Don't worry, Sir, it's only a nuclear reactor: Boy of 13's record-breaking experiment in school scie

[thesolar65]

• Jamie Edwards' reactor was able to smash two hydrogen atoms together

• This made him youngest person to create helium through nuclear fusion

• Fusion took place in a controlled environment at his school in Lancashire

• Head teacher Jim Hourigan said: ‘I was a little nervous when Jamie suggested this but he reassured me he wouldn’t blow the school up'

All the best school science experiments carry at least a hint of danger.

But when 13-year-old Jamie Edwards informed his stunned headmaster of his plan to build a nuclear reactor in a classroom, the obvious question was: ‘Will it blow the school up?’

Fortunately, in a victory for the spirit of amateur scientific discovery over the health and safety culture, Jamie’s promise that it was perfectly safe was believed.

And yesterday he became the youngest person in the world to achieve nuclear fusion from scratch at his Lancashire secondary school, using high energy to smash two hydrogen atoms together to make helium.

‘It is quite an achievement. It’s magnificent really,’ Jamie said afterwards. ‘I can’t quite believe it – even though all my friends think I am mad.’

Jamie, who attends Penwortham Priory Academy near Preston, has been fascinated with radiation for years, on one occasion even buying a Geiger counter with his Christmas money.

His fusion ambition was sparked by reading about a 14-year-old US schoolboy, Taylor Wilson, who had become the youngest to produce a small fusion reactor in Nevada in 2008.

‘I looked at it, thought “That looks cool” and decided to have a go,’ Jamie added.
Jamie's first step was to enlist help from nuclear laboratories and university departments, but ‘they didn’t seem to take me seriously’.

WHAT IS NUCLEAR FUSION?
Nuclear fusion is one of the most promising options for generating large amounts of carbon-free energy in the future.

To get energy from fusion, gas from a combination of types of hydrogen – deuterium and tritium – is heated to very high temperatures (100 million °C).

One way to achieve these conditions is a method called ‘magnetic confinement' – controlling the hot gas with strong magnets.

Jamie Edwards was inspired by Taylor Wilson's technique which used something known as 'Inertial Electrostatic Confinement.'

This method uses electric fields to do the work on charged particles - either ions or electrons - allowing them to be heated to fusion conditions.


So that left the laboratories at his school, and the task of convincing headmaster Jim Hourigan. Fortunately the head agreed, coming up with the necessary £3,000 funding.

‘I was a bit stunned and I have to say a little nervous when Jamie suggested this but he reassured me he wouldn’t blow the school up,’ Mr Hourigan said yesterday.

After months of work, the reactor was finally completed just ahead of his 14th birthday this weekend.

And yesterday, in a ‘radiation controlled area’ in a classroom, before an audience of experts, he flicked a switch and stared intently at his Geiger counter until it registered that fusion had indeed taken place – or created ‘a star in a jar’, as Jamie refers to it.

Nuclear fusion, the reaction that powers the sun, is very different from nuclear fission, or the splitting of the atom, that occurs in nuclear power stations and is the stuff of atom bombs.

However, both release vast amounts of energy.

Scientists around the world are replicating Jamie’s experiment, but on a much bigger scale, in the hope of using it on a large scale to fuel cheap, environmentally-friendly power stations.

Jamie said: ‘I heard the Geiger counter rapidly go up and I was “What is that?”,’ he said in the afterglow of success.

‘Then I looked over and the neutron counter was right up off the scale nearly, and I thought “We must have done it”.’

The experiment was assisted by electronics experts who tested the apparatus for safety, while Jamie, his friend George Barker and the teachers involved had all attended a risk assessment course at a nuclear fuel company.

For his next project, Jamie – who wants to be a nuclear engineer or work in theoretical physics – has his sights set on building a miniature hadron collider.

@levina @Alpha1 @Parul @DRAY @Indischer @jarves @Dem!god @desert warrior @45'22' @Juice @wolfschanzze @gslv mk3 @chak de INDIA @scorpionx @timetravel @Srinivas @BDforever

@Skull and Bones, your field of interest?
@Abingdonboy, news from your location!!

 

[BDforever]

but have to admit that he is smart kid

 

[Levina]

Wow!!
Kudos to his teacher who supported this student.

Just that I am against the use of nuclear fusions for peaceful purposes or other wise.
I am pro renewable energy.
And I think this kinda support should also be given to the "cleaner experiments".You never know when we might strike gold.

 

[Indischer]

At his age, I used to make cardboard models of Volcanoes for School Science projects.....Way to go Laddie!

 

[45'22']

cool,another scientist in the making

 

[BDforever]

cool,another scientist in the making

you meant like einstein ?

 

[45'22']

you meant like einstein ?

naa......not einstein
that crazy scientist was too gud....

but this kid will become a great physicist

but have to admit that he is smart kid

learn something from this kid
bas cricket match dekhne se kuch nahi hoga

 

[Parul]

Well done!!!

 

[BDforever]

Well done!!!

what is in your avatar ?

 

[Dash]

Bravo!...I guess Mr Hawkins too did something like this when he was a kid.

 

[Skull and Bones]

Good, simple straight forward schematics, can build it if i get a helping hand.

I tried building an emp generator for my undergrad project, but the intensity wasn't high enough to fry up any circuit, but that contraption worked. Being failed, later ended up building a cell phone jammer to qualify.

Bravo!...I guess Mr Hawkins too did something like this when he was a kid.

That was Michio Kaku, he intended to create and detect anti-matter.

 

[Parul]

what is in your avatar ?

Someone looking at one of the wonders of the world.

 

[wolfschanzze]

I wanted to make x-rays from a vaccum tube when i was kid in 8th class was fascinated by discovery of x-rays.But couldn't find the equipment back then you know 90'S, so i dropped the idea, later on tried some biological things like growing botulinum as it was much cheaper to make.

On topic, Bravo for the kid, with the right kind of encouragement and support i believe people can do wonders.I mean not every kid gets 3k pound funding at 14 yrs

 

[dray]

Now he wants to make a miniature hadron collider, that will create a miniature black-hole, which will suck up the earth including China & Pakistan, problem solved!!

On topic: Great achievement at this age, and also congrats to Taylor Wilson for achieving the same at the age of 14!!

what is in your avatar ?

That's a black cat wearing a pearl necklace or a muffler.

@Parul

 

[Skull and Bones]

Now he wants to make a miniature hadron collider, that will create a miniature black-hole, which will suck up the earth including China & Pakistan, problem solved!!

On topic: Great achievement at this age, and also congrats to Taylor Wilson for achieving the same at the age of 14!!

Remind me to explain to you why miniature black hole is unsustainable, even though I get the humor.