Introduction

Please take a moment to introduce yourself in this forum and tell us about your interest. You must use your full real name. We do not allow the used of "handles" and pseudonyms on this site.
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paul_scotti
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2023 10:03 am
Real name: Paul Scotti

Introduction

Post by paul_scotti »

Hello everyone, my name is Paul and I'm an undergrad electrical engineering student from Chile. This year I have to write my thesis, and since I was very young I always had a huge fascination and curiosity with nuclear physics in general.
I always dreamt about seeing a nuclear reactor with my own eyes, and eventually one day work there. I was fortunate enough to be able to do an internship at the NRC equivalent of my country, where I managed to fulfill my dreams. At a national laboratory, I saw for the first time a 5 MW open pool core with my own eyes, and was able to work there for a while.

But that's fission. Now I want to explore the fusion branch, and once again I wrote to the local NRC equivalent, and I proposed them to build an IEC device to view it's potential as a neutron source for my thesis. They weren't familiar with IEC devices, as they work mainly with small magnetic confinement devices, so they thought it was an interesting idea.

My idea is to pursue a career in this field afterwards, and I think that building this device for my thesis is a great opportunity for my academic background. The thing is since I studied EE and not nuclear eng., I have some gaps in the physics that I learned in college, so I'm trying to learn on my own. I wanted to be able to access the knowledge that can be found on this site, and that I could borrow from your own experience.

Any advice, starting point, safety recommendations or resources that you wish to share with me for the design and construction of the fusor, I'd be very thankful.

Nice to meet everyone, and thank you for keeping this site alive so we can all quench our curiosity and contribute to science.
Kind regards,
Paul.
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Richard Hull
Moderator
Posts: 14976
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2001 9:44 am
Real name: Richard Hull

Re: Introduction

Post by Richard Hull »

Paul, welcome to the forums. I am a retired EE, but had an interest in nuclear energy all my life. I learned my nuclear physics related to what I was actually doing in experiment by reading and study after college. The key is the doing in the field coupled with study. I am no nuclear physicist armed with my acquired knowledge, but do know a good deal that falls within my purview. Isn't this how we learned in college? Study, reading and labs? In the real world after graduating, we learn by doing.

If you keep learning nuclear physics by self-directed study and work in the effort outside of your EE effort, you will acquire what you need that is essential.

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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