Eric Foss, a junior at Kentwood High School, won the silver medal in the senior division at the 52nd annual Washington State Science and Engineering Fair April 3-4.

Foss’s entry was “Star in a Jar: Operating Parameters of an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Reactor.”

Foss was selected as one of two students from the fair to represent Washington state at the 2009 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Reno, Nevada, Sunday through May 15.

Foss also won the Mu Alpha Theta Award for best use of mathematics, the U.S. Army Award for Excellence, the U.S. Air Force Award and the Olympic College President’s Award for Excellence in Physics. In addition he was offered scholarships to Washington State University, Whitman College, and Ohio Wesleyan University.

Last summer, Foss was looking for a challenging science project. He found some information on the Web and decided to build a small nuclear fusion reactor. He spent the rest of the summer collecting parts and finally, in January, had it working, joining a club of about 30 amateurs in the world who are known to have created “fusors”; tabletop machines that fuse atoms to produce energy. There’s no risk of a mushroom cloud – the machine creates barely enough energy to heat a cup of coffee, and radiation officials at the Washington State Department of Health have reviewed his plans and indicated no concern.

How it works is a vacuum pump draws air out of a two gallon glass jar, leaving a near-total vacuum. The jar is backfilled with deuterium gas and energized with about 20,000 volts of electricity. A negatively charged grid of steel wires attracts charged particles, sometimes causing them to collide. Colliding particles fuse to form helium. The resulting neutron emission is measured, proving that fusion occurred.

At the upcoming Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, 1,600 students in grades 9-12 from 50 countries will display cutting-edge science projects and compete for more than $4 million in prizes and scholarships.