A few more details on the students’ device may be found here and here. According to those sources, it is a cylindrical device composed of plastic and aluminum. It receives its energy from a wall socket. It apparently electrostatically focuses a hydrogen beam at a target of frozen deuterium. I suppose it would be categorized as either beam-target or inertial confinement fusion. Given that the phrase “inertial confinement” appears in the title of their project, I guess I’ll go with ICF. The device has achieved fusion on three occasions so far.
The students won first place in the electrical and mechanical engineering category of the Beaverton Hillsboro Science Exposition, and will be going on to compete at the Intel Northwest Science Expo on April 1st.
An interesting note: one of the students was inspired by the movie Iron Man to develop his own fusion reactor.
