Fusor Project

A project I've always wanted to undertake is to create a hobbyist Fusor. A fusor is the simplest kind of fusion reactor. Nuclear fusion occurs when atoms overcome the Coulombic force of protons to have a strong nuclear interaction and release the binding energy, which normally only occurs during high temperature environments like the core of the sun or inside an magnetic torus. A Farnsworth–Hirsch fusor uses inertial electrostatic confinement which has a charged symmetric surface to accelerate ions to a center point that has high density of fast moving particles, causing a high chance for fusion at relatively low temperature. These designs are extremely simple compared to the other tori and plasma chambers around Madison and I feel the physics garage would be a great environment to create one.

This project would use a vacuum chamber, high voltages and potentially extremely low radiation (neutron and xray) and so is still being proposed tentatively.

The first target would be a 'demo fusor' which has the basic apparatus but operates in air, not a vacuum, not using somewhat expensive deuterium, and acts at lower voltages but still gives a characteristic glow. It would be used as a stepping stone to a full fusor with actual fusion.

Tentative list of possible equipment:

Hopefully a decent amount of these things, especially the more specialized can be borrowed or gotten cheaply.

Please email me for more information/any input/to talk etc. kmeaney@wisc.edu

More information can be found here:

http://www.fusor.net/ (main hub of hobbyist fusors)

http://www.fusor.net/newbie/files/Ligon-QED-IE.pdf

http://www.electricalfun.com/WorkbenchFun/Fusor_William_Jack.aspx (interview of student that built a demo fusor)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_electrostatic_confinement

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