Fusor Forums

Two weeks ago, the CR-39 team from the North West Nuclear Consortium in Federal Way took 1st place in physics at the South Sound regional science fair, and earned an all expense paid trip to ISEF in Phoenix for all of them.

Last night they took first place in the Washington State Science Fair (The gold), $120,000 in scholarships and several other awards including the Pacific Science Center and an award from Wolfram, the company that makes Mathematica Technical Computing Software. All of this was for a project based on the Farnsworth Fusor they helped build at the NWNC.

The NWNC wishes to thank all of the wonderful people from FUSOR.NET, Robert Tubbs, David Housley, and the NWNC core team without which this would have been impossible. The CR-39 team consists of Jake Hecla, Raymond Maung and Rian Chandra.

What did they present? Unfortunately, they will have to tell you that. They have sworn me to secrecy ... for now, but it's really cool!

Carl G.

Congratulations! Best of luck on ISEF!

Congratulations, guys!

I look forward to that report. CR-39 is used in commercial neutron dosimeters but has not yet found much of an appreciation in the hobby fusion world.

-Carl

A great, well deserved win for that team effort. Congratulations and good luck down the road at ISEF.

Richard Hull

Congrats to the team! I think the CR-39 piece with the fusor is a great idea to challenge with at ISEF. Fusors have been all through ISEF the last few years and the new twist is important to be competitive. I bought a supply of CR-39 last year (welder's face shield plates) for Mike and I to tinker with, but we didn't get to it yet. I saw some folks doing track counting with the plastic about 30 years ago, and I remember it being a little messy because you have to make the holes easy to see with hours of hot caustic bathing. I often wondered if CR-39 tracks could be scanned en masse and enhanced as a different type of neutron radiography.

I wish the team the best of luck at ISEF and look forward to learning what you found with CR-39.

Jim K