As far as I know Hahn was never formally diagnosed with it, but as an adult
was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar.
Perhaps she was implying he was not neurotypical(Many think he wasn't), perhaps she was referring to something else.
She's probably not a psychologist, she probably knows she isn't supposed to diagnose, so she's probably not thinking in those terms. She's just thinking something is wrong, and it was, and she probably felt a need to say it politely, and might have, without really thinking, used phrasing typically used when trying to be understanding about neurodiversity issues.
If it were me I can't say I would be proud of what I might have said about it. I almost feel bad writing this post at all. But I probably would have thought they needed some kind of immediate state or even police intervention.
I'm not a psychologist either, but I do suspect I have Dyspraxia myself, and many friends with Aspbergers, and some of the stories do fit, but it doesn't fully explain everything.
The problem is... this is not that much of an amazing accomplishment. He didn't discover something new. He actually made himself LESS likely to have a nuclear career.
To me it looks more like pyromania with nuclear materials.
It's definitely true that most people might not be able to do all that. I probably couldn't. In fact, I absolutely know he was more capable than me. Already driving by 16, while I'm 28 and still occasionally make mistakes crossing streets on foot.
But still, I doubt any nuclear professional would be happy to see what he did. It was difficult, special, and impressive, but maybe more importantly, it was horrifying.
He had some raw potential, but the experiment was a tragedy, and possibly the result of untreated mental health traumas.
He needed help. But not the help a lot of people now think he needed. His superfund creating experiments shouldn't have been encouraged. Someone should have made him understand why he needed to do better in school.
I think the aura of impressiveness the whole thing had may have led to some enabling happening.