<story><title>“Radioactive Boy Scout” who tried to build a homemade nuclear reactor dead at 39</title><url>http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/this-fall-the-radioactive-boy-scout-died-at-age-39/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Exuma</author><text>Can you touch on ANY details of how this is possible with &amp;#x27;every day items&amp;#x27;? When I think of a reactor, I think of something that looks super complicated and engineered, like CERN. It&amp;#x27;s hard for me to imagine how a reactor can be built by a boy in a shed... what materials did he need? What powers it?  What (if any) safety measures are taken... even rudimentary ones?</text></item><item><author>FiatLuxDave</author><text>So, I have complicated feelings about this.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m only a few years older than David Hahn.  In the early mid nineties, I was also building a nuclear reactor on the down-low. I got my first neutrons a few days before I turned 21.  My name is even David as well. So, my friends would always compare me with him as soon as they heard his story.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve always felt a bit of kinship with him, particularly his desire to learn-by-doing about nuclear physics.  I&amp;#x27;ve also felt a bit of jealousy at the press he got, pity for the mess he got himself into, and I&amp;#x27;m not sure what to name the feeling (sadness? derision?) for some of the mistakes that he made.  I&amp;#x27;m not sure that I would have done better at his age, trying to do what he was doing.&lt;p&gt;There were things I did that were different from him, that I guess led me to a different fate.  I made sure not to break any laws (deuteron colliders are under a different set of rules than radioisotopes).  I went to college, which was probably easier for me than for him.  I involved other people in my project, including getting VC funding. I sure never made a mess like he did.&lt;p&gt;I also made some similar mistakes.  I wasn&amp;#x27;t even aware that high voltage power supplies would make x-rays. I was shocked and scared when Spence, our &amp;#x27;adult supervision&amp;#x27; engineer, brought in a Geiger counter and showed us that we were making a fair amount of x-rays.  I learned a lot of radiation safety on-the-job, quickly. Without Spence, who knows how badly I would have irradiated myself before learning on my own?&lt;p&gt;We always avoided publicity. Part of that was because we didn&amp;#x27;t want people freaking out that we were doing &amp;quot;nuclear stuff&amp;quot; in a rented office by the railroad tracks in Tallahassee. Our landlord knew, and was cool with it, but we were nervous about how the general public would react.  So we kept things private.&lt;p&gt;I used to feel that maybe it was a mistake to keep my fusion project so secret.  It certainly didn&amp;#x27;t help my career to be a failed founder with no published papers, without even a press release to point to for my years of work.  But when I look at how the mistakes that David Hahn made followed him his whole life, and which weren&amp;#x27;t all that different from mistakes I made in my youth, I think maybe my decision wasn&amp;#x27;t so bad. &amp;quot;Radiation Safety Officer&amp;quot; happens to be one of my job titles these days.&lt;p&gt;Rest in Peace, David.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>paulcole</author><text>You can read the book about The Radioactive Boy Scout:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Radioactive-Boyscout-Story-Nuclear-Reactor&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;1841152293&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Radioactive-Boyscout-Story-Nuclear-Re...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;But IIRC the everyday items were smoke detectors with Americium and uranium from old painted clock dials. I think he found a full vial of dried uranium paint hidden inside some random old clock at an antique store.</text></comment>
<story><title>“Radioactive Boy Scout” who tried to build a homemade nuclear reactor dead at 39</title><url>http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/this-fall-the-radioactive-boy-scout-died-at-age-39/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Exuma</author><text>Can you touch on ANY details of how this is possible with &amp;#x27;every day items&amp;#x27;? When I think of a reactor, I think of something that looks super complicated and engineered, like CERN. It&amp;#x27;s hard for me to imagine how a reactor can be built by a boy in a shed... what materials did he need? What powers it?  What (if any) safety measures are taken... even rudimentary ones?</text></item><item><author>FiatLuxDave</author><text>So, I have complicated feelings about this.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m only a few years older than David Hahn.  In the early mid nineties, I was also building a nuclear reactor on the down-low. I got my first neutrons a few days before I turned 21.  My name is even David as well. So, my friends would always compare me with him as soon as they heard his story.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve always felt a bit of kinship with him, particularly his desire to learn-by-doing about nuclear physics.  I&amp;#x27;ve also felt a bit of jealousy at the press he got, pity for the mess he got himself into, and I&amp;#x27;m not sure what to name the feeling (sadness? derision?) for some of the mistakes that he made.  I&amp;#x27;m not sure that I would have done better at his age, trying to do what he was doing.&lt;p&gt;There were things I did that were different from him, that I guess led me to a different fate.  I made sure not to break any laws (deuteron colliders are under a different set of rules than radioisotopes).  I went to college, which was probably easier for me than for him.  I involved other people in my project, including getting VC funding. I sure never made a mess like he did.&lt;p&gt;I also made some similar mistakes.  I wasn&amp;#x27;t even aware that high voltage power supplies would make x-rays. I was shocked and scared when Spence, our &amp;#x27;adult supervision&amp;#x27; engineer, brought in a Geiger counter and showed us that we were making a fair amount of x-rays.  I learned a lot of radiation safety on-the-job, quickly. Without Spence, who knows how badly I would have irradiated myself before learning on my own?&lt;p&gt;We always avoided publicity. Part of that was because we didn&amp;#x27;t want people freaking out that we were doing &amp;quot;nuclear stuff&amp;quot; in a rented office by the railroad tracks in Tallahassee. Our landlord knew, and was cool with it, but we were nervous about how the general public would react.  So we kept things private.&lt;p&gt;I used to feel that maybe it was a mistake to keep my fusion project so secret.  It certainly didn&amp;#x27;t help my career to be a failed founder with no published papers, without even a press release to point to for my years of work.  But when I look at how the mistakes that David Hahn made followed him his whole life, and which weren&amp;#x27;t all that different from mistakes I made in my youth, I think maybe my decision wasn&amp;#x27;t so bad. &amp;quot;Radiation Safety Officer&amp;quot; happens to be one of my job titles these days.&lt;p&gt;Rest in Peace, David.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>keenerd</author><text>Based on the details like deuterium fusion with high voltage, my guess would be that FiatLuxDave built a variant of a Fusor.  It is a challenging project but not out of the reach of a dedicated high school student.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;makezine.com&amp;#x2F;projects&amp;#x2F;make-36-boards&amp;#x2F;nuclear-fusor&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;makezine.com&amp;#x2F;projects&amp;#x2F;make-36-boards&amp;#x2F;nuclear-fusor&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>