List of Fusor examples

Fusor examples

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. Listed here, are actual machines built.

• Tokyo Institute of Technology^[3] has four IEC devices of different shapes: a spherical machine, a cylindrical device, a co-axial double cylinder and a magnetically assisted device.^[4]
• University of Wisconsin-Madison A group at Wisconsin-Madison has been running a very large, funded, fusor program since 1991.^[5]
• 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 7004240000000000000♠2.4×10⁴ neutrons per second.^[6]
• University of Illinois Dr. George Miley's team at the fusion studies laboratory has built a ~25 cm fusor which has produced 7007100000000000000♠1×10⁷ neutrons using deuterium gas.^[7]
• 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.^[8]
• Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Researchers at Shahid Beheshti University in Iran have built a 60 cm diameter fusor which can produce 7007100000000000000♠1×10⁷ neutrons per second at 140 kilovolts using deuterium gas.^[9]
• Los Alamos National Laboratory In the late nineties, researchers purposed^[10] and built a fusor-like system for oscillating plasma, inside a fusor. This device is known as the Periodically Oscillating Plasma Sphere or POPS.^[11]
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology For his doctoral thesis in 2007, Carl Dietrich built a fusor and studied its potential use in spacecraft propulsion.^[12] In addition, Tom McGuire did his thesis^[13][14] 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.^[15] This machine used ion beams.
• Phoenix Nuclear Labs Has developed a commercial neutron source based off a fusor, achieving 7011300000000000000♠3×10¹¹ neutrons per second with the deuterium-deuterium fusion reaction.^[16]

Amateur

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

Kuba Anglin and Noah Anglin's fusor inside their bedroom lab.

A number of amateurs have built working fusors and detected neutrons. Many fusor enthusiasts connect on forums^[17] 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.^[18] In March 1999, he achieved a neutron rate of 7006100000000000000♠10×10⁵ neutrons per second.^[19] Hull maintains a list of amateurs who have gotten neutrons from fusors.
• Carl Greninger Founded the Northwest Nuclear Consortium,^[20] an organization in Washington state which teaches a class of a dozen high school students nuclear engineering principles using a 60 kV fusor.^[21]
• Taylor Wilson is the youngest person to build a working fusor, at age 14.^[22][23]
• Nathan Schmidt is the second person at age fourteen to build a working fusor. The project was carried out autonomously at the University of Northern Iowa Physics Department under the supervision of the now head of the department Dr. Paul Shand.
• Matthew Honickman Was a high school student who built a working fusor in his basement in Rochester, New York.^[24]
• Tianhui Michael Li In 2003, Michael Li built a fusor and won second place^[25] in the US's Intel Science Talent Search winning a $75,000 college scholarship.^[26]
• Mark Suppes A web designer for Gucci in Brooklyn New York, built a working fusor on a path to building the first amateur Polywell.^[27][28]
• Thiago David Olson Built a 40 kV fusor at age 17, in his home in Rochester, Michigan and placed second in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007.^[29][30][31]
• Andrew Seltzman Has built several fusors^[32] with neutrons detected in 2008.^[33] He is now a graduate student working on plasma physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
• Conrad Farnsworth of Newcastle, Wyoming produced fusion in 2011 at 17^[34][35] and used this to win a regional and state science fair.
• Kuba Anglin and Noah Anglin Twin brothers from Berkeley, California built a neutron producing fusor in their bedroom while attending high school as seniors.^[36][37]
• Charles Vorbach High school sophomore in Bronxville, New York who built 40 kV fusor and completed research on neutron flux produced from IEC fusion schemes.^[38][39]

References