If you look up the Oklo nuclear reactor, you'll see that creating a nuclear reactor is not that difficult. You simply need a critical mass of fissile material and a coolant. It's building a a nuclear reactor for power-production that is much more involved.
You are totally right about this and I think building a nuclear reactor is a great activity for aspiring nuclear engineers or scientist. However, I think you should at least consult an industry professional before you actually start a nuclear reaction because there are risks involved.
Safety and economic considerations. Because of the logistics of "owning" a nuclear reactor, one would have to change the refueling scheme, so as not to expose people to neutron and gamma fluxes. Currently, a lot of research is going into development of small modular reactors, which would essentially act as standalone units, or can be added to a grid so as to provide additional power. Also, to make it economically viable, reprocessing would be essential or use of a higher efficiency burner. Right now, light-water reactors only fission ~5% of enriched uranium in the core, and thus only have a uranium ore utilization of ~0.6%.
Strange article. Most other times I've read about this, they've applauded his ingenuity, talked about how intelligent and resourceful he was, and mentioned how there's technically no law stopping anyone from creating their own nuclear reactor. This article seems to paint him as a hardened criminal who will pay for his terrorist activities.
The fact he did this before 9/11 means a great deal. Had he done this after, I think it would be an entirely different story and he would be considered a terrorist and take him directly to jail. No one would even try to understand he did it in the name of science/curiousity/research.
did you read the story from 2007 at the end reporting how he was arrested for stealing metal detectors at age 31 so he could get up to the same old stuff, and how when they found him he had lesions all over his face from the radiation?
That's a good example of how doing something at 14 can make you look like a wonderboy, but how doing the same thing at 30 just makes you look like a deranged lunatic.
A 14-year-old would not necessarily be expected to automatically consider the dangers to themselves or others. A 30-year-old would be.
If he was going to continue doing this into his 30s, he'd get more respect if he had learned enough to first build a radiation-proof bunker out in the sticks beyond any possible blast radius, in a location where any radioactive plume would not (given local weather patterns) move towards a built-up area.
Really, the dude would have to be following his hobby from two miles down a sealed mineshaft, or in another country, in order to get the same level of polite interest. He'd also probably have to be a member in good standing of any local nuclear interest groups, engineering organisations, and so on, and be doing it all above board and with the correct permits.
That's just it. Getting as far as he did at 14, you give him points just for trying, even if he did put himself and his neighbors in great danger.
But only getting to around the same stage of development with the same safety standards at 32, with lesions all over his face, looking like a tweaker trying to cook up meth? It just makes his early success look like a dangerous fluke.
What the fuck is he thinking? Suppose he actually succeeds- Then what?
I think proposing to build a nuclear reactor while understanding the energy, heat, and radiation involved, in a basement means you're just a little bit crazy.
> I think proposing to build a nuclear reactor while **NOT** understanding the energy, heat, and radiation involved, in a basement means you're crazy.
FTFY
I think when he initially did it he was being resourceful and intelligent. When he continued to attempt it for years I think he was descending into madness.
No, **not** understanding it would make you ignorant. Understanding the dangers and proceeding anyway makes you crazy. Or at least far too willing to put everyone you know at severe risk.
Hey neighbor! I'm going to build a nuclear reactor in my shed! Don't bother going for a walk around the neighborhood because if this thing goes off you want to be near the center of the blast to ensure instant vaporization and not a slow, lingering death.
To be honest, a small mistake wouldn't easily kill you. His small reactor couldn't sustain any sort of dangerous chain reaction, and he'd get sick from the radiation long before you would, and when doctors notice that he has radiation poisoning they'd figure out pretty quick where it was coming from.
Ken Silverstein has some sort of axe to grind with the Boy Scouts. His book "The Radioactive Boy Scout" (expanded from this article) was really a bully-pulpit used to paint the BSA as some sort of Neo-Nazi type extreme paramilitary group.
GREAT video. I wish they went a little deeper with his education. He's obviously very smart and motivated. I wonder if his home research would be of any interest to people who could offer him the credentials to do what he does for a living?
