A 12-year-old boy from Memphis, Tennessee, received a visit from the FBI after he achieved nuclear fusion in his room.
Jackson Oswalt constructed a nuclear fusion reactor in his family’s playroom, achieving fusion just days before his 13th birthday.
The boy genius had sourced the necessary parts from eBay and taught himself the physics to finish the project.
But his impressive achievement didn’t go unnoticed, as federal law enforcement officers paid him a visit.
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This 12-year-old from Memphis achieved nuclear fusion in his room
Nuclear power certainly is handy, isn’t it?
It’s primarily used for energy purposes, but it also has applications in the world of tech and space exploration.
For instance, NASA plans to power their Dragonfly drone with nuclear when it heads out to Saturn’s moon, Titan.
Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce is developing a nuclear reactor to power rockets to mine the Moon and Mars.
And down here on Earth, China developed a nuclear battery that would keep smartphones charged for five days.
So yeah, it’s a valuable resource.
Which makes it all the more impressive that an adolescent figured it out by himself.
But for us non-geniuses, let’s just do a quick recap on what exactly nuclear fusion is.
As defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, it’s ‘the process by which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier one while releasing massive amounts of energy.’
The nuclei needs to be contained within a close range of each other and at an extremely high temperature to fuse together.
Scientists have been on a mission to recreate and harness fusion since the 1930s.
If it could be replicated at an industrial scale, it would ‘provide virtually limitless clean, safe, and affordable energy to meet the world’s demand’, according to the IAEA.
And Jackson achieved it before he was even legal to drive.
The reactor he used in his room could reach temperatures of 100 million degrees.
As the youngest person to build a nuclear fusion reactor, Jackson was honored by Guinness World Records.
Why the FBI came knocking on Jackson’s door
“My fascination started when I saw an article on Taylor Wilson, the previous youngest person to build a fusion reactor at age 14.
“I’ve been able to use electricity to accelerate two atoms and [splice them together], so they fuse into an atom of helium.
“It also releases a neutron which can be used to heat up water, which turns a steam engine, which produces electricity,” Jackson told Guinness World Records.
Anybody else feeling like they were a massive underachiever at age 12, by comparison?
In total, the project took two years to complete. Which means he started at 10 years old. No, you read that right.
It took half a year alone to figure out how to make the seal of the reactor tight enough.
As you might expect, Jackson’s parents had some reservations about the project.
Jackson’s dad, Chris, wasn’t quite sure on what his son was working on, but was proud nonetheless.
“Being a parent of someone that was as driven as he was for 12 months was really impressive to see.
“I mean it was everyday grinding; everyday learning something different; everyday failing and watching him work through all those things,” he said, as reported by Fox News.
However, once the media started taking notice of Jackson’s extraordinary achievement, the FBI decided to pay a visit.
They checked his home for radiation but found none, so left him to carry on his experiments with no hassle.
We can’t help but wonder what Jackson will achieve next, if he’s already set the bar so high at age 12.
There’s definitely a Nobel Prize in this kid’s future.
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