13-year-old Builds Nuclear Reactor

A 13-year-old boy from the UK has built a working nuclear reactor just in time to beat the record of a 14-year-old American boy.

As you’d probably guessed, Jamie Richards’s project didn’t involve the nuclear fission found in most nuclear power plants. Instead, reports the Lancashire Evening Post:

Jamie, who is 14 on Sunday, started building the reactor in October in a under-used science laboratory at Priory Academy and finally finished the task this morning , making two atoms of hydrogen smash together to make helium – a nuclear fusion.

Referring to an American child who detailed a similar project in a TED talk in 2012, Jamie told the newspaper that:

One day, I was looking on the internet for radiation or other aspects of nuclear energy and I came across Taylor Wilson and his reactor. I looked at it, thought ‘that looks cool’ and decided to have a go. Basically I made a star in a jar.

Full report: Lancashire Evening Post

(Image credit: Jamie Edwards)