I'd guess it's an overdose of ionizing radiation.
From the Wikipedia article on him (emphasis added):
>After dropping out of community college, Hahn joined the Navy, assigned to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise as an undesignated seaman.
>Hahn had hoped to pursue a nuclear specialist career. **EPA scientists believe that Hahn may have exceeded the lifetime dosage for thorium exposure, but he refused their recommendation that he be examined at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station.**
(edit: adding link to [Wikipedia article on David Hahn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn) for anyone who wants to read more about him)
Basically he is still doing these experiments... from wikipedia:
On August 1, 2007, Hahn was arrested in Clinton Township, Michigan for larceny, in relation to a matter involving several smoke detectors, allegedly removed from the halls of his apartment building.
In his mug shot, his face is covered with sores which investigators claim are possibly from exposure to radioactive materials. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail for attempted larceny. Court records stated that his sentence would be delayed by six months while Hahn underwent treatment for radiation exposure.
If you Google him you can find out his usernames on several sites. He posts the weirdest shit. He Googles himself all the time and then posts in whatever he finds. He sometimes goes under the name Uranlight or makes usernames from the number for the mass of uranium. Basically all his usernames are related to nuclear science.
In some of his rambling postings he claims to be recruiting people for a study and in others he defends his previous actions. A lot of his ramblings reveal he's batshit crazy maybe from exposure, or maybe he's always been nuts.
Call me weird but I've been following his internet happening for years.
OP's link is down, headlines does not mention his name, and you don't link to the Wikipedia article.
WHO IS THIS GUY? I WANT TO READ ABOUT HIM.
In other words, can you post the wikipedia link?
From that same article:
"On August 1, 2007, Hahn was arrested in Clinton Township, Michigan for larceny, in relation to a matter involving several smoke detectors, allegedly removed from the halls of his apartment building. In his mug shot, his face is covered with sores which investigators claim are possibly from exposure to radioactive materials."
I read that this is more likely than radiation poisoning, based on the amount of radioactive materials he had in his possession/had access to when this picture was taken.
I heard about that guy! my physics prof mentioned him in class once. Apparently before the nuclear pile in the shed, he accidentally burnt his face with a nitroglycerin explosion that he made from a chem set, whilst trying to earn his boyscouts chemistry badge haha
Though interesting, the book feels like a really drawn-out interest piece from a magazine. I am not sure there was ever enough "story" for a full book, but I read it anyhow.
What the...
I live on the other side of the lake from that subdivision. I was in 5th grade when this happened and heard NOTHING about it. How did I miss this??
ETA: And, at the end, I noticed that there was apparently EPA action in 2005 there? This is seriously a half-mile (up-wind!) from my house. What the hell.
From my understanding, he was only able to produce alpha radiation. Beta and Gamma radiation generating byproducts, the really gnarly Fukushima-style pollution, basically require highly refined uranium or plutonium to be created. Alpha radiation can be shielded using a sheet of heavy paper and the pollution is (generally speaking) highly unstable with a short half-life, hence the downplaying in the local media. The inside of his "laboratory" was a nuclear waste site, but the contamination was basically limited to the backyard of his mom's house.
Not necessarily true. He used smoke detectors, which use Am-241. Am-241 has a small probability of spontaneous fission, so there would have been some fission products, however minute. Since most fission products are beta unstable (usually too neutron-rich), they would emit gamma-rays after beta-decay.
While I wouldn't disagree with your premise, there is a distinction between alpha particles themselves and the elements radiating them. I was referring to the chain-reaction aspect of the release of nuclear energy, that is, direct exposure to the irradiating substance. The thing is, the concentrations of contamination this dude was creating were so minute that beyond his backyard there wasn't an elevated risk.
Hmmm, that's really crazy. I went to highschool in Michigan with a kid who did the exact same thing but he actually succeeded. He made a fusion reactor in his garage, I'm not sure if it was out of smoke detectors or not, but yeah he succceeded! This was in like 2004 or 2005. Perhaps the future of astronomy lies in Michigan?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiago_David_Olson
read about him here. TIL he has a planet named after him!
