A few hours before he turned 13, Jackson was able to completely mix two deuterium atoms together in a small tabletop fuse he had made. A fuser is a device that uses an electric field to heat ions at high temperatures capable of facilitating nuclear synthesis. Lots of energy to draw and insane temperatures create an impressive reputation in home-made fusers, but there is a rich online community that makes this possible. With a small setup and full talent in his parents ’home playroom, Jackson Oswalt has entered the Guinness World Records as the most nuclear person to have achieved nuclear fusion.
In experiments at his home in Memphis, Tennessee, Jackson used his fuser, a stable isotope of hydrogen, to attempt atomic synthesis, in the collision of the atoms of deuterium.
Explained Jackson in the Guinness World Records video “I have been able to use electricity to accelerate deuterium with two atoms so that they fuse together into atoms of helium 3, it also releases a neutron that can heat water and start a steam engine which produces electricity.”
“Making a fuser is a very dangerous process, mostly because the furnace is used in high furnaces. I need to take some precautions like wearing gloves to protect it,” he said. You may think that building a machine capable of nuclear fusion in your family home is not the best idea. When you can go to anything, Jackson, now 15, is very aware of the dangers.
The fuser must not be too small – according to Jackson, the interior temperature can reach 100 million degrees Kelvin. Appearing for an achievement at the age of 12 in the Guinness World Records 2021 edition this year, the future of young physicists is bright.
These are used by some medical companies to create therapeutic isotopes, which have a wide range of uses for diagnosing and testing the source of neutrons, as well as DaimlerChrysler Aerospace. Fusers are becoming commonplace as an accessible way for hobbyists to enter nuclear fusion. But it’s not just people like Jackson who use them – they have commercial applications.
A typical fusion neutron cannot produce flux that would enable a fusion reactor, and power energy input technology surpasses the potential energy output as much as it stands. Sadly, fusors will not see the commercial use of solving the world’s clean energy needs. Yet, a new generation of scientists involved in nuclear physics pushes us one step further into a brighter future.
