Umbran arrested in Sweden for Illegal Nuclear Experiments!

[Pbartender]

Here's an American Physicist with a particle accelerator in his back yard, though this guy has been in trouble with the government before. In the YouTube video on this page, he's describing how to create hydrogen fuel at home, what equipment he uses to fuel his own hydrogen vehicle, but he explains about his backyard particle accelerator in this video... which is how he produces the raw material to create hydrogen fuel in the first place.

Backyard particle accelerator

Yeah... I know about a dozen guys who've built homemade particle accelerators in their garages or basements. It's not especially difficult, if you have some basic technical skills, and can be made largely from parts salvaged from a CRT television (which is, itself, a type of particle accelerator). You can find instructions all over the web.

They don't even need to be especially big or powerful to work... The first particle accelerator was only slightly larger than a hockey puck.

HowStuffWorks "A Particle Accelerator"

Building a working nuclear reactor, however, is a whole different kettle of fish.

 

[Umbran]

and can be made largely from parts salvaged from a CRT television (which is, itself, a type of particle accelerator).

You beat me to it - it is not particularly strange to have a "particle accelerator" in your home - anyone with a CRT television or computer monitor has one. The "cathode ray" is a stream of electrons that have been accelerated.

Building a working nuclear reactor, however, is a whole different kettle of fish.

If there are any fish in the kettle, they are kaiju monstrosities, ready to take on Godzilla, though.

 

[Umbran]

which is how he produces the raw material to create hydrogen fuel in the first place.

I haven't watched that yet, but that sounds... odd. What you usually need for hydrogen fuel is some hydrogen-rich chemical (like water, or sugar, or the like) from which you can rip off hydrogen. You don't typically need a particle accelerator for that.

 

[Pbartender]

I haven't watched that yet, but that sounds... odd. What you usually need for hydrogen fuel is some hydrogen-rich chemical (like water, or sugar, or the like) from which you can rip off hydrogen. You don't typically need a particle accelerator for that.

No kidding... At it's most simple, a solar panel (or a battery), a couple cables and a bucket of water are all you really need to make as much hydrogen as you like.

 

[Umbran]

No kidding... At it's most simple, a solar panel (or a battery), a couple cables and a bucket of water are all you really need to make as much hydrogen as you like.

I watched the video. Gamerprinter got it wrong. These guys are making hydrogen by plain old electrolysis. Hook up a current (they suggest from solar cells or a wind turbine) to a fancyfied bucket of water.

The particle accelerator is for another purpose. They're storing they hydrogen in a hydride tank - pump the Hydrogen in, it gets stored in the solid, so it isn't explosive or take up so much volume. Heat the hydride tank, the hydrogen is released.

The thing is, they hydride they are using is lithium-6 deuteride. While not a notable hazard under normal human conditions, it is the fusion fuel in some nuclear weapons, so it is controlled - you cannot buy it in the US, period. Not for any price.

It is perfectly legal to make it, though. Thus, the accelerator.

 

[Pbartender]

That makes a lot more sense.

 

[gamerprinter]

I watched the video. Gamerprinter got it wrong. These guys are making hydrogen by plain old electrolysis. Hook up a current (they suggest from solar cells or a wind turbine) to a fancyfied bucket of water.

The particle accelerator is for another purpose. They're storing they hydrogen in a hydride tank - pump the Hydrogen in, it gets stored in the solid, so it isn't explosive or take up so much volume. Heat the hydride tank, the hydrogen is released.

The thing is, they hydride they are using is lithium-6 deuteride. While not a notable hazard under normal human conditions, it is the fusion fuel in some nuclear weapons, so it is controlled - you cannot buy it in the US, period. Not for any price.

It is perfectly legal to make it, though. Thus, the accelerator.

Well, I'm no physicist and its been a while since I watched the video. There are other videos on the main site with page hydrogen site was related to that shows the standard electrolysis process of making it.

I knew the accelerator was a part of its process - just not being any kind of scientist, I mispoke as to what the purpose was, but you guy's get that, I thought that the video was somewhat related to the conversation, that's why I posted...

 

[Pbartender]

Well, I'm no physicist and its been a while since I watched the video. There are other videos on the main site with page hydrogen site was related to that shows the standard electrolysis process of making it.

I knew the accelerator was a part of its process - just not being any kind of scientist, I mispoke as to what the purpose was, but you guy's get that, I thought that the video was somewhat related to the conversation, that's why I posted...

No, that's cool... don't worry about it. It's all good.

People like Umbran and me like to double-check these kinds of spiels. Very often they're couched in all sorts of bogus claims and pseudo-scientific to dazzle non-science types. At first blush, this sounded like one of those sorts of boondoggles.

 

[Umbran]

I knew the accelerator was a part of its process - just not being any kind of scientist, I mispoke as to what the purpose was, but you guy's get that, I thought that the video was somewhat related to the conversation, that's why I posted...

It is at least as related to the conversation as Hulk underwear, so you're fine

Watching the video, the entire thing is at least vaguely plausible. I wonder at the temperatures he needs to get the hydrogen out of the hydride, and I'm not so sure that a system that requires lithium-6 deuteride is the sort of thing that I'd ever try to make into a consumer product, even if the material were legal to sell. It's just that when you're down to specifying isotopes, you're getting really picky and things get more difficult. But that's their business decision.

 

[gamerprinter]

Oh, the site that that video was linked to is also interesting, UnitedNuclear.com, which is a product sales site for all kinds of interesting scientific gadgets and components, like: you can buy every element from the periodic table, or mini jet turbine engines that can be attached to a bicycle (?!), even a 'Death Ray' - as supposedly the most powerful laser you can buy, but sold as individual components only with plans on putting it together. Bizarre and cool stuff...