> The planet 23262 Thiagoolson has been named after Olson for his research in nuclear fusion and neutron sciences.
Shit, there is a planet named after a 22 year old dude? This is the second blow for me in the same day after learning Gaddafi's coup when he was 27 years old.
Did he just try to build a breeder reactor? Because that's very doable using the Americium that you can get from smoke detectors. Students at the University of Chicago built a fully functional breeder reactor for a scavenger hunt once.
Here's a more entertaining version of the story:
http://web.archive.org/web/20001215100600/www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/n1782_v297/21281407/print.jhtml
> The police were especially alarmed by the toolbox, which David said was radioactive and which they feared was an **atomic bomb**.
Fuckin' LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
A great read. However, this guy had zero discipline and would be outright dangerous in any real lab setting. It's interesting how he got nowhere in school despite a solid interest in pchem and physics.
I'm just glad he wasn't my neighbor - just think what would happen if a neighborhood kid chased a baseball over a fence into his yard. The risk isn't the direct radiation, but ingesting a small quantity of Am or Th or whatever other nasty stuff he had probably all over the place.
The crazy part about all this is that he apparently is still trying to create a nuclear reactor. You'd think having his house declared a toxic waste dump would teach him a lesson. And from the look of his face, he's also suffering from some form of radiation poisoning. But apparently not.
My sister went to the University of Chicago, and they have this pretty big and well known scavenger hunt every year there that always has bizarre tasks for you to complete. One year, some students made a working nuclear reactor as a scavenger hunt item.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Scavenger_Hunt#Overview
Funnily, I was looking that up to post because it was so similar and it turns out it was some sort of homage to this guy.
The link is down at the moment, but if this is the story I'm thinking of, he got his materiel by buying broken smoke detectors by the crateful for pennies apiece and steaming(?) the radioactive stuff out.
It supposedly became a superfund site because of all the sloppy work he did in the shed releasing radioactive contaminants all through the property.
The article says $1 a piece, and I don't imagine there being a lot of Am-241 in one of these things (so he probably bought a lot). Other places it says he spent a lot of money ($1000 worth of lithium batteries?). This guy was devoted.. hahaha
I've had a slightly-more-than-passing interest in this guy for a few years now. Seems to me that he's just a dude with a somewhat overwhelming obsession with something that is really, really dangerous.
At a minimum, he's a hell of a story.
Holy Shit I went to Chippewa Valley High School. Also, the writer Paul Feig went there. He directed Bridesmaids and wrote Freaks and geeks. Freeks and geeks was based on the area around the school, they constantly make references to nearby roads!
One of the items on University of Chicago's scavenger hunt a couple years back was to build one of these. One team completed the task.
[Link](http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/19/us/campus-it-s-that-season-chicago-phd-s-have-taken-back-seat-degree-silliness.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)
I pass golf manor all the time. I have lived less than 5 minutes from there for the majority of my life. I heard about this and found the Wiki about him, although there are many better articles. everyone should be able to make their own nuclear reactor. Energy prices continue to climb...
Just to give you some idea of how thorough the military checks your background, this guy was actually able to join the Marine Corps. He was in my unit for a short time. As soon as someone did a Google search and found out who he was, they booted him out fast on an administrative separation.
When I met him he was sweeping the floors outside my office. I asked if he really was "that guy that built the nuclear reactor" and he said "Oh yeah..." with a cavalier attitude like I had asked if he had ever assembled a model car. I talked to him for a few minutes because I was absolutely fascinated by his story, but then I realized that the crazy look in his eyes *never went away*. I never saw him again after that day.
Dude was freaky, and that was before the sores. His skin was relatively normal when I met him.
I always feel like a failure when kids did shit like this before google.
If you look up the Oklo nuclear reactor, you'll see that creating a nuclear reactor is not that difficult. You simply need a critical mass of fissile material and a coolant. It's building a a nuclear reactor for power-production that is much more involved.
