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
Stop and think about what you said. This is all hype designed to sell a book! There was no reactor; just a stupid kid caught stealing tires off of cars.
CinFLA:
Actually, the were called to investigate possible auto theft and found a toolbox marked as radioactive in his trunk.
Sadly, most on the Left don't think that individuals should be allowed to sacrifice their own years for their own passions.
CinFLA:
Unfortunately, the kid was a dangerouse idiot consumed only with his misdirected passion.
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.
CinFLA:
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!
I think David Hahn should have gotten a medal from the President.
CinFLA:
Why? For flunking out of jr college and becoming a deck swab in the navy?
Trolling again, or just starved for attention?
Actually, I clicked on this thread because I thought it might be interesting, and you just happened to be making some wonderful comments displaying the depth of your knowledge.
You are quite a piece of work.
Thank you.
You've got me there. It didn't make me want to go out and buy the book; as I have already stated, I was turned off by the author's attitude toward David Hahn. At the time, it was just another article in Harper's.
I'm only interested in patterns that are really there. For example, I believe see a pattern in your posts.
(steely)
You attack me but not the facts of my post. Seems you are the a little shy of a full deck.
Not attacking you, pardner, just asking a simple question.
If you have any "facts" to back up your opinions, please post a link to those "facts".
Thank you.
Apparently you are favoring the hype over the truth.
Duh! Why don't you require that of the author. He has NO facts other than what he and the kid made up. There was no reactor.
Here is your simple question.
Trolling again, or just starved for attention?
Do you know the story to be false? Please link the proof or post it here.
Let's see. We have a mop-pusher in the navy that flunked out of jr college that was caught stealing tires off of cars telling us about a nuclear reactor that he built. Please post any evidence that there was a nuclear reactor.
You claim it is some kind of hoax, but offer no documentation.
You should be asking the author for some documentation. He has NONE. No reactor, nothing.
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