For the Reporter
The team of seniors Ray Maung, 17, Kentwood High School, Jake Hecla, 18, Aviation High of Des Moines, and Rian Chandra, 18, Capitol High of Olympia, won the second-place grand award in physics and astronomy at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair on May 12-17 at Phoenix, Ariz.
Their project was called “Investigation of Anisotropic Neutron Production in a Farnsworth lEC Fusion Reactor.” The grand award included $1,500, in addition to the $1,500 special award from the American Coalition for Plasma Science. Each member of the team also will receive the right to name a recently discovered minor planet (asteroid) through the Ceres Connection Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Earlier in the year the team took the silver award at the South Sound Regional Science Fair in Tacoma, and captured the top statewide gold award at the Washington State Science & Engineering Fair in April.
Intel ISEF is the world’s largest high school science competition. Every year millions of students worldwide compete in local and school-sponsored science fairs; the winners of these events go on to participate in regional and state fairs from which the best win the opportunity to attend Intel ISEF. Intel ISEF showcases student talent on an international stage, enabling them to submit their work to judging by doctoral level scientists—and providing the opportunity to compete for more than $3 million in prizes and scholarships.
Maung, Hecla and Chandra are members of the Northwest Nuclear Consortium, a group of students from South King County who meet once a week after school to explore high energy physics and operate a working fusion reactor. The reactor is safe, generating temperatures as hot as the sun, but confined to a small volume isolated in a vacuum.
The program offers students the experience of “extreme science” in an environment inspected and certified by the State of Washington. Fusion reactors use fuel extracted from ocean water, emit no carbon, and produce no long term nuclear wastes. The National Academy of Engineering has identified the development of safe, clean, fusion power as one of the grand challenges of the 21st century.
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