Hudhayfa Nazoordeen, a math major at the University of Waterloo, constructed a mini fusor that closely resembles a real tokamak and connected it to a modest 12kV neon sign transformer for power. This setup was capable of generating plasma, the crucial environment where fusion occurs.
With no prior hardware experience, he spent the first week sourcing and identifying all the necessary components from suppliers like McMaster-Carr.
In the second week, he focused on assembling the main chamber and the rectifier circuit. By the third week, he had the entire setup in his bedroom and started working on integrating the neon transformer.
However, it was in “week 3.5” that Nazoordeen’s perseverance was truly tested by the vacuum system. “This was by far the most frustrating aspect of the project,” he confessed in a thread on X/Twitter about his work. He had to locate and seal several tiny leaks before finally achieving a vacuum of 25 millionths of an atmosphere.
Creating a vacuum environment is crucial for fusion because it requires extremely low pressure to allow nuclei to come close enough to fuse. To continuously monitor and control the vacuum, Nazoordeen chose an MKS-901p transducer.
In addition to the assistance he got from fellow engineers on campus, Nazoordeen praised Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 AI chatbot for its significant role in developing the reactor. “I provided Claude with all my datasheets, and it was incredibly helpful,” he said.
Naturally, this homemade fusor didn’t quite reach the point of inducing fusion, so it doesn’t actually emit neutrons. Achieving fusion in such a compact design is highly challenging and would likely necessitate substantial further engineering, potentially involving more advanced reactor concepts.
Nazoordeen appears to have more ambitious plans for this small-scale project and is awaiting funding to develop the “full fusor.”
Nazoordeen’s work builds on the earlier efforts of Olivia Li, an engineer from the University of Toronto, who constructed her own fusion reactor in a New York City apartment last year using deuterium gas extracted from heavy water. Li commended Nazoordeen’s accomplishments.
“A lot of people I’ve spoken to are excited about building a fusion reactor, but Hudzah is the only one who has actually followed through and succeeded!” she wrote on X.
She also shared a link to a detailed write-up that she believes will assist anyone else interested in creating their own fusor at home.
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