Taylor Wilson

Taylor Wilson (born May 7, 1994) is an American nuclear physicist and science advocate. In 2008, at age 14, he became the youngest person to produce nuclear fusion, using a fusor . [2] [3]

Personal life and education

Taylor Wilson was born in 1994 in Texarkana, Arkansas to Kenneth and Tiffany Wilson. Kenneth is the owner or a Coca-Cola bottling plant, and Tiffany was a Yoga instructor. [4] Wilson was initially interested in rocketry and space science voordat ends ring the field of nuclear science at age 10. [1] He had a lot of support from his parents. [5] During high school Wilson attended zowel the Davidson Academy of Nevada and the University of Nevada, Reno where he was bepaald a laboratory to conduct his fusion research. He resides in Reno, Nevada . [6]

In June 2012, Wilson was Awarded a Thiel Fellowship . [7] [8] The two-year $ 100,000 fellowship requires Recipients to forgo college for the duration of the fellowship.

Scientific projects

Taylor Wilson President ever nuclear security work to Barack Obama , February 7, 2012 [9]

Fusion reactor

In 2008, Wilson Achieved nuclear fusion using an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement device, welke was a variation of the fusor , invented by Philo T. Farnsworth in 1964. [1] He-used the flux of neutrons from a deuterium -deuterium fusion reaction to conduct nuclear experiments, and studied novel fusion Fuels inside the IEC device. In March 2012, Wilson ghosts at a TED conference Regarding the building or his fusion reactor. [10] Along with the IEC reactors, Wilson has conducted fusion research using Dense Plasma Focus devices. He’ll be constructed and developed nuclear diagnostics for basic fusion research. [11]

Nuclear detection

In May 2010, Wilson entered the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, California, and won verschillende awards for his project Titled “Fission Vision: The Detection of Prompt and Delayed Induced Fission Gamma Radiation, and the Application to the Detection of Proliferated Nuclear Materials. ” [12]

In May 2011, Wilson entered his radiation detector in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, California Against a field of 1,500 competitors and won a US $ 50,000 award. [3] [13] The project “Count Ring Nuclear Terrorism: Novel Active and Passive Techniques for Detecting Nuclear Threats”, won the First Place Award in the Physics and Astronomy Category, Best of Category Award, and the Intel Young Scientist Award. Wilson stated he Hopes to test and rapidly field the devices to US ports for counterterrorism Purposes. [3]

The US Department of Homeland Security and US Department of Energy offered federal funding to Wilson Concerning research Wilson has conducted in building Inexpensive Cherenkov radiation detectors ; Wilson has declined on an interim basis due to pending patent issues. [3] Traditional Cherenkov detectors Usually cost Hundreds of duizendtallen or dollars (USD), while Wilson invented a working detector dat cost a few hundred dollars. [3]

Fission reactor

On February 27, 2013 at TED 2013 Wilson Presented his ideas on the benefits of building small underground nuclear fission reactors therein are self-contained and easy to use decommissioned nuclear weapons to fuel power. [14] [15] [16] He temporarily left his research on the fusion reactor and designed a variation or a compact molten salt reactor dat he says mention anything about supply 50 MW and mention anything need refueling only once everytime 30 years. Volgens to Wilson Because much of the reactor mention anything be buried and its uranium mention anything not be weapons-grade , it is less vulnerable to terrorist attack Either or misuse. [17] The development of molten salt reactors Began in the United States at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory , where the first reactor was built in the 1960s. [18] The development of the new reactors was stopped in 1976 due to political issues. [19] Since the beginning of the 21st century, molten salt reactors are again being Explored (see Fuji MSR , LFTR ) in a few countries in some commercial companies as well as in Nationally funded projects. [18] [19]Additional design information was Provided at the Google Zeitgeist Americas 2013 conference, welke DESCRIBED a sealed vessel and the use of natural circulation in the core. [20]

In an article in Power Engineering , Wilson states:

“ At its heart, the technology is the molten salt reactor invented at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1960s. The reactor designs I Have developed are inspired by this original concept to bieden some of the Necessary features just Touched on. Additionally Providing passive emergency cooling, an Extremely compact core and reactor subsystems, few moving parts, minimal online processing, and the latest materials and fabrication techniques, and u can harbor an idea of ​​the design I am working to move to market. With a sealed module design life of 30 years, even with the harsh fluoride salt environment, there are no exceedingly s difficult materials problems. Designs range in size from 2 to 100MWe, the ranks welke the core technology Excels. 50 MWe, however, is the standard design for utility customers needing town-sized distributed power generation. “
– Taylor Wilson, August 15, 2013 [21]

References

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b c “The Boy Who Played With Fusion” . Popular Science . Retrieved October 18, 2013 .
  2. Jump up^ “Taylor Wilson” . TED.com . Retrieved October 18, 2013 .
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Dutton, Judy. “Against Nuclear Scientist Fights Terror” , CNN.com, September 1, 2011. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
  4. Jump up^ “Rock Center: 19-year-old Hopes to Revolutionize nuclear power” . NBC . Retrieved October 18, 2013 .
  5. Jump up^ Boy who played will with Fusion, Tom Clynes no ISBN bepaald, 2015
  6. Jump up^http://www.sciradioactive.com/Taylors_Nuke_Site/About_Me.htmlRetrieved February 12th, 2014.
  7. Jump up^ “Peter Thiel Announces 2012 Class of 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellows” . Thiel Fellowship website. June 13, 2012.
  8. Jump up^ Cutler, Kim-Mai (June 14, 2012). “Nuclear Fusion, 3D Printing, Biomedical Imaging: What Thiel’s New 20 Under 20 Fellows Are Attacking” . TechCrunch.
  9. Jump up^ “President Obama Hosts the White House Science Fair” . The White House . Retrieved October 18, 2013 .
  10. Jump up^ “Taylor Wilson: Yup, I built a nuclear fusion reactor” . TED.com . Retrieved October 18, 2013 .
  11. Jump up^ “Taylor’s Nuke Site” . Sciradioactive.com . Retrieved October 18, 2013 .
  12. Jump up^ Intel SEF database. societyforscience.org
  13. Jump up^ By Builds Nuke Detecting Device, Gizmodo.com. Retrieved September 3, 2011
  14. Jump up^ TED2013. “Taylor Wilson: My radical plan for small nuclear fission reactors” . TED.com . Retrieved May 6, 2013 .
  15. Jump up^ “Good energy comes in small packages: Taylor Wilson at TED2013” . TED.com. February 27, 2012.
  16. Jump up^ “The Wunderkinder or TED” . Time . March 1, 2012.
  17. Jump up^ “TED Day 3: Fixing the Planet” . Discover . February 28, 2012.
  18. ^ Jump up to:a b Bullis, Kevin (March 12 2013). “Safer Nuclear Power at Half the Price” . MIT Technology Review . Retrieved May 11, 2013 .
  19. ^ Jump up to:a b Waldrop, M. Mitchell (January 5, 2012). “Nuclear energy: Radical reactors” . nature.com . Retrieved May 11, 2013 .
  20. Jump up^ Wilson, Taylor (17 September 2013). “Zeitgeist Americas 2013” . Zeitgeist minds . Retrieved 17 August 2015 .
  21. Jump up^ “Redeeming the Atom” . Power Engineering . Retrieved 18 October 2013 .