He became so radioactive that he claimed that when he died, he'd have to be disposed of as 'low level nuclear waste'.
As I recall, he made a living of giving lectures on his experience and having people test him with geiger counters...
--Boris
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
I would bet that it is NOT accurate.
Actually, the were called to investigate possible auto theft and found a toolbox marked as radioactive in his trunk.
Not.
I wonder how many books have been sold based on this latest hyping?
Would that be from Cherenkov Radiation by any chance?
I am well versed in that glow from my work with P-32!
He became so radioactive that he claimed that when he died, he'd have to be disposed of as 'low level nuclear waste'.
As I recall, he made a living of giving lectures on his experience and having people test him with geiger counters...
--Boris
I am well versed in that glow from my work with P-32!
No. And what is P-32?
ROFL! Better than smoking, I guess! Sadly, most on the Left don't think that individuals should be allowed to sacrifice their own years for their own passions.
Unfortunately, the kid was a dangerouse idiot consumed only with his misdirected passion.
If you call swabbing decks in the navy interesting.
We only have the boy's word for it. A boy that flunked out of Jr. college and is a deck-hand in the Navy. What a bunch of crock!
Could it be because no one was hyping a book back then?
Why? For flunking out of jr college and becoming a deck swab in the navy?
Your story reminded me of something I read years ago, about an attorney who, as a young man (teenager) got to meet one of the great Justices of the supreme court, either Louis Brandeis or Learned Hand. Anyway, according to the story, the young man told the Justice that he wanted to be a lawyer, and asked what advice the Justice had for him. The reply was: before you go to law school, get your undergraduate degree in some technical field grounded in reality: physics or engineering, for example.
I always thought that was a great story, because it shows such an insight into how the law is just words, and all kinds of problems arise if those practicing it are completely disconnected from an understanding of physical reality.
I'm glad there are attorneys like you out there. I've met some real good ones myself.
(steely)
The dysfunctional ones are the ones that are believing all this book hype! There is NO evidence that such a reactor ever existed. He was caught on a police report of kids stealing tires off of cars.
As an expert in pattern recognition, you should have been able to recognize this as pure hype designed to sell a book.
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