@documentingchill: At just 12 years old, Jackson Oswalt built a nuclear fusion device in his family’s home. Not for a school project. Not as a toy. A real homemade fusion reactor. Jackson, from Memphis, Tennessee, spent months researching online, buying parts, and building a machine called a fusor inside his house. In 2018, just before his 13th birthday, he successfully achieved nuclear fusion, making him the youngest person recognised by Guinness World Records to do it. But then the story got even crazier. Because when authorities heard that a child had built a nuclear fusion device at home, the FBI reportedly visited his house. Agents checked the area with a Geiger counter to make sure there were no dangerous radiation levels. Thankfully, they found no harmful levels. To be clear, this was not a nuclear power plant. It did not produce usable electricity. A fusor uses more energy than it creates. But it can still create real fusion reactions, the same basic process that powers the sun. Most kids his age were playing video games. Jackson Oswalt was building a fusion device in his bedroom. And the FBI came to check it.

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Thursday 18 June 2026 14:13:16 GMT