This is not the kind of news we need.

Reflections on fusion history, current events, and predictions for the 'fusion powered future.
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Jim Kovalchick
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This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Jim Kovalchick »

I know there are always two sides to a story, but this looks at best to be very sloppy regard for proper handling of radioactive material. The tough part is that if you look close there appears to be a fusor in the video. I am not happy that one of us has made this kind of news :(

http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/local/20 ... /17213067/
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Chris Bradley
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Chris Bradley »

I would anticipate we'll see the restriction for sale of NORM and other ordinary, legal, stuff through ebay now, due to the predictable over-reaction.

It is not that stuff can get misused, it is the perception of the risk from a particular perceived threat, and humans are very poor at judging relative risk.
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Richard Hull
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Richard Hull »

Chris is right. The population and people are an extremely ignorant group on most any technical subject, taken as a whole. Where there is ignorance, there is always mindless fear among the most ignorant among them. The news media is always ready to whip it up into a foaming mouth story. (their news cycle demands it.)

I have always noted that if you have a test source for instrumentation test and calibration leave it in an "as found" condition! The authorities and regs are also very clear regarding NORM source material. It is not to be processed or disturbed in any manner, but left as nature yielded it forth unto you. If it is a rock of ore leave it as a rock of ore. If it is a manufactured dial, leave it as a dial in the intrument it was made in. Them's th' rules.

I saw a vacuum pump, I think. I didn't see a formal fusor, but maybe I missed it. Still, sad.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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Andrew Robinson
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Andrew Robinson »

The crackdown began long ago. Seems you can't even list intact functioning clocks anymore haha.
Ebay.png
I can wire anything directly into anything! I'm the professor!
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Jim Kovalchick
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Jim Kovalchick »

There is definitely a fusor as confirmed by several other fusor builders who frequent the fusor bilder group on Facebook. If you are curious, it is at the bottom of the video partially hidden by the story graphic.
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Steven Sesselmann
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Steven Sesselmann »

Yep, there's the fusor, hidden just behind the text overlay.
Fusor
Fusor
Screen Shot 2014-10-15 at 11.39.51 am.png (61.2 KiB) Viewed 8329 times
Steven
http://www.gammaspectacular.com - Gamma Spectrometry Systems
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Steven_Sesselmann - Various papers and patents on RG
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Richard Hull
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Richard Hull »

Thanks for pointing out where it was. I figured it needed to be near the vacuum pump. My eyes just didn't catch it partially obscured by the banner.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Roger Harrison
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Roger Harrison »

Here is a better cropped screenshot from one of the photos they posted in the article. Looks like you can make out the vacuum chamber with high voltage feedthrough, some valves, bellows tubing, roughing pump, and on the right by the tennis rackets is what appears to be a deuterium lecture bottle with regulator! Definitely looks like a fusor. I wonder if any of the images on our forum look like a match?
fusor-idaho.png
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Richard Hull
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Richard Hull »

Checkin' th' fusor with his glowing instrument in hand for rads that are not there, but it makes for a cool scene like St. George who has slain the dragon, now at his feet, in his moon suit armor with matching booties. Oh Brother.....

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
John Futter
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by John Futter »

It might have been better if------

it had Ebola incubator written on it.

god save us from the great unwashed
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Jacke »

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/10/1 ... .html?rh=1

One of the comments on this version of the article:

"Sounds like dirty bomb making to me. Small amount of radiation, but they haven't put it into anything they could use YET. Did they really say they are NOT going to file any charges? Yeah, just let anyone have radioactive materials laying around. That has to be legal and part of the 2nd Amendment, right?"

Oh boy
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Richard Hull
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Richard Hull »

We just don't know the facts and never will. He may not have broken any serious laws!!!

A dirty bomb would demand a lot of material on hand. If it was obvious he was just diddling with a few powders out of ignorance and had little actual material there.
If he was young, had no serious police record, and no bizarre web presence then there would be little to gain by crushing a youthful indiscretion with life altering prosecution. We don't have all the facts we really don't have any real facts.

Stupid yes, but beyond that we are in the dark and will be kept that way, I am sure. The one big fact that we have is that the neighbors freaked and the press had their day or two of news cycle, which is what was expected all along.

Based on the article, even the NRC said there was no real radiation threat to residents. Sounds like the guy was more of an e-bay entrepeneur than a terrorist. If he had sacks of powdered ore, (hundreds of pounds), then that is another matter. We were told a few jars. Gallon jars? Quart jars? Pint jars? 2 oz. chemical jars? No real data.

Much ado about nothing beyond a foolish person trying to make a buck the wrong way, or an experimenter that just went a bit far beyond normal limits.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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Paul_Schatzkin
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Re: This is not the kind of news we need.

Post by Paul_Schatzkin »

It's hard for me to see this as a "fusor" story, even if there is some (unverified?) evidence of a fusor-like apparatus nearly concealed in the TeeVee coverage.

The reporting is disappointing... all the focus on the mother and her toddlers... nothing really about the perpetrator or his methodology or his intent.

Absent any further information about what was really going on in that apartment, it's hard not to conclude that this is some kind of kook playing with glowing substances...

But, there's a fear factor, so it's "news."

--PS
Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" – Founder and Host of Fusor.net
Author of The Boy Who Invented Television: 2023 Edition – https://amz.run/6ag1
"Fusion is not 20 years in the future; it is 60 years in the past and we missed it."
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