List of fusor examples

The following is a list of fusor examples, examples of the fusor-type nuclear fusion reactor that uses inertial electrostatic confinement

Professional

Fusors have been theoretically studied at multiple institutions, including: Kyoto University, ^[1] and Kyushu University. ^[2] Researchers meet annually at the US-Japan Workshop on Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion. The following is a list of machines that were actually built.

• Tokyo Institute of Technology has four IEC devices of different shapes: a spherical machine, a cylindrical device, a co-axial double cylinder and a magnetically assisted device. ^[3]
• University of Wisconsin-Madison A group at Wisconsin-Madison has been running a very large, funded, fusor program since 1991. ^[4]
• Turkish Atomic Energy Authority In 2013 this team built a 30 cm fusor at the Saraykoy Nuclear Research and Training center in Turkey. This fusor can reach 85 kV and do deuterium fusion, producing 2.4×10⁴ neutrons per second. ^[5]
• University of Illinois Dr. George Miley's team at the fusion studies laboratory has built a ~25 cm fusor which has produced 1×10⁷ neutrons per second using deuterium gas. ^[6]
• University of Sydney Dr. Joseph Khachan's group in the Department of Physics has built a variety of IEC devices in both positive and negative polarities and spherical and cylindrical geometries. ^[7]
• Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Researchers at Shahid Beheshti University in Iran have built a 60 cm diameter fusor which can produce 1×10⁷ neutrons per second at 140 kV using deuterium gas. ^[8]
• Los Alamos National Laboratory In the late nineties, researchers purposed ^[9] and built a fusor-like system for oscillating plasma, inside a fusor. This device is known as the Periodically Oscillating Plasma Sphere or POPS. ^[10]
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology For his doctoral thesis in 2007, Carl Dietrich built a fusor and studied its potential use in spacecraft propulsion. ^[11] In addition, Tom McGuire did his thesis ^{[12] [13]} on fusors with multiple cages and ion guns.
• ITT Corporation Hirschs original machine was a 17.8 cm diameter machine with 150 kV voltage drop across it.^{[ citation needed ]} This machine used ion beams.
• Phoenix Nuclear Labs has developed a commercial neutron source based on a fusor, achieving 3×10¹¹ neutrons per second with the deuterium-deuterium fusion reaction.^{[ citation needed ]}

Amateur

Taylor Wilson presenting fusor work to Barack Obama, February 7, 2012

A number of amateurs have built working fusors and detected neutrons. Many fusor enthusiasts connect on forums ^[14] and message boards online. Below are some examples of working fusors.

• Richard Hull Since the late nineties, Richard Hull has built several fusors in his home in Richmond, Virginia. ^[15] In March 1999, he achieved a neutron rate of 10×10⁵ neutrons per second. ^[16] Hull maintains a list of amateurs who have detected neutrons from fusors.
• Carl Greninger Founded the Northwest Nuclear Consortium, ^[17] an organization in Washington state which teaches a class of a dozen high school students nuclear engineering principles using a 60 kV fusor. ^[18]
• Taylor Wilson built a Fusor at 14 years old in 2008. ^{[19] [20]}
• Jackson Oswalt built a Fusor at 12 years age in 2018. He is youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion as described by Guinness World Records ^[21]
• Matthew Honickman Was a high school student who built a working fusor in his basement in Rochester, New York. ^[22]
• Michael Li In 2003, Michael Li became the youngest person to date to build a fusor, winning second place ^[23] in the US Intel Science Talent Search winning a $75,000 college scholarship. ^[16]
• Mark Suppes A web designer for Gucci in Brooklyn New York, built a working fusor on a path to building the first amateur Polywell. ^{[24] [25]}
• Thiago David Olson Built a 40 kV fusor at age 17, in his home in Rochester, Michigan and placed second in the International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007. ^{[26] [27] [28]}
• Jamie Edwards who fused the atom at 13, at his middle school in England. ^[29] He received a letter from the Duke of York, was invited on The David Letterman Show and gave a TED talk. ^[30]
• Conrad Farnsworth of Newcastle, Wyoming produced fusion in 2011 at 17 ^{[31] [32]} and used this to win a regional and state science fair.

