Jackson Oswalt shared his test measurements at the Open Source Fuser Research Consortium Forum, where he received both inspiration and advice on how to make such a device. A teenager from Memphis, Tennessee may be the youngest person to build a working fusion furnace. The term atomic reactor may open up images of radioactive material and huge benefits, but Oswalt did not build that it is a fusion reactor, using uranium to produce electricity rather than splitting.
In a fusion furnace the hydrogen atoms are converted into plasma and then pushed together until different atoms are formed. In the case of Oswalt, he mixed a special type of hydrogen and deuterium with neutrons in the nutritious.
Oswalt wrote in a post on February 1, 2018, “For those who haven’t seen my recent posts, it will come as a surprise that I will even consider believing that I have achieved fusion. However, over the past month, I’ve made a lot of progress in fixing large leaks in my system. I have the results now that I believe I’m qualified.
The synthesis of deuterium atoms leads to the expression of neutrons – traits that Oswalt and Fusser verifiers are interested in spotting. The design and construction of these mini-furnace were not easy or cheap. It took Oswalt about a year to put it together and make it work, and it took anything from $8,000 to $10,000. Oswalt said he achieved fusion on January 19, January 30, and January 31.
“You have to go through the right hoop and you have to believe and we have to see what you have done,” Richard Hull, a verifier, and administrator at the research consortium, told Fax News. He cites Oswalt as the youngest person in America and perhaps the world to have achieved such a feat. The previous record-holder was Taylor Wilson, who achieved nuclear fusion in 2008 at the age of 14.
As Oswalt showed, we can have fusion, but what we are still struggling with is more energy than our position, the ability to react continuously. Nuclear fusion is a physical process that powers every star in the universe. It also holds promise for clean, unlimited energy.
