Teenager builds nuclear reactor, doesn't win science fair

Bureaucracy wins again
Conrad Farnsworth and his reactor

Credit: Conrad Farnsworth

Credit: Conrad Farnsworth

Conrad Farnsworth and his reactor
It sounds like something Sheldon would do in The Big Bang Theory but this really happened.
18-year-old Conrad Farnsworth actually built a nuclear fusion reactor in his father’s work shed.
That should be enough to win the International Science and Engineering Fair. Instead he was disqualified on a technicality.
The problem came because Conrad had competed in too many science fairs.
A former director of the Wyoming State Science Fair reported the young man, causing the DQ.
Later on officials at the sponsoring institution, the University of Wyoming said the director did not have the authority to make that call.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports Farnsworth is one of only 15 high school students in the world to successfully build a nuclear fusion reactor.
Conrad told the paper he thinks the whole thing is silly but he’s moving on.
He has graduated and will head off to college at the South Dakota School of Mines in the fall.

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