TEEN GOES NUCLEAR: Creates fusion in his home

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By Phillip Torrone
Posted 2006/11/21 @ 11:32 am
Category Art & Design

Home fusor build by teenager, excellent! – “Thiago Olson, 17, stands near his nuclear fusion reactor, which he calls “the Fusor,” at home in Oakland Township on Friday. After more than two years and 1,000 hours of research, the Stoney Creek High School senior, with a little help from his dad, built the machine. (PATRICIA BECK/Detroit Free Press)… “I thought he was going to be a cook,” Natalice Olson [his mother] said, “because he liked to mix things.” [via] – Link.

Thiago, drop us a note – you’ve at least earned a subscription to MAKE!

Related:

Open source fuser research – Link.

From the pages of MAKE:

A Fusion Reactor for the Rest of Us – Ed Storms is leading the effort to take cold fusion off the back burner by moving it into the garage. Subscribers–read this article now in your digital edition!

BY Phillip Torrone

Editor at large - Make magazine. Creative director - Adafruit Industries, contributing editor - Popular Science. Previously: Founded - Hack-a-Day, how-to editor - Engadget, Director of product development - Fallon Worldwide, Technology Director - Braincraft.

In the Maker Shed

4 Responses to TEEN GOES NUCLEAR: Creates fusion in his home

markayak on November 21st, 2006 at 5:50 am said:

Well, this sort of project does at least sound considerably safer than what the infamous “radioactive Boy Scout” was doing some years back. Shouldn’t have generated enough neutron radiation to be dangerous, and presumably the radiography machine he built it from had some shielding built into it for the gamma… A practical power generation device it is not, but still quite impressive for a high school science project. Check out the Wikipedia article on “fusor” for a better description of what this kind of device does (and doesn’t) do.

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-soapy- on November 21st, 2006 at 8:59 am said:

How’s he going to get that subscription forwarded to Gitmo?

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Wilberforce on November 21st, 2006 at 9:38 am said:

Especially of note:

“Originally, he wanted to build a hyperbolic chamber,” she said, adding that she promptly said no.

“Thiago, I have told you a million times. You may not build a hyperbolic chamber…”

I’m sure she meant hyperbaric chamber. Mom probably got it right, but the reporter definitely did not.

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robu on November 22nd, 2006 at 6:18 am said:

What is it about Southeast Michigan that causes these kids to try this? First David Hahn builds a breeder reactor a few blocks from my old house and now this too! [Harpers Magazine "What Happened When A Teenager Tried a Dangerous Experiment In His Backyard. Tale of the Radioactive Boy Scout"]

Can’t we get them to stop being creative and inquisitive and turn them into the perfect little Wii, PS3, XBOX playing mindless drones we love so well?

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