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The Boy and his Breeder Reactor
scubacuda writes "Here is an interesting tale about a Boy Scout who went a little too far in trying to achieve a merit badge in Atomic Energy. From smoke alarms, lantern components, the paint from radio clocks, and a little help from the Nuclear Regulator Commission, David Hahn attempted to build a nuclear reactor in his mother's shed. Regarding his excessive radioactive exposure, Hahn says, "I don't believe I took more than five years off my life."" While this is an oldish story (1998) it is not the pathetic self congratulatory lame princeton story.
However I'm surprised that the "Powers That Be" haven't killed this story since it has step by step directions on how to make uranium-233.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
>This kid is a walking advertisement for the Darwin Awards
True, but at the time, so were the Wright brothers and most of the other early inventors in the field of aeronautics (I mean, come on.. those things were actually supposed to fly!?! bah, man isn't meant to fly.. *grin*).. Stupidity and Ignorance are not the same thing. The kid obviously wasn't stupid and he very well could end up being an important player in the scientific world at some point.
This isn't to say what he did was smart or wise. Simply that doing "stupid" things doesn't make one stupid.
Planetes
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promo Ad
"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitl
I see some people complaining that this story is old, how is it newsworthy. Well let's put it into context with what is going on in the world today. There is a looming threat of dirty bombs being used in the USA. Previously I wasn't too worried, because although I knew the terrorists were good at making bombs, I had assumed it was fairly tough to generate radioactive material that could make them radioactive.
Then I read a story about a 17-year old kid with not much money and a lot of time generating a heap of radiation.
Now add hundreds of thousands or even millions in funding, [at least slightly] better equipment, and you might want to wake up.
But as that lady riding on a New York subway said in a CNN article I read, "If I were really nervous about these terrorists, I'd probably be underground somewhere."
Ahem.
"And like that
Oops! You forgot to mention the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy!
EXACTLY!!!!!!!! The word "Mad Scientist", at worst, comes to mind.
The best thing anyone could do for this boy is to take him over to Lawrence Livermore, educate him on nuclear safety procedures, and quite vigorously complete his training.
Despite his RELATIVELY unsafe procedures, we obviously have one smart kid. I don't know of too many ADULTS who can figure out, much less secure, the knowledge AND materials for a breeder reactor.
Kids like this should be fiercely cultivated.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
That meme irritates me a bit - it seems to imply that evolution never favors risk-taking. Actually, evolution favors a good balance between risk-taking and fear. If you are paralyzed by fear you won't win any "Darwin Awards" on the internet, but you won't get any rewards from life either.
I think most people who talk about "Darwin Awards" are overlooking the fact that death by excessive risk-taking is not the only kind of death - starvation awaits those who do not take enough risks.
OK, reactor boy is great. Is it better than the JATO car story? I'd call this a genre, but I can only think of these two stories. Then of course there are "geek legends" that are actually true, like the guy who built the roller-coaster in Indiana. Can anybody think of more geek legends, if we can think of enough then there could be a poll.
Note, mere "hacking" doesn't qualify. In order to be a geek legend, you have to be a single person, or perhaps a very small group, you have to be outside the corporate setting, you have to work with a technology that is dangerous and thought to be beyond the scope of what such a group can deal with. For example, concoct a story about a guy who built a submarine in his garage, took it out to sea, and penetrated a carrier battle group. Nobody can verify it because the Navy immediatly classified his plans, moved the model to storage, and ordered him to clam up (under threat of treason charges) for national security reasons because the plans might allow enemies to penetrate carrier groups. If you want to author such a story, feel free to take this idea and flesh it out. Post it to /.. I think we would all enjoy it.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I'm no nuclear weapons engineer, but everything I've read says dirty bombs,
- Do less damage, to people and things, than a plain old-fashioned bomb filled with nails.
- Can be cleaned up (for contaminated humans, at least) by stripping and washing yourself with a garden hose.
- Cost so much more than a standard terrorist bomb to make, and being less effective (if you discount the hype and resulting fear), that we should hope the terrorists waste their resources on it instead of something more dangerous.
If you manage to steal any of the spent fuel that's lying around, or even a medium-sized shipment of medical isotopes, you have enough to contaminate a good chunk of the core of a major city. While harder to acquire than a few bags of fertilizer, it's by no means prohibitively hard.
The actual health effects of the contamination would be next to nil. But the goal of terrorism is exactly that - terror. North America is full of people who run around screaming about nuclear reactors which release less radiation than the concrete in their basements. People would go *nuts* if a dirty bomb raised background radiation by *any* detectable amount.
Not even a nerve gas attack would cause that much mayhem. It would be the perfect attack.
Nevermind the fact that lawsuits over alleged health problems from the infinitesimally higher exposure would drag on for decades.
Yeah, it was all the parents' fault!!! This guy has no responsibility for his actions; let's blame it all on the parents!!!