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.

Comments

Ah, the frustration of searching /.

[Raetsel]

Good grief!

I can't believe how difficult it can be to find an older article around this place!

• Slashdot -- June 2, 2001. Title: "Duct Tape"

• I remember posting another comment about David Hahn at a much later date, (and asking Pathwalker if he had any recent info) but I can't seem to find it! (Dammit.)

Slashdot's robots.txt file is comprehensively restrictive, so if I feed Google "David Hahn site:slashdot.org", I get nothing.

• Dear Cmdr Taco;

  Would you please release (every few months or perhaps annually) a complete archive of Slashdot on CD or DVD? I imagine a simple .tar of the database would be sufficient, as most of your users would be quite capable of handling (and searching) that format. Personally, I think raw articles (no slashboxes, sidebars, etc...) in HTML format would be very useful.

  Since CD/DVD production is relatively inexpensive, this could potentially be a non-trivial source of revenue for /.

  Alternatively, perhaps Google could be convinced to donate one of their search appliances? Since many of us are quite proficient and familiar with Google's operation, it would make searching our collective memory that much easier.

  Further, if a donation from Google is not possible, there are likely many of us who would be willing to donate to a search appliance fund.

  Please, PLEASE consider these (and any other!) options to improve Slashdot searching.

  Sincerely,
  Raetsel.