Posted on 03/17/2004 4:47:34 AM PST by billorites
These days, the phrase "nuclear ambitions" is applied ominously to countries or heads of state. Yet it aptly describes an ordinary teenager in suburban Detroit named David Hahn. His experience is a frightening indication of how easily dangerous materials can be acquired - and hidden.
Despite growing up in an era of no-nukes activism, David wanted nothing more than to join the Curies in the annals of atomic history. That the radium they discovered eventually killed the Curies doesn't seem to have muted his enthusiasm.
David's aptitude for science was phenomenal. From a 1960s-era book of chemistry experiments, he quickly gleaned the principles and skills of manipulating reactions, and expanded his capabilities with long hours of research at the library.
His safety record was literally stunning. Taking only the barest precautions, he remained unfazed by accidents that turned his hair green, burned his skin, or knocked him out cold. Larger blunders alarmed his father and stepmother, but he learned to cover up his failures.
At school, he was a poor student and terrible speller (the wall of his potting-shed laboratory carried the admonition: "Caushon"). His occasional claims of chemical and, later, nuclear research were dismissed by parents and teachers as attempts to get attention.
And so it was that with ingenuity and supplemental information from letters to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 17-year-old David gathered and refined - mostly from household products - enough radioactive material to make a crude breeder reactor in his backyard.
It was small and would never create an appreciable amount of fissionable fuel, but by the time David disassembled the runaway experiment in 1994, his Geiger counter was detecting radiation from several houses away.
Journalist Ken Silverstein gathered material from extensive interviews with David and his family and from police and EPA reports about this backyard experiment. The story appeared as a Harper's Magazine article in 1998, and now Silverstein has expanded it into some 200 pages.
What emerges in that greater space is that David's pattern of grandiose plans followed by accidents and coverups mirrors the larger history of breeder reactors. In theory, breeders make more fuel than they use. In practice, as Silverstein notes, "the few attempts to build a breeder have resulted in some of the scariest episodes in the nuclear era."
Another problem that's agonizingly apparent is the emotional neglect of David by his family. His father spent time with him only on scouting trips. His adoring mother was too lost in alcohol and mental problems to be supportive. The personal tragedy here sounds as disturbing as the potential public disaster.
• Tim Rauschenberger is on the Monitor's Web staff.
The Radioactive Boy Scout The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor
By Ken Silverstein
Random House209 pp., $22.95
Sure. He had 'collected' amounts of material from smoke detectors, clock dials, etc.
As I had posted from the Harper's story, the police found a toolbox in his trunk and he said it was radioactive. Fearing a bomb, they called in everyone. They then searched his shed and found all the waste materials. Radioactive, yes! But nothing you can't find or buy.
If your mother warned you not to do something, that was put at the top of the list.
"David's method purified thorium to at least 9,000 times the level found in nature and 170 times the level that requires NRC licensing.""Whether David fully realized it or not, by handling purified radium he was truly putting himself in danger."
He didn't 'purify' the thorium. It is purified by the extraction process prior to the lantern mantel manufacturing.
He didn't do anything to increase the amount or purity of the thorium. All he did was turn it into a pile of ash which makes it more easily scattered or ingested.
Better read the quote.
Per the figures in the article, his 'product' had a lower concentration of thorium than the original lantern mantels.
Where is the source for this statement? It is from the author of the book but he does not source it. Besides, the author has made numerous other scientific errors in the book.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but you have to be pretty damn good to get a assignment on a sub.
All personel are cross trained and everyone swabs decks at one time or another.
My point being that the nuke kid done good in my book, by getting that assignment.
You cannot and should not try to take that away from him and now I question your motives regarding this story.
But he was never on a submarine ........
So the RD story is BS as well?
That is your take?
Were you ever on a submarine? Well I served on one. We had a dunce so bad that he was restricted to not go into any areas other than the mess and bunking areas.
Sorry to burst your bubble but I earned my dolphins aboard a nuclear fast attack sub after attending nuclear power school. I have a MS in Nuclear Engineering and was the Lead Test Engineer at nuclear power plant startups in the US and overseas.
My father was a Navy man.
Your tone and attacks on this guy caught my interest. It is one thing to debunk a story, but then you got a bit personal.
Either you made a mistake, or you have a personal interest is this guy' life.
So which is it........?
If you know something that no body else apparently knows, then please enlighten.....
I'm sorry, I would have spelled it out for you if I had known that you are a Engineer....LOL!
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