Star in a Jar: 

Operating Parameter Relationships in an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) Fusion Reactor

 

 

Eric Foss, Kentwood High School, Covington, WA     

Science Project for 2009

 

ABSTRACT

In a fusion reaction, two light atomic nuclei fuse together and release a large amount of energy.  With an unlimited supply of deuterium fuel available from the oceans, fusion could supply the world’s future energy needs in a clean, sustainable way.  Most current fusion research efforts are directed towards magnetic and inertial confinement, but a lesser known method called inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) accelerates deuterium plasma to a temperature of 180 million degrees C using only a strong electric field in a vacuum chamber. I designed and built a tabletop IEC fusion reactor using commonly available materials.  I built an electrolysis system to supply deuterium gas from heavy water.  To study the important operating parameter relationships, I programmed a LabView data acquisition system to measure electric field voltage, current, reactor chamber pressure, and temperature. For visualization, I wrote a MATLAB script to plot the three dimensional operating surface. I found that the control difficulties reported with this type of reactor are due to operation in the asymptotic region of the operational curve. I found that the classical Paschen model and a more recently proposed empirical model of the voltage-pressure relationship did not match parts of my data.   I built an empirical model of the relationship with a sixth order Laurent polynomial.  Multivariate linear regression worked better than downhill simplex for estimating the coefficients.  My final three dimensional model fits my measured three dimensional data with a correlation coefficient of 0.88.   (P<6.5e-134)
 

 

This is the report that got me started...:

 

The rest of the information I obtained to build my project came from a number of different publications both off and on the internet. The most helpful information that I found was located @ fusor.net.

   Here is a one page PDF handout that describes the entire project.

About my Reactor

  • •An IEC reactor is basically a radially focused particle accelerator driven by high voltage
  • •Operates in a vacuum chamber at about 1/100,000 of an atm.
  • •Deuteron plasma at 180 million deg. C
  • •Particle velocity 600,000 meters/sec

    Fusion is made possible under these conditions by means of Quantum Tunneling

    Quantum Tunneling Basics

     

    Construction:

   

    

  • •Fusion chamber made from a 2 gallon glass cookie jar purchased at Wal-Mart
  • •Cut ports with a carbide water cooled drill, sealed parts with silicone.
  • •Anode made out of stove pipe from Ace Hardware, cathode from steel wire.
  • •Found a good 2 stage vacuum pump on E-bay
  • •Auto sparkplugs for high voltage feedthroughs into my chamber
  • •High voltage DC power supply (35KV) made from an old cable test system
  • •Electrolysis of heavy water supplies the deuterium gas
  • •National Instruments donated LabView and a USB-DAQ to read voltage, pressure, current, and temperature

     

    Running my Reactor:

     

 

Operating Parameter Relationships.  The white dots are the measurements I made with my LabView

data system, as I turned the high voltage power control up and down during pumpdown.  The colored

 surface is a MATLAB interpolation of the measured data, with the voltage scale colored as shown:

 

 

Washington State Science & Engineering Fair 2009

 

  • Silver Medal

  • Mu Alpha Theta Certificate of Achievement Award

  • Ohio Wesleyan University Outstanding Achievement is Science Scholarship

  • Olympic College Award for Excellence in Physics

  • U.S. Air Force Award

  • U.S. Army Award of Excellence

  • Washington State University Scholarship

  • Whitman College Scholarship

 

Next Stop:  INTEL ISEF 2009 Reno Nevada

   

  • Grand Award for Physics and Astronomy category, second place, $1500

  • American Vacuum Society special award, first place, $1250

  • I get to name my own asteroid (now know as minor planets) discovered by MIT

  • I met the new Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien

  • Judy Dutton interviewed me for her new book, "Science Fair Season"

  • My project will be on display this summer at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle

 

 

Team Washington State:

One second place award and two first place awards were given to students from Washington State.

One of the students also received the Grand Prize in Category (Earth Science) and a trip to CERN in France.

Washington Did Great in '09

 

Here is the 2009 ISEF HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO