pragmatica
pacifism kicks ass
Joined: 11/24/07
Location: Canada
Posts: 2,746
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This guy still scares the shit out of me two years later. They need to make a movie out of this story...
I also imagine his face is even more melted away from his obsessive voluntary exposure to all things radioactive.
pragmatica posted:THIS GUY!!!!
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He built a nuclear reactor in his backyard shed in Detroit in 1994:
The Radioactive Boy Scout
Hahn, nicknamed the "Radioactive Boy Scout", is an Eagle Scout who got a merit badge in Atomic Energy and spent years tinkering with basement chemistry which sometimes resulted in small explosions and other mishaps. Hahn diligently amassed this radioactive material by collecting small amounts from household products, such as americium from smoke detectors, thorium from camping lantern mantles, radium from clocks and tritium (as neutron moderator) from gunsights.
Hahn posed as an adult scientist or professor to gain the trust of many professionals in letters, despite the presence of misspellings and obvious errors in his letters to them. Hahn ultimately hoped to create a breeder reactor, using low-level isotopes to transform samples of thorium and uranium into fissionable isotopes.
Although his homemade reactor never achieved critical mass, it ended up emitting dangerous levels of radioactivity, likely well over 1,000 times normal background radiation. Alarmed, Hahn began to dismantle his experiments, but a chance encounter with police led to the discovery of his activities, which triggered a Federal Radiological Emergency Response involving the FBI and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, having designated Hahn's mother's property as a Superfund hazardous materials cleanup site, dismantled the shed and its contents and buried them as low-level radioactive waste in Utah. Hahn refused medical evaluation for radiation exposure.
He worked in the Navy for a while on a nuclear submarine.
In 2007 he was arrested for stealing the smoke detectors (that contain radioactive Americium) in his building. His face was also covered with sores from radiation exposure.
I think he's the closest thing I've seen to a nuclear weapons hobbyist... this guy scares me and he's out and about in society as we speak.  |