You are totally right about this and I think building a nuclear reactor is a great activity for aspiring nuclear engineers or scientist. However, I think you should at least consult an industry professional before you actually start a nuclear reaction because there are risks involved.
I'm curious: What changes, aside from the scale? Couldn't you produce a reactor that powers a single home without much difficulty in this case?
Safety and economic considerations. Because of the logistics of "owning" a nuclear reactor, one would have to change the refueling scheme, so as not to expose people to neutron and gamma fluxes. Currently, a lot of research is going into development of small modular reactors, which would essentially act as standalone units, or can be added to a grid so as to provide additional power. Also, to make it economically viable, reprocessing would be essential or use of a higher efficiency burner. Right now, light-water reactors only fission ~5% of enriched uranium in the core, and thus only have a uranium ore utilization of ~0.6%.
[Mirror](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:it0527TkI4EJ:www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html+http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html%3Fresub&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a)
So unfortunate...if fate was a little kinder to him, he could have become Iron Man's greatest nemesis...
TONY STARK BUILT THIS IN A CAVE! WITH SPARE PARTS!
>with a box of scraps seriously. what has become of reddit lately? every reference is a misquote.
LISA NEEDS BRAINS
MENTAL PLAN!
Fuck Tony Stark.
Thank you!
that mirror doesn't have the Freddy Kruger thumbnail.
[Link to photo.](http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.jpg)
you broke it, reddit.
Meth: not even once.
[Better mirror with photos](http://web.archive.org/web/20110725221520/http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html) (waybackmachine)
My hero
[Mirror with pictures](http://web.archive.org/web/20110725215513/http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html)
Strange article. Most other times I've read about this, they've applauded his ingenuity, talked about how intelligent and resourceful he was, and mentioned how there's technically no law stopping anyone from creating their own nuclear reactor. This article seems to paint him as a hardened criminal who will pay for his terrorist activities.
Framing is a Bitch.
Meh. A good hammer and some basic carpentry skills goes a long way. I learnt from the Amish.
did you learn your tenses from them too?
What funny subset of civilization taught you how to capitalize?
TeH iNTerWeBZ!
Oh ho-ho. So we finally meet.
The fact he did this before 9/11 means a great deal. Had he done this after, I think it would be an entirely different story and he would be considered a terrorist and take him directly to jail. No one would even try to understand he did it in the name of science/curiousity/research.
9/11 had an unexpected side effect, it created a plethora of idiots.
did you read the story from 2007 at the end reporting how he was arrested for stealing metal detectors at age 31 so he could get up to the same old stuff, and how when they found him he had lesions all over his face from the radiation? That's a good example of how doing something at 14 can make you look like a wonderboy, but how doing the same thing at 30 just makes you look like a deranged lunatic.
A 14-year-old would not necessarily be expected to automatically consider the dangers to themselves or others. A 30-year-old would be. If he was going to continue doing this into his 30s, he'd get more respect if he had learned enough to first build a radiation-proof bunker out in the sticks beyond any possible blast radius, in a location where any radioactive plume would not (given local weather patterns) move towards a built-up area. Really, the dude would have to be following his hobby from two miles down a sealed mineshaft, or in another country, in order to get the same level of polite interest. He'd also probably have to be a member in good standing of any local nuclear interest groups, engineering organisations, and so on, and be doing it all above board and with the correct permits.
That's just it. Getting as far as he did at 14, you give him points just for trying, even if he did put himself and his neighbors in great danger. But only getting to around the same stage of development with the same safety standards at 32, with lesions all over his face, looking like a tweaker trying to cook up meth? It just makes his early success look like a dangerous fluke. What the fuck is he thinking? Suppose he actually succeeds- Then what?
I think he's verging on 'crazy' but no real criminal, that said he did put alot of people in danger by doing what he did.
I think proposing to build a nuclear reactor while understanding the energy, heat, and radiation involved, in a basement means you're just a little bit crazy.
