Water-boiling IEC fusion reactor (fusor) w/magnetic bottling

Duration: 0:16

Here is a short video of our fusor running at full power. For those interested, here are the specs: Powered by: 25kVDC-30kVDC from a ~400W ZVS-driven flyback transformer. Current in excess of 20mA (estimated). Chamber/pressure: steel vacuum chamber from Amazon.com. Pumped down to below 100 microns (exact pressure unknown) with a dual-stage 5cfm rotary vane pump. Fusion levels: minimal, this is running with air, not deuterium. Inner grid: 1/4" copper pipe, water-filled. Inserted through holes drilled into the acrylic lid and sealed with clear JB Weld epoxy. Water boils after only a minute of operation. May boil faster if fusion were occurring. Magnetic bottle: two strong (~1 tesla, estimated) neodymium magnets facing north to south (attracting ends facing each other). Operation theory: the inner grid (made of copper tubing) is filled with a small amount (a few milliliters) of water and connected to the negative terminal of the flyback transformer. The outer grid is simply the steel body of the vacuum chamber itself. When pumped down to a sufficient vacuum (preferably below 100 microns) and a high voltage is applied (over 5kV is best), the remaining air or fuel within the vessel is turned into a burning-hot plasma (basically a molecular soup of positively charge nuclei and negative electrons). The positive nuclei fly towards the negatively charged inner grid, typically miss the grid itself, and collect in the grid's hollow center. This process is known as inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC). If a fusible fuel is present, it will undergo nuclear fusion at the center where nuclei collide with one another (if the vacuum is high enough and the voltage is over 15kV). The vacuum chamber itself remains cold while the plasma at the reactor core superheats and boils the water within the inner grid (the grid heats up because some of the positive nuclei do collide the it, as well as any neutron radiation produced by nuclear fusion). Twin neodymium magnets facing north-to-south contain the plasma within a magnetic bottle, causing more efficient heating/confinement and possibly better fusion rates.