Dallas Teen, 13, Builds Nuclear Fusion Reactor at Home

When most kids were building Lego sets during the pandemic, 8-year-old Aidan McMillan decided to build a nuclear fusion reactor instead.

Now 13, the Dallas student may become the youngest person ever to achieve nuclear fusion. He spent four years teaching himself physics from a 400-page textbook, Googling every third word as he went.

Aidan built a Farnsworth fusion reactor, a device that uses high voltage and a vacuum chamber to smash tiny atoms together. The process mimics what powers the sun and stars.

He started by reading dense scientific texts with Google open on one screen and the textbook on another. After two years of self-study on top of regular schoolwork, he moved from theory to building at the Dallas Makerspace in Carrollton.

There he met Russell Crow, a 66-year-old retired laser engineer who became his mentor. Crow machined parts when Aidan was too young to operate power tools, but the teenager handled most of the construction himself.

The project wasn't cheap or simple. Building the fusor cost around $20,000, with parts sourced online and borrowed from the makerspace. The device came with real dangers too, including potentially lethal voltages and X-ray radiation.

Late in 2024, just before his 12th birthday, Aidan flipped the switch around 1 a.m. and achieved fusion for the first time. The deuterium gas turned to plasma, stripped of electrons, and particles crashed together at 90,000 revolutions per minute.

The Ripple Effect

Aidan isn't chasing the Guinness record for himself. He wants to spotlight Launchpad Incubator, a new West Dallas makerspace his parents helped open last May specifically for young scientists.

The space currently serves eight students after school and on weekends, with plans to grow to 40 kids. His parents invested about $100,000 in renovations to create a place where children can tackle ambitious projects.

"A lot of people don't have the means to do these projects," Aidan explained. The makerspace gives kids the tools, mentorship, and community of peers who think just as big.

Carl Willis, a nuclear engineering professor at the University of New Mexico who verified Aidan's achievement, said the work pushes back against the idea that nuclear science belongs only in universities. A small but dedicated community of hobbyists worldwide builds home fusion reactors and particle accelerators.

What kept Aidan going through the hard moments wasn't the science itself. "I spent a year trying to do nuclear fusion, and I'm not gonna let my past self down," he said.

Now he's showing other young people that the most ambitious dreams don't have to wait until adulthood.