In a “nondescript” warehouse on a “tree-lined” Bed-Stuy street across from “blocks of apartments” and a grocery store, Gucci web developer Mark Suppes has built — in his spare time — a functioning, homemade nuclear reactor. With hopes of solving the world energy crisis, Suppes has become the 38th amateur physicist in the world to achieve nuclear fusion, according to the BBC. And the crazy thing is, the procedure is totally legal, and (allegedly) safe! In the fusion process, atomic nuclei are forced together at high pressure, forming larger nuclei and large amounts of energy. Because there is no nuclear material involved, like uranium or plutonium, it’s no threat to neighbors, and it doesn’t create pollution. Suppes’s neighbors in Bed-Stuy, interviewed by the BBC, seem relatively tolerant of the project, so his fund-raising and work have been allowed to continue uninterrupted. One can only imagine how things would be different, however, if the lab were in Carroll Gardens. Or Brooklyn Heights!
Extreme DIY: Building a homemade nuclear reactor in NYC [BBC]
