Fusor Forums

Hi Joe, A DC power supply is specified because by maintaining the grid at a negative potential with respect to the shell, it will attract ions that can collide near or within it at high velocities and fuse there. The conventional theory of fusor operation holds that energetic ions will be trapped in...

Great job, Carl.

You've pioneered a new, innovative model for nuclear education, and it's clearly working well. I hope it's an example others will build on around the world. Great newsletter! Welcome to the seven new students; I hope we get to meet each of you on this forum.

-Carl Willis

Hello Charlie, Your first priority as a 15-year-old interested in a fusion project should be to find a local mentor who is at least knowledgeable in electrical safety and willing to work with you. University physics departments, national labs, and private industry are all good places to look for hel...

This is a resistive ballast, and fundamentally functions differently than a transformer. It may or may not suit your needs. Consider one difference: if you power an unloaded 15kV transformer via this ballast, the output voltage will be close to 15kV throughout the entire control range, whereas if yo...

There's not much point in considering radiation shielding until an actual problem has been specified. The day may come when you find yourself with 100 mrem / hr at your operating position, or you have a sodium iodide scintillator set up in the immediate vicinity of the neutron source and need to kee...

This all depends on the detector principle. Some detectors (the BTI PND dosimeter, for instance) are recoil detectors and work best with no moderator. For detectors that operate on the principle of capturing neutrons and emitting charged particles (He-3, B-10, Ag, etc.) moderator thickness has an op...

Flow rates are often specified in sccm or sccs (standard cubic centimeters per minute or per second). Cubic centimeters are obviously volume dimensions; "standard" implies that the pressure of this volume is atmospheric (760 torr, 1 bar, 101 kPa, etc.). The dimensions of sccm / sccs are thus pressur...

Measuring neutron output is by far the easiest measurement of actual fusion rate that has been identified to date.

Direct detection of the reaction heat, i.e. calorimetry, is not practical.

-Carl

Not practically. It has to be regularly mentioned in these forums that fusion power released in even the best performing amateur fusors amounts to a few microwatts--far too little to be directly detectable--and that a large portion of that energy is in the motion of neutrons that leave the chamber a...

Hi John,

Congratulations on this milestone, despite a few setbacks thrown in your way. "First light" is a great feeling, and I am glad your ambitions will take you farther in this project even though school's out for the year.

-Carl