Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

THE RADIOACTIVE BOY SCOUT: THE TRUE STORY OF A BOY AND HIS BACKYARD NUCLEAR REACTOR
Christian Science Monitor ^ | Tim Rauschenberg

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


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bookreview; boyscout; nuclearreactors
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141-153 next last
To: Petronski
This story seems far too strange to be true. I have got to get this book. Absolutely remarkable and fascinating.

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.

61 posted on 03/17/2004 11:03:43 AM PST by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
An overhead satellite that measures radioactivity measured extremely high levels of radioactivity emitting from his mothers garden shed in a little village in Michigan.

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?

62 posted on 03/17/2004 11:07:33 AM PST by ActionNewsBill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: ActionNewsBill
I see you are taking xrp's mode of operating and following me around.
63 posted on 03/17/2004 11:09:05 AM PST by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: ActionNewsBill
I see you attack me but you can't refute the facts of my post. Typical liberal.
64 posted on 03/17/2004 11:10:08 AM PST by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
I see you are taking xrp's mode of operating and following me around.

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.

65 posted on 03/17/2004 11:11:56 AM PST by ActionNewsBill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Squantos; Eaker; Criminal Number 18F
ping
66 posted on 03/17/2004 11:11:56 AM PST by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
What's with the vendetta against this book? Do you know this kid? Did he beat you out in the big science fair way back when? Did he shoot out your porch light?
67 posted on 03/17/2004 11:12:30 AM PST by Petronski (Kerry knew...and did nothing. THAT....is weakness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
Typical liberal.

Thank you.

68 posted on 03/17/2004 11:12:49 AM PST by ActionNewsBill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
As an expert in pattern recognition, you should have been able to recognize this as pure hype designed to sell a book.

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)

69 posted on 03/17/2004 11:13:31 AM PST by Steely Tom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: ActionNewsBill
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 attack me but not the facts of my post. Seems you are the a little shy of a full deck.

70 posted on 03/17/2004 11:13:57 AM PST by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
I see you attack me but you can't refute the facts of my post.

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.

71 posted on 03/17/2004 11:15:56 AM PST by ActionNewsBill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Petronski
What's with the vendetta against this book? Do you know this kid? Did he beat you out in the big science fair way back when? Did he shoot out your porch light?

Apparently you are favoring the hype over the truth.

72 posted on 03/17/2004 11:16:13 AM PST by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: ActionNewsBill
If you have any "facts" to back up your opinions, please post a link to those "facts".

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.

73 posted on 03/17/2004 11:19:41 AM PST by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: ActionNewsBill
Not attacking you, pardner, just asking a simple question.

Here is your simple question.

Trolling again, or just starved for attention?

74 posted on 03/17/2004 11:22:09 AM PST by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: yall

75 posted on 03/17/2004 11:25:48 AM PST by Constitution Day (Go to Hell Carolina!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
In my first post I asked 'can this be true?'

Do you know the story to be false? Please link the proof or post it here.

76 posted on 03/17/2004 11:30:31 AM PST by Petronski (Kerry knew...and did nothing. THAT....is weakness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: Petronski
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.

77 posted on 03/17/2004 11:36:56 AM PST by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: cinFLA
But I am not claiming it is true. I take no position on its veracity.

You claim it is some kind of hoax, but offer no documentation.

78 posted on 03/17/2004 11:43:28 AM PST by Petronski (Kerry knew...and did nothing. THAT....is weakness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: Petronski
The link was posted early in the thread.

At 2:40 a.m. on August 31, 1994, Clinton Township police responded to a call concerning a young man who had been apparently stealing tires from a car. When the police arrived, David told them he was meeting a friend. Unconvinced, officers decided to search his car.

They opened the trunk and discovered a toolbox shut with a padlock and sealed with duct tape. The trunk also contained foil-wrapped cubes of mysterious gray powder, small disks and cylindrical metal objects, and mercury switches. The police were especially alarmed by the toolbox, which David said was radioactive and which they feared was an atomic bomb.

The discovery eventually triggered the Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan, and state officials would become involved in consultations with the EPA and NRC.

At the shed, radiological experts found an aluminum pie pan, a Pyrex cup, a milk crate and other materials strewn about, contaminated at up to 1000 times the normal levels of background radiation. Because some of this could be moved around by wind and rain, conditions at the site, according to an EPA memo, "present an imminent endangerment to public health."
79 posted on 03/17/2004 11:43:39 AM PST by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: Petronski
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.

80 posted on 03/17/2004 11:45:05 AM PST by cinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141-153 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson