-> He4, and then either (gamma) -> He4, or (proton) H3, or - most common - (neutron) He3.

lead into gold could be difficult. but you could transform platinum into gold. however, that would be stupid, same as transmuting iridium into platinum. personally, i prefer making mercury out of gold, as i prefer mercury over gold. :P

[lollazers]

@tarrasque420 A lot of isotopes you can make with neutron bombardment are worth a lot more than gold; ie tritium is worth $30k USD per gram. Which is why these are all D-D fusion and not D-T... though I don't think a fusor has the neutron flux to produce anything in quantity and you'd probably need to go through a lengthy approval and licensing process with the NRC anyway (or you'll get visited by the party van)

[josh2utube]

Very nice demonstration. Thank you.

[anthonyj777]

Great video! 

[Tatzelbrumm]

Is' ja ein bisschen blöd, daß Du ausgerechnet während des Chaos Communication Camp (mit Detektor-Workshop) nach USA fliegst ...

[Tatzelbrumm]

Let me rephrase my last question. Did you visit Disneyland? Seems to be close to ... the name of the rose stem. (first have a sunkist drink then play ball)

[bionerd23]

@Tatzelbrumm

i didnt like the idea of visiting disneyland, but i've been to "great america". :)

[Tatzelbrumm]

So where in the San Francisco Bay Area is this fusion reactor located? How close is it to noisebridge (2169 Mission Street) is it?

[modgemtb]

what do you do to to actually extract the atom from the silver , I just can't figure it out

[Numericana]

Hi, Illy. Nice video on a great topic !

However, your pressure seems off by a factor of 1000 or so.

In the vacuum trade, a "micron" is a micrometer of mercury or (very slighyly more than) a millitorr (mTorr) NOT a microtorr. One pascal (Pa) is about 7.5 microns. You probably mean 1 or 0,1 micron, which is already an impressive vacuum. I'd have a tough time believing your figure of 0.001 or 0.0001 micron ;-)

[bionerd23]

@Numericana

sorry if that was a bit confusing. 10^-7 torr is the pressure after initially removing the gas / air in the fusor.

AFTER admission of *deuterium*, it is indeed in the *militorr* range. :)

[megahosters]

You realize bionerd you will probably get cancer at an early age from all the radiation exposure you lend yourself to.

[Tatzelbrumm]

@megahosters the proper citation for such a warning is xkcd #896

[megahosters]

@Tatzelbrumm What chew talkin bout willis?

[RFjunk]

at first I thought you were drawing nipples.. just sayin

[ms3bani]

sooooooo jealous!! you get access to the coolest toys :D

[HipHopKiller94]

but... will it blend ?

[urmo345]

Now, can it make my pot of noodles boil?

[10mintwo]

Pfffft, come to the east coast to see a REAL fusion reactor at 10^14 N and 5 Sv doses at the chamber wall. :))

Seriously though, this guy has a really nice setup. It's not surprising he holds the record for n production on an IEC reactor.

[viciokas1993]

You know what you should check out? A radioactive Tritium watch :D

[SuperFinGuy]

Woh nice, the guy actually used a porcelain insulator.

[twostringguitar]

You always have such interesting videos.

[psalmsofplanets0722]

dont worry, i always handle these radioactive substances carefully when im at home. Just kidding i swallowed my Am 241 from my fire detector

[slapleatheru3]

Very informative.

[ytmachx]

Cool video! I think that reactor looks a little better than "homemade"

[bionerd23]

@ytmachx

that'll be a compliment to the constructor, who happens to be a mechanic. :)

[TheChemlife]

@ytmachx no that's usually what the homemade ones look like. By the the look of it though the guy did a great job and has a nice setup

[ytmachx]

@TheChemlife Really now? Who of you has ever seen the equipment and machinery in anyone's HOME to make this?????

Let us call it what it is. It is an amature built......

[TheChemlife]

@ytmachx my friend in the states built one at home and I'm in the process of building one. Other some outsourcing for some machine work and welding, it's all done at home