Having built much of a fusion reactor in my apartment... (but not the classic Farnsworth design)<p>1) A much easier (and usually cheaper and more accurate) way to measure neutrons is to just rent a proper device, from somewhere like: <a href="https://instruments.energysolutions.com/instrument-rental/neutron-meters/" rel="nofollow">https://instruments.energysolutions.com/instrument-rental/ne...</a>. Not a big fan of bubble dosimeters, except when you need to measure a place you cannot be at the time of measurement (like on the unshielded roof of a linac bunker).<p>2) Best to check with your significant other before doing stuff in shared areas. Twice I have been banned from "doing science stuff in the kitchen", once when I got a 5" NeFeB magnet stuck to the oven and we almost got badly injured removing it, and once when I thermally decomposed AlOH3 in the oven. This is why the rest of the fusion reactor was not built at home.<p>3) Power supplies are an important and expensive component. We got most of ours by buying an obsolete ion implanter, and just pulled the power supplies from it. This is a lot cheaper than buying new or even used stand-alone supplies. However, the problem with old power supplies is sometimes they have a problem, and troubleshooting high voltage supplies can be more than tricky. A 180 kV supply got me bad once when the drain resistor was broken and I tried to change a capacitor - when I felt the zap go in one hand and out where I was sitting, I thought "ok, I'm dead". Luckily it wasn't enough charge to kill me. Invest in a long dry wooden dowel, so you can check if surfaces are charged before you touch them.
What's the price range for this build? I really got into fusion lately, and I've saved about $1,500 over the past couple months. I don't need the best tech, for my first build I can get some cheap parts off Aliexpress.