Building a Homemade Nuclear Reactor In NYC 219
yukk writes "Mark Suppes, a web developer for Gucci, is working on his own personal fusion reactor. His work in a NYC warehouse using $35,000 of his own money and $4,000 raised on a website has made him the 38th independent researcher recognized as creating a working fusion reactor. How's that for a hobby?"
Neat (Score:3, Insightful)
This is really cool. Though I'd guess that the neighbors will be up-in-arms soon, even if you tell them it's completely safe.
Re:And how is he not in jail? (Score:3, Insightful)
He's not making a bomb, he's making a fusion device. A very lower power, low-yield fusion device.
It can create some neutron radiation, but the device is so low power that the radiation is rather negligible.
Re:Didn't end well for the last person who did thi (Score:4, Insightful)
> Actually, Hahn didn't do this - He created a fission reactor.
No he didn't. A pile of radioactive scrap is not a reactor.
um, ok (Score:5, Insightful)
As a (non-amateur) physicist and former fusion researcher, I recommend putting in a deposit at a sperm bank for any man intending to do this.
Contrary to popular belief, fusion does cause significant radiation.
That said, this is pretty cool. It's too bad people like this don't go all the way and do physics professionally. Perhaps if advanced physics research paid as well as working for Gucci...
Re:And how is he not in jail? (Score:2, Insightful)
Im sorry how does one get away building a freaking unsafe amateur nuclear device IN NYC, I know he is an expert and all (you kinda have to be to develop a static web catalog) but Jesus
last time I went up there, I couldn't carry a travel size tube of toothpaste and this dink is making a bomb in his basement
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the basic reaction of 99% of the population* when they read this story.
:(
*people who know precisely dick about physics
This guy will be lucky if his neighbors don't lynch him.
Re:what could possibly go wrong ? :) (Score:5, Insightful)
And what, exactly, makes you think it's dangerous? If you're going to call it dangerous, you should be able to lay out a plausible failure scenario that shows the risk; do you know enough about the devices these guys are building to do that, or are you just afraid of anything that uses the word "nuclear"?
Fusion is Easy... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fusion is relatively easy to achieve on a small scale. What's extremely hard to achieve, judged on the efforts of various organizations over the past 60 years, is fusion that produces more power than it consumes.
Re:Didn't end well for the last person who did thi (Score:2, Insightful)
Fusion consists of putting some gas in a box, turning it on, putting a whole lot of power in and ending up with a different gas in the box.
... plus a bunch of neutrons that really, really want out of the box.