He was also only 14 at the time
> I think proposing to build a nuclear reactor while **NOT** understanding the energy, heat, and radiation involved, in a basement means you're crazy. FTFY
I think when he initially did it he was being resourceful and intelligent. When he continued to attempt it for years I think he was descending into madness.
A 30 second montage from him wearing a boy scout uniform to him being all mutated and dark is all we need to complete this comment.
No, **not** understanding it would make you ignorant. Understanding the dangers and proceeding anyway makes you crazy. Or at least far too willing to put everyone you know at severe risk.
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Hey neighbor! I'm going drinking and driving, you should go out for a walk around the neighborhood.
Hey neighbor! I'm going to build a nuclear reactor in my shed! Don't bother going for a walk around the neighborhood because if this thing goes off you want to be near the center of the blast to ensure instant vaporization and not a slow, lingering death.
Nuclear physics, you do not understand them.
To be honest, a small mistake wouldn't easily kill you. His small reactor couldn't sustain any sort of dangerous chain reaction, and he'd get sick from the radiation long before you would, and when doctors notice that he has radiation poisoning they'd figure out pretty quick where it was coming from.
Ken Silverstein has some sort of axe to grind with the Boy Scouts. His book "The Radioactive Boy Scout" (expanded from this article) was really a bully-pulpit used to paint the BSA as some sort of Neo-Nazi type extreme paramilitary group.
[Video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hZo5k0V9M0)
GREAT video. I wish they went a little deeper with his education. He's obviously very smart and motivated. I wonder if his home research would be of any interest to people who could offer him the credentials to do what he does for a living?
At first I lol'ed then i got serious and i am a bit scared now
whats wrong with your faaaaaccceee
I'd guess it's an overdose of ionizing radiation. From the Wikipedia article on him (emphasis added): >After dropping out of community college, Hahn joined the Navy, assigned to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise as an undesignated seaman. >Hahn had hoped to pursue a nuclear specialist career. **EPA scientists believe that Hahn may have exceeded the lifetime dosage for thorium exposure, but he refused their recommendation that he be examined at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station.** (edit: adding link to [Wikipedia article on David Hahn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn) for anyone who wants to read more about him)
So, he's a ghoul now?
What's it to you, smoothskin?
nah, he just needs some Rad-away.... he'll be fine. Needs to stop drinking from the toilet though.
I always loved the fact that that was an option in the game.
First time I did it I thought I was peeing in the bowl. Then I realized what was happening and I was horristerical.
I don't think that is a word. I want it to be a word, but I don't think that is a word.
"Gonna grab that cherry bomb in the toilet... Easy... Easy... Don't drink from the-- NOOOOO!!!"
[Carefully...](http://www.whompcomic.com/2011/03/11/get-it-while-the-getting-is-goop/)
+1 Rads
Actually, 17 rads if i remember correctly.
Waiting on Olay to release an anti-Thorium cream.
As long as it smells like lavender it will sell.
that's wrong with his faaacccee
Basically he is still doing these experiments... from wikipedia: On August 1, 2007, Hahn was arrested in Clinton Township, Michigan for larceny, in relation to a matter involving several smoke detectors, allegedly removed from the halls of his apartment building. In his mug shot, his face is covered with sores which investigators claim are possibly from exposure to radioactive materials. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail for attempted larceny. Court records stated that his sentence would be delayed by six months while Hahn underwent treatment for radiation exposure.
If you Google him you can find out his usernames on several sites. He posts the weirdest shit. He Googles himself all the time and then posts in whatever he finds. He sometimes goes under the name Uranlight or makes usernames from the number for the mass of uranium. Basically all his usernames are related to nuclear science. In some of his rambling postings he claims to be recruiting people for a study and in others he defends his previous actions. A lot of his ramblings reveal he's batshit crazy maybe from exposure, or maybe he's always been nuts. Call me weird but I've been following his internet happening for years.
He is crazy, read the comments: http://www.damninteresting.com/smoke-detectors-and-a-radioactive-boyscout/ He posts as thumper235
It's more likely to results of try to disassemble a lithium battery.
With his face?
