It sounds like the premise of an especially geeky comic book: Web developer by day, trailblazing nuclear engineer by night.

Mark Suppes is a Web developer for the fashion house Gucci, but in his off-hours, he tinkers with his homemade nuclear-fusion reactor in a
Brooklyn warehouse, unknown to his neighbors. In a video interview with BBC News' Matthew Danzico,
Suppes cheerfully shows the reporter how his reactor works, warning him
to step back as the machine activates and emits a small amount of
radiation. The reporter is heard laughing nervously in the background,
telling Suppes to be careful.

Suppes' is the 38th homemade reactor built by an independent amateur scientist, according to Fusor.net. On that website, "fusioneers" discuss attempts to create a
nuclear-fusion reactor that produces as much energy as it consumes, a
problem that has plagued some of science's greatest minds.

Though several Brooklyn locals expressed unease to the BBC at the idea of hosting a fusion startup in their neighborhood, the process is
entirely legal in the United States. As scientists explained to the
BBC, experimental fusion devices
don't actually use fissionable materials like uranium. Instead, fusion
reactors seek to force together the nuclei of atoms at high
temperatures — a procedure that releases energy as the combined atoms
form larger nuclei.

Perhaps the most salient question about Suppes' hobby, then, is whether it's a waste of time. Government-led  research of fusion technology is
funded on a far more lavish scale than Suppes' $35,000 DIY project.
(Fusion energy is the holy grail of green technology, since it produces
no nuclear waste or greenhouse gases.)

"I won't say something that puts these guys down, but it's a tricky situation because there is a great deal of money and time and a lot of
very experienced scientists working on fusion at the moment," said Neil
Calder, spokesman for Iter, a multinational project focusing on fusion
power.

Not that Suppes is expecting his fusion dreams to be contained in his Brooklyn warehouse space. He says he's hoping to raise millions of
dollars to scale up the reactor.

Still, a do-it-yourself, door-to-door fundraising approach probably isn't advisable in this case.

"I would have thought there would be some sort of rules and laws about messing around with nuclear fusion in your apartment," Brooklyn resident Stephen Davis told the BBC. "I'm not sure I'd like that living right next to me."