The radioactive boy scout: the teenager who attempted to build a breeder reactor | Hacker News Reader

The radioactive boy scout: the teenager who attempted to build a breeder reactor

harpers.org

60 pointsTriinT18 comments

To me, this illustrates a breakdown of our education system.

Why was this kid not noticed, and nurtured? Not to play the nerd card here, but I can almost guarantee that if he had had an exceptionally good throwing arm (instead of an affinity for chemistry), his school would have noticed and would have helped him develop.

Maybe I'm just bitter because I grew up in a small town and saw this happening all around me. This story reminds me a lot of a very close friend of mine that used to manufacture all kinds of different chemicals in his garage, used some of the same social-engineering skills to obtain the necessary equipment to do so (accurate scales was always a problem because people though he was making meth), and was completely and totally ignored by his school.

It's depressing; excelling physically seems to be more important than excelling mentally. Where does that leave us?

> Where does that leave us?

It leaves us here:

http://memepunks.blogspot.com/2006/06/americas-war-on-scienc...

and ultimately, here:

http://yarchive.net/physics/effete.html

Linus Pauling developed an interest in chemistry by experimenting incessantly throughout his childhood. Today, he would have been imprisoned. The new generation will have no Linus Pauling, unless the Third World - where one might still purchase a beaker without a license - supplies us with one.

On the other hand, it's hard to argue that David Hahn's reactor should have been legal.

"May as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb."

The legal thing to do was to sit and vegetate in front of a TV set. Or beat smaller kids senseless. Or any of the other socially approved, mindless activities open to children today. He chose to be a free spirit, and paid the price.

The point is, he endangered his neighbors. I'm sort of ambivalent about the story. Should society let people build reactors? Sure. Should it let them build reactors in an unshielded toolshed in a residential area? Hell no, but it's still sort of awesome when it happens. And I'm not sure if it's really more dangerous (from a societal perspective) than owning a car.

I can thing of loads of other things between watching TV and building a reactor. Reading Hacker News would be an example.

Public schools only provide coaching for a tiny handful of sports. If you excel in any other physical activity then you're just as SOL as if you excel in any one of academic areas the school doesn't cover.

It's really a shame that this kid couldn't get competent adult supervision. With some structure in his life, things might have turned out differently for him.

His social engineering skills were quite impressive... although his habitual lying does make him seem like a psychopath.

All in all, very cool, and very sad. At least he didn't get sent to prison.

Apparently he was at it again in '07: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0a6_1186335230

What a shame. In the right environment, he could have done great things with his talent.

Trying to make uranium out of lithium batteries....?

More likely he was trying to harvest the americium-241 from the detectors:

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=340

This is a classic story, here is what he looked like from the exposure to radiation: http://beto.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/david_hahn.jpg

I've seen that picture before, but it reminds me more of a meth-addict than anything else.

This is a good read for anyone who's ever wondered how hard it would be to gather a complete collection of the elements that make up the periodic table.

DIY home radiochemistry from some who actually seems to know what they are doing (a nuclear engineering grad student):

http://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/uranium-chemistry...

I recall reading his book of it a while back. It was interesting, but I can't recall whether it added much to the article.

I remember reading this a long time ago (~10 years) in the Reader's Digest.

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