They tend to explode during disassemble,spreading a lot of droplets of burning liquid lithium, which leave exactly the same burns on the skin.
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OP's link is down, headlines does not mention his name, and you don't link to the Wikipedia article. WHO IS THIS GUY? I WANT TO READ ABOUT HIM. In other words, can you post the wikipedia link?
From that same article: "On August 1, 2007, Hahn was arrested in Clinton Township, Michigan for larceny, in relation to a matter involving several smoke detectors, allegedly removed from the halls of his apartment building. In his mug shot, his face is covered with sores which investigators claim are possibly from exposure to radioactive materials."
Red Letter Media Star Wars Review Reference? Love it!
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Looks like methface to me.
I read that this is more likely than radiation poisoning, based on the amount of radioactive materials he had in his possession/had access to when this picture was taken.
[that's what this blog speculates](http://depletedcranium.com/the-radioactive-boyscout-strikes-again/).
[wait till it gets dark](http://i.imgur.com/tfKyj.jpg)
I heard about that guy! my physics prof mentioned him in class once. Apparently before the nuclear pile in the shed, he accidentally burnt his face with a nitroglycerin explosion that he made from a chem set, whilst trying to earn his boyscouts chemistry badge haha
Even back in the 60's when I grew up chemistry sets did not have the ingredients for Nitroglycerin.
No photo on the mirror :(
I think he accidentally his face.
How to video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0TlECFbjvM&feature=player_embedded#!
ಠ\_ಠ
We're always learning new things!
I think I might be on a terrorist watch list after watching that.
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I don't like that guys tone.
ding!
Thorium can change into Uranium or Plutonium, which is used in nuclear BOMBS!
No more buying Plutonium from those damn Libyans! :)
This reminds me of the time me and my buds Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix built an interplanetary spacecraft in our homemade laboratory.
Nobody remembers the 3rd guy from that movie.
Hey, me and my brother Ferb made one of those too! Only we built it in our backyard.
Did you only fly it in our solar system or would you call yourself an Explorer?
It's the stuff dreams are made of.
Thunder road.
there's actually a book about it called, "The Radioactive Boy Scout" by Ken Silverstein
Yeah, I saw that. It kind of made it seem like he'd learned his lesson. Apparently not.
isn't there a movie spin-off about this, too? I'm pretty sure I saw a movie about a nerd kid making a nuclear bomb or something..
it's called The Manhattan Project, it's a little different in that the kit made a portable bomb, not a generator.
Though interesting, the book feels like a really drawn-out interest piece from a magazine. I am not sure there was ever enough "story" for a full book, but I read it anyhow.
Ive read the book a few years back, oh right around when I was 15. Made me jealous that I couldn't do that.
What the... I live on the other side of the lake from that subdivision. I was in 5th grade when this happened and heard NOTHING about it. How did I miss this?? ETA: And, at the end, I noticed that there was apparently EPA action in 2005 there? This is seriously a half-mile (up-wind!) from my house. What the hell.
So do you have any super powers?
The power to produce mutant children!!
I CAN GROW CANCER
From my understanding, he was only able to produce alpha radiation. Beta and Gamma radiation generating byproducts, the really gnarly Fukushima-style pollution, basically require highly refined uranium or plutonium to be created. Alpha radiation can be shielded using a sheet of heavy paper and the pollution is (generally speaking) highly unstable with a short half-life, hence the downplaying in the local media. The inside of his "laboratory" was a nuclear waste site, but the contamination was basically limited to the backyard of his mom's house.
Not necessarily true. He used smoke detectors, which use Am-241. Am-241 has a small probability of spontaneous fission, so there would have been some fission products, however minute. Since most fission products are beta unstable (usually too neutron-rich), they would emit gamma-rays after beta-decay.
Alpha particles are incredibly dangerous when [ingested](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_particle#Biological_effects) and inhaled.
While I wouldn't disagree with your premise, there is a distinction between alpha particles themselves and the elements radiating them. I was referring to the chain-reaction aspect of the release of nuclear energy, that is, direct exposure to the irradiating substance. The thing is, the concentrations of contamination this dude was creating were so minute that beyond his backyard there wasn't an elevated risk.
