All the best school science experiments carry at least a
of danger.
But when 13-year-old Jamie Edwards informed his stunned headmaster of his plan to
a nuclear reactor in a classroom, the obvious question was: ‘Will it blow the school
?’
Fortunately, in a victory for the spirit of amateur scientific
over the health and safety culture, Jamie’s promise that it was perfectly
was believed.
And yesterday he became the youngest person in the world to
nuclear fusion from
at his Lancashire secondary school, using high energy to smash two hydrogen atoms together to make helium.
‘It is quite an achievement. It’s magnificent really,’ Jamie said afterwards. ‘I can’t quite believe it – even though all my friends think I am
.’
Jamie's first step was to enlist help from nuclear laboratories and university departments, but ‘they didn’t seem to take me
’.
So that left the laboratories at his school, and the task of convincing headmaster Jim Hourigan. Fortunately the head agreed,
the necessary £3,000 funding.
‘I was a bit stunned and I have to say a little nervous when Jamie suggested this but he reassured me he wouldn’t blow the school up,’ Mr Hourigan said yesterday.
After months of work, the reactor was finally
just ahead of his 14th birthday this weekend.
And yesterday, in a ‘radiation controlled area’ in a classroom, before an audience of experts, he
a switch and stared intently at his Geiger counter until it registered that fusion had indeed taken place – or created ‘a
in a jar’, as Jamie refers to it.
For his next project, Jamie has his sights set
building a miniature hadron collider.
