2024-08-21 13:55:34
A 17-year-old Briton built a nuclear fusion reactor for his final project at college. His teachers were not very enthusiastic at first.
Grade 1+: A British teenager chose an amazing project for his final project at his sixth form college: He built a nuclear fusion reactor and received the best grade for it, as the newspaper “Daily Mail” reports. It is probably the only nuclear reactor ever built in a school, it continues.
Before 17-year-old Cesare Mencarini could tackle his ambitious project, he first had to convince his teachers that the work was safe. “However, we carried out a comprehensive risk assessment,” said Mencarini. After that, the teachers were reassured and supported him in his project.
The 17-year-old shared his successes with his fusion reactor in an online science forum. “I created a brilliant plasma and I’m incredibly happy about it,” writes Mencarini. In the entry, he also published pictures of the device.
In nuclear fusion, two atomic nuclei are fused together under high pressure. This releases an enormous amount of energy. Scientists around the world are researching how to use nuclear fusion as an energy source. In nature, nuclear fusion occurs mainly in stars like our sun.
In order to generate the high pressure required for nuclear fusion, reactors use high electrical voltage. Mencarini’s device lacks this, which means he cannot generate a real fusion reaction. But the model creates the conditions for it.
The director of his college described the 17-year-old’s work as “outstanding.” Mencarini will “have a significant impact on the energy industry in the future,” he said.
According to the Daily Mail, Mencarini himself wants to spend a year working at the Interface Analysis Centre at the University of Bristol in Gloucestershire before applying to study engineering.
Mencarini’s story is reminiscent of another project by a teenager from a few years ago in the USA. Jackson Oswalt, who was 14 at the time, had built a nuclear reactor in his bedroom. He got the instructions from forums on the Internet. In an interview with t-online, Oswalt explained how dangerous it was.