[BuffaloJack]

Sounds like that Boy Scout who eventually killed himself making a reactor in his mom’s storage shed.

[Lurker]

He didn’t die of radiation poisoning. He died of an overdose.

L

[Reily]

This guy you mean the “...Radioactive Boy Scout” or the “Nuclear Boy Scout”,... “

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

Wasn’t really a reactor he built a neutron source.

Lived to be almost 40, died of alcohol & cocaine abuse.

[Rockingham]

The Boy Scout survived without ill effect but prompted an emergency evacuation of his home and cleanup of the backyard shed as a nuclear site. Fortunately, the US government recognized his talent and lack of criminal intent and he eventually became a nuclear reactor operator for the US Navy.