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
You made a false statement about me and now you cut and run when I ask you to support your false claim.
Does it have instructions on making amatuer rockets using powdered zinc and sulfur for fuel? If so, that's the one (or one of the the 3).
I made one of those rockets when I was 12. It worked. I'm still alive. But I realize now how truly dangerous that thing was.
Go read it yourself.
I am done.
Just post ONE thing that supports your statement about:
stupid enlisted man comments which do not carry well with this enlisted ex Sgt.
In 1952, 'The Amateur Scientist' column in 'Scientific American' ran a multi part article on a high school physics class that built a working Cyclotron. They include the plans and how-to for anyone interested.
So9
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!" 54 posted on 03/17/2004 12:50:27 PM CST by cinFLA
I think David Hahn should have gotten a medal from the President. Why? For flunking out of jr college and becoming a deck swab in the navy? 57 posted on 03/17/2004 12:54:02 PM CST by cinFLA
After that post, you had my attention and I began to question where you were coming from...........
And it continues as other posters criticized you and you replied by insulting them........Let's see. We have a mop-pusher in the navy that flunked out of jr college
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. 116 posted on 03/17/2004 10:42:36 PM CST by cinFLA And you continued, By this time I was quite sure that your nose was in the sky!...............
To: wirestripper Does not explain why you are trashing someone you don't know. Maybe one of those dolphins climbed up your keester.... Show me where I posted falsely of him!!! You are really taking this seriously. What is your personal interest? Are you getting a cut on the book deal? 123 posted on 03/17/2004 10:56:29 PM CST by cinFLA
At this point, I really do not care how you have come to your conclusions. I can restate however my objections to your tone and your personal trashing of the person referenced in the story as if you know him or have a clue as to his service record. (You indicate no knowledge)
IMO, you properly and justifiably can be critical of the story and the contents, but to crossed the line into a personal attack on someone you don't even know and criticized his service, what he did, and what he grew to be after childhood without any knowledge of same.
You them did the same to anyone you was critical of you. In fact one poster was called a liberal.....LOL (really lame response)
So, here we are! You asked........I complied.....
Why do you support a maladjusted kid that was caught stealing tires off of cars to support his dangerous quest, flunked out of jr college and enlisted in the US Navy as a deckhand? Do you have an interest in the book sales?
Everything I posted was true. Unlike your post which falsely described him as a upstanding nuke submariner.
You didn't read the posts.
First, I did NOT call him a liberal. Seems you have a problem with comprehension.
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