References

1. Ohnishi, Masami; Hoshino, Chikara; Yoshikawa, Kiyoshi; Masuda, Kai; Yamamoto, Yasushi (February 2000). "Beam optics in inertial electrostatic confinement fusion". Review of Scientific Instruments. 71 (2): 1210–1212. Bibcode:2000RScI...71.1210O. doi:10.1063/1.1150430.
2. Matsuura, H.; Takaki, T.; Funakoshi, K.; Nakao, Y.; Kudo, K. (2000). "Ion distribution function and radial profile of neutron production rate in spherical inertial electrostatic confinement plasmas". Nuclear Fusion. 40 (12): 1951–1954. doi:10.1088/0029-5515/40/12/101. S2CID   250801202.
3. Hotta, Eiki (7 October 2013). Overview of IEC Research at Tokyo Tech (PDF). 15th annual US-Japan IEC workshop. Kyoto, Japan. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 December 2013.
4. Ashley, R.P.; Kulcinski, G.L.; Santarius, J.F.; Murali, S.K.; Piefer, G. (1999). D-/sup 3/He fusion in an inertial electrostatic confinement device. 18th IEEE/NPSS Symposium on Fusion Engineering. Albuquerque, NM. doi:10.1109/FUSION.1999.849787.
5. Bölükdemir, A.S.; Akgün, Y.; Alaçakır, A. (2013). "Preliminary Results of Experimental Studies from Low Pressure Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Device". Journal of Fusion Energy. 32 (5): 561–565. Bibcode:2013JFuE...32..561B. doi:10.1007/s10894-013-9607-z. S2CID   120272975.
6. Miley, George H. (1999). "A portable neutron/tunable X-ray source based on inertial electrostatic confinement". Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment. 422 (1–3): 16–20. Bibcode:1999NIMPA.422...16M. doi:10.1016/S0168-9002(98)01108-5.
7. "Overview of IEC at the University of Sydney" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-18.
8. Damideh, V. (11 June 2011). "Experimental Study of the Iranian Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Device as a Continuous Neutron Generator". Journal of Fusion Energy. 31 (2): 109–111. doi:10.1007/s10894-011-9438-8. S2CID   254651166.
9. "Stable, thermal equilibrium, large-amplitude, spherical plasma oscillations in electrostatic confinement devices", DC Barnes and Rick Nebel, PHYSICS OF PLASMAS VOLUME 5, NUMBER 7 JULY 1998
10. Barnes, D.C.; Chacón, L.; Finn, J.M. (November 2002). "Equilibrium and low-frequency stability of a uniform density, collisionless, spherical Vlasov system". Physics of Plasmas. 9 (11): 4448–4464. Bibcode:2002PhPl....9.4448B. doi:10.1063/1.1510667.
11. Dietrich, Carl (2007). Improving particle confinement in inertial electrostatic fusion for spacecraft power and propulsion (Ph.D. thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. hdl:1721.1/39702.
12. McGuire, Thomas John (February 2007). Improved Lifetimes and Synchronization Behavior in Multi-grid Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Devices (Ph.D. thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. hdl:1721.1/38527.
13. McGuire, Thomas; Sedwick, Raymond (21 July 2008). Numerical Predictions of Enhanced Ion Confinement in a Multi-grid IEC Device. 44th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit. Hartford, Connecticut. doi:10.2514/6.2008-4675.
14. "Home". fusor.net.
15. Schechner, Sam (26 November 2008). Living with a nuclear reactor. YouTube .
16. Hull, Richard (9 June 2010). "Neutron Club" . Retrieved 31 January 2024.
17. "Home". Northwest Nuclear Consortium. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
18. Overview of the North West Nuclear Consortium in 2012. YouTube . Archived from the original on 23 May 2014.
19. Dutton, Judy (1 September 2011). "Teen nuclear scientist fights terror". CNN.
20. Wilson, Taylor (March 2012). Yup, I built a nuclear fusion reactor. TED.
21. "Youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion (male)". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on 2024-12-22. Retrieved 2025-03-19.
22. Verghese, Ashwin (6 January 2010). "Building Electronics is teen's favorite leisure activity". Democrat and Chronicle.
23. Intel STS, "Alumni to watch: Michael Li & The Data Incubator" . Retrieved 2014-11-08.^{[ dead link ]}
24. Suppes, Mark (11 December 2012). I still don't know everything I should. YouTube. Wired UK.
25. Local Fusion Reactor. YouTube . Archived from the original on 27 June 2014.
26. Mone, Gregory (20 March 2007). "Teen builds basement nuclear reactor". Popular Science.
27. Ornes, Steven (7 March 2007). "Radioactive Boy Scout". Discover Magazine.
28. "Neutron Activation Analysis Using an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Reactor," Thiago David Olson of Stoney Creek High School, Rochester Hills, Michigan AVS Newsletter, Fall 2007, page 3, 2007 Intel 58th International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)
29. Arnoux, Robert (26 March 2014). "Do 13 year olds actually build fusion reactors?". iter.org.
30. Achieving nuclear fusion at the age of 13 | Jamie Edwards | TEDxSalford. YouTube . Archived from the original on 2021-12-08.
31. "Teen makes nuclear reactor in dad's shed". Casper Star Tribune. 3 February 2013.
32. "Conrad Farnsworth, Wyoming Teen, Builds Nuclear Fusion Reactor In Garage (VIDEO)". HuffPost . 4 February 2013.

See also

• Inertial confinement fusion
• Nuclear fusion