The list of young African inventors keeps getting longer by the day, and the freshest man on the list is a 16 years old Nigerian, Steven Udotong.
Living in New Jersey, Steven has taken a path never followed by any black student as he attempts to become the first to invent a Nuclear fusor, a thing many have tried and hit the brick wall.
In as much as much the Nigerian media have been reporting that his invention has been completed, Wiredbugs reliably gathered that the 16-years-old junior at Cinnaminson High School is still building the nuclear fusor.
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If Steven Udotong is able to complete his project, he will be able to produce some amount of energy through the use of hydrogen atoms which are pulled together with extreme force inside the steel orb. This leads to fusing them into helium to produce the energy.
The invention will not only be different from nuclear fission which causes an atom-splitting reaction at a nuclear power plant that causes radioactive waste and hence, a problem to humans. On the contrary, this is clean energy. The fusion tries to replicate on a small scale, the process that takes place in the sun.
Before Udotong, many scientists all over the world have taken out decades of their lives in pursuance of the fusion as a solution to the problem of energy in the world. This is because the invention will surely be revolutionary as apart from being waste-free and emission-free, it will also be a virtually inexhaustible source of power.
The challenge scientists have been having with the invention is that it consumes more energy in running than it can actually produce.
And although Udotong has gone a long way with his work, there is much doubt if he would be able to solve the problem at the moment with what he is currently building. Nevertheless, his genius efforts have not gone unnoticed at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. It was here that scientists were able to build an 85-ton, two-story “tokamak” chamber for testing various elements of the fusion process.
After seeing the project, Andrew Zwicker who is a physicist and the head of public outreach at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy said about the young inventor; “his device isn’t going to revolutionize the world, but he might.”
Who is Steven Udotong?
He is a Junior at Cinnaminson High School in small suburban New Jersey town. With four other siblings, he is being raised by his single mother in a house that promises more than one scientist.
This is as while his mother, Nonye, has taught physics at Rowan University, his older brothers attend Harvard, MIT, and Princeton.
The Nigerian-American developed his interest in fusion after learning about it in 10th-grade chemistry. Soon he went on to researched the topic further on his own, with the backing of his mother who moved to the US from Nigeria over 20 years ago.
while the mother was okay with the son’s interest in trying to see how he could bring his dreams to life, she never thought he would pursue it until he took it as far was developing something and setting up a GoFundMe page to raise money.
More so, he got one of his brothers, Isaiah, who is a junior at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to place orders for parts online.
According to his estimates, with $1,500, he would be able to complete his project. From his FundMe page however, he had already recorded over $2,200 when wiredbugs checked.
About His Invention
With the needed money raised, Steven Udotong can now settle for his invention, which he is expected to see to the end.
While not dangerous, the invention may pose some risks to the person operating the device. This, however, can be managed properly with safety features.
The reactor can pose some danger from emitting some neutrons and electromagnetic radiation. Because of this, Udotong would need to protect himself with shielding around the device.
So far, he has been getting the necessary support he needs both at home and in school. According to him, his brothers are motivating him to get going with the work.
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Part of the things he would need to have the work completed are vacuum gauge, a radiation detector, and turbo controller. More so, the device would require a power supply with at least 20,000 volts.
See how you can make a Nuclear Fusor
While he would go down in history if he succeeds as the first black kid to hit such a project and achieve the feat, he would not go down as the first person to make a fusor. This is because Philo Farnsworth became the first person to invent the Nuclear Fusor in the late 1950s. Even though he is more popular as one of the major inventors of TV, he had had his contributions.