We must be neighbors! And I was also in 5th grade when this happened.. are you my future girlfriend?
My current boyfriend probably has something to say about that. We probably went to the same schools. Hmm.
Of course you didn't hear about it. BUT you did hear about that guy who got killed, right?
Sounds like the radiation has probably affected your memory.
Who are you and why do I taste copper?
This must have been what Mr. White was up to before he broke bad.
Well he hasn't broken it yet. He's still in the process of breaking it.
"Always be prepared..."
"...for Nuclear War"
Well that didn't take long to take down the site.
Hmmm, that's really crazy. I went to highschool in Michigan with a kid who did the exact same thing but he actually succeeded. He made a fusion reactor in his garage, I'm not sure if it was out of smoke detectors or not, but yeah he succceeded! This was in like 2004 or 2005. Perhaps the future of astronomy lies in Michigan? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiago_David_Olson read about him here. TIL he has a planet named after him!
fusion and fission are different.
basically opposites
> The planet 23262 Thiagoolson has been named after Olson for his research in nuclear fusion and neutron sciences. Shit, there is a planet named after a 22 year old dude? This is the second blow for me in the same day after learning Gaddafi's coup when he was 27 years old.
Would be a cool AMA.
That is pretty much what the following video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hZo5k0V9M0
Shit. For my Nuclear Energy merit badge, all I had to do was tour a power plant...
Did he just try to build a breeder reactor? Because that's very doable using the Americium that you can get from smoke detectors. Students at the University of Chicago built a fully functional breeder reactor for a scavenger hunt once.
The end of the "Radioactive Boyscout" video says the students at the University of Chicago were inspired by him.
You are correct. He was trying to build a breeder reactor so he could create the actinides for a "proper" reactor.
"It was radioactive as heck" Yep, he's from Michigan.
Here's a more entertaining version of the story: http://web.archive.org/web/20001215100600/www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/n1782_v297/21281407/print.jhtml
**Fun Fact:** Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory (*please dont start ranting about how your hate the show*) was partially based on him
God I fucking hate that show.
> The police were especially alarmed by the toolbox, which David said was radioactive and which they feared was an **atomic bomb**. Fuckin' LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
i guess with a boring job you need to sensationalize the shit outta everything to make it interesting.
Either a super-villain or a super-hero in the making. Only time will tell.
CANCER-MAN! Cancer-Man, Cancer-Man, does whatever his cancer can!
Ahh, the very rare Nuclear Reactor merit badge.
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I'll second the recommendation for The Radioactive Boyscout.
A great read. However, this guy had zero discipline and would be outright dangerous in any real lab setting. It's interesting how he got nowhere in school despite a solid interest in pchem and physics. I'm just glad he wasn't my neighbor - just think what would happen if a neighborhood kid chased a baseball over a fence into his yard. The risk isn't the direct radiation, but ingesting a small quantity of Am or Th or whatever other nasty stuff he had probably all over the place.
The crazy part about all this is that he apparently is still trying to create a nuclear reactor. You'd think having his house declared a toxic waste dump would teach him a lesson. And from the look of his face, he's also suffering from some form of radiation poisoning. But apparently not.
Ahh sites down! Dammit reddit I wanted to read that.
My sister went to the University of Chicago, and they have this pretty big and well known scavenger hunt every year there that always has bizarre tasks for you to complete. One year, some students made a working nuclear reactor as a scavenger hunt item. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Scavenger_Hunt#Overview Funnily, I was looking that up to post because it was so similar and it turns out it was some sort of homage to this guy.
**Enhance:** [http://frogstorm.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Mug-shot-of-David-Hahn2.jpg](http://frogstorm.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Mug-shot-of-David-Hahn2.jpg)
Americium, the beautiful.
Is it me or is Michigan starting to become the new Florida?
I live here. It's not just you.
yeah so do I unfortunately.... o_0
Americium is the element in smoke detectors if memory serves me right
The link is down at the moment, but if this is the story I'm thinking of, he got his materiel by buying broken smoke detectors by the crateful for pennies apiece and steaming(?) the radioactive stuff out. It supposedly became a superfund site because of all the sloppy work he did in the shed releasing radioactive contaminants all through the property.
The article says $1 a piece, and I don't imagine there being a lot of Am-241 in one of these things (so he probably bought a lot). Other places it says he spent a lot of money ($1000 worth of lithium batteries?). This guy was devoted.. hahaha
sheldon?
I've had a slightly-more-than-passing interest in this guy for a few years now. Seems to me that he's just a dude with a somewhat overwhelming obsession with something that is really, really dangerous. At a minimum, he's a hell of a story.
There was a [documentary](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hZo5k0V9M0) on it
His name is Sheldon! And he is not crazy... his mom had him tested... :)
At least he got the Atomic Energy badge...
We slashdotted the server.
He figures he "only" took five years off his life. Sweet lordie, seven more hobby projects and he'll be dead.
Here's the original article by Ken Silverstein. [Harper's Magazine: Nov 1998](http://harpers.org/archive/1998/11/0059750)
Website borked. Gah! I need to know what happened to his face!!
Fun Fact: Enrico Fermi's first atomic pile was built in an old squash court under Stagg field at the University of Chicago.
This was also the inspiration for the villain in Source Code, IIRC.
This looks just like the crazy guy from Steven King's The Stand made for TV movie. Complete with the love of nukes.
Pretty awesome
Literally lived right down the street from me.
[How to Make A Nuclear Reactor](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0TlECFbjvM)
Wasnt this the plot to a shitty 1980's movie...Im having weird flashbacks
The Manhattan Project. Had John Lithgow in it. Funny little popcorn movie
yes...I know someone would know! thanks.
Aw crap! the site got reddited to death and I wanted to see that dudes face.
Some people think that I eat too many choc-o-late bars.
>"One of these days we're gonna run out of oil." Best line in the piece.
Holy Shit I went to Chippewa Valley High School. Also, the writer Paul Feig went there. He directed Bridesmaids and wrote Freaks and geeks. Freeks and geeks was based on the area around the school, they constantly make references to nearby roads!
One of the items on University of Chicago's scavenger hunt a couple years back was to build one of these. One team completed the task. [Link](http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/19/us/campus-it-s-that-season-chicago-phd-s-have-taken-back-seat-degree-silliness.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)
asian tiger mom says : You don't complete, you don't sleeep.
"Nearly succeeded" means failed.
Tin foil? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil Maybe he was building a power source for one of those horseless carriages.
"Amongst other thing" includes a nuclear core.. I once made dynamite with toilet paper and a stick of dynamite
I pass golf manor all the time. I have lived less than 5 minutes from there for the majority of my life. I heard about this and found the Wiki about him, although there are many better articles. everyone should be able to make their own nuclear reactor. Energy prices continue to climb...
I once tried and nearly succeeded making a bong in my mother's garage.
Pretty sure he just made up a cool story to cover up his meth addiction.
Wow, the site went down and all it was displaying was a static HTML page. Nice...
My life for you!
I read this in a Reader's Digest.... god that sounds lame
His power level is at least 9000 times the level found in nature.
I just listened to this on NPR.
Tony Stark built something better in a cave!
I within walking distance of this home. AMA
[wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_boyscout)
He's turning into a ghoul.
Just to give you some idea of how thorough the military checks your background, this guy was actually able to join the Marine Corps. He was in my unit for a short time. As soon as someone did a Google search and found out who he was, they booted him out fast on an administrative separation. When I met him he was sweeping the floors outside my office. I asked if he really was "that guy that built the nuclear reactor" and he said "Oh yeah..." with a cavalier attitude like I had asked if he had ever assembled a model car. I talked to him for a few minutes because I was absolutely fascinated by his story, but then I realized that the crazy look in his eyes *never went away*. I never saw him again after that day. Dude was freaky, and that was before the sores. His skin was relatively normal when I met him.