An interesting story about a boy and his nuclear materials!

Sir Kenyth · 08-26-2003, 03:57 PM

Most kids have some kind of hobby - a sport, collecting stamps or computer games. But David Hahn, who lived in Commerce Township in Michigan, about 40 km out of Detroit, had a scientific hobby - chemistry. And so he tried to build a nuclear reactor.

At the age of ten he was given a book called The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. Something clicked, and by the age of 12 he had mastered his father’s University-level chemistry books, and by 14, he had made nitroglycerine. His father thought that David needed a stabilising influence, so he advised him to try for the goal of Eagle Scout - which needs a total of 21 Merit Badges. Some Merit Badges (like citizenship, first aid and personal management) are compulsory, while some (from American Business to Woodchuck) are chosen by the scout. David chose the Merit Badge in Atomic Energy. To get this badge, you have to know about nuclear fission, know who the important people in the history of Atomic Energy were, and make a few models of some atoms, and other stuff. David built a model of a nuclear reactor with some tin cans, drinking straws and rubber bands, and earned his Merit Badge in Atomic Energy on May 10, 1991 (when he was 14 years and 7 months old). Then he decided to aim higher.

Atoms have a core of positively-charged protons, and neutral neutrons. Some of the bigger atoms (like uranium, for example) have unstable cores. If a neutron hits this core, it splits into two smaller atoms and a neutron or two - and also gives off a huge amount of energy.

So David started off by making a neutron gun. He pretended to be a Physics Lecturer, and got lots of professional help from industrial companies, the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He found out that he could get radioactive Americium-241 from household smoke detectors - so he bought 100 broken ones at a dollar each. The friendly customer-services representative told him exactly where the Americium-241 was, and how to remove it from its inert gold matrix. He then put his tiny pile of Americium-241 inside a hollow lead block, and drilled a small hole in it. As Americium decays, it gives off a-particles. When a-particles hit aluminium, the aluminium gives off neutrons. So he put a strip of aluminium in front of the hole in the lead block where the a-particles came out, and bingo - he had a neutron gun.

He had found out that the cloth mantles in gas lanterns are covered with thorium-232 (because thorium is very resistant to high temperatures). He also knew that if you hit thorium-232 with enough neutrons, the thorium-232 would turn into uranium-233. So he bought thousands of gas mantles and turned them into thorium ash with a very hot gas flame. How did he purify the thorium? Simple - he bought a few thousand dollars worth of lithium batteries, cut them open, and did some simple chemistry to concentrate the thorium. But alas, the effort was wasted. His neutron gun didn’t have enough grunt to turn thorium-232 into uranium-233.

Time for Plan B. Radium delivers heaps of α-particles, and he had been told if you blast these α-particles onto beryllium, you get enormous numbers of neutrons. But how could he get some radium? Well, until the late 1960s, the glow-in-the-dark faces of clocks, and car and airplane dashboard instruments glowed because they were painted with radium. So he started the slow process of haunting junk and antique shops, surreptitiously chipping off the glowing radium. But one day, he got lucky when his Geiger Counter went off its brain. He bought the clock for $20, and inside, found a complete vial of radium paint conveniently left behind.

So he rigged up a more powerful neutron gun with a hollow lead block with a hole, his precious radium inside, and some beryllium to get hit by the a-particles and give off neutrons. What did he use for a target? Some uranium ore he got from a friendly supplier. But failure again. The neutrons were moving too fast (about 27 million kilometres per hour) and just zipped through the uranium. So he slowed them down to about 8,000 km/h by running them through tritium (which he painstakingly scraped off modern glow-in-the-dark gun and bow sights) - and the uranium ore got more radioactive.

By this time, David Hahn was 17, and he decided to stop fooling around. He mixed his radium with his americium and aluminium, wrapped it in aluminium foil, and then wrapped the whole mess in his thorium and uranium - of course, all held together with gaffer tape. Finally he had success - the bizarre ball got more radioactive every day. Perhaps too much success - he could pick up the radioactivity 5 houses away. He panicked, and began to dismantle his creation.

At 2.40 am on the 31st of August, 1994, the local police were called because a young man was doing something suspicious near a car. David told the police to be careful of his toolbox, because it was radioactive. Soon some men in ventilated white moon suits were chopping up his radioactive shed with chainsaws, and stuffing the parts into thirty nine 200-litre sealed drums which they took away to a nuclear waste repository. The clean-up cost about $120,000 - but it did protect the 40,000 nearby inhabitants from harm.

And David? Well, while he was a whiz at science, he never was much good with maths and English. So today, he’s a junior sailor/deckhand on the aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, which has 8 nuclear reactors.

Calaethis Dragonsbane · 08-26-2003, 10:49 PM

Pretty disturbing story... is it true?

Faceman · 08-26-2003, 11:45 PM

Could be true. After all there are lots of materials out there which can be abused.
For example: The nicotine of a pack of cigarettes if extracted is easily enough to kill a grown man.

Bungleau · 08-27-2003, 12:54 AM

Wet blanket time...

Well, I was living in the Detroit area until early 1994, and still living in Michigan, get back there frequently. I don't recall hearing anything about this, back then or now.

A check of the Detroit Free Press archives (www.freep.com) shows no stories from 1993 through 1996 about a neutron gun or any of this material. As one of the two primary newspapers for the Detroit metro area, it would likely cover the story, especially one as intriguing as that (Eagle Scout is a mad scientist? Hold page one!).

A google search revealed around five or six references, all of which appear to be the same story (slightly edited), and all of which appear to stem from a Harper's 1998 story, some three years after the event supposedly happened.

The story itself contains a number of factual inaccuracies, such as Clinton Township being 30 miles north of Detroit. It's more like six, depending on where you count from. Perhaps 14 from the heart of Detroit, but 30?

Also, the article refers to mandatory educational testing in order to graduate from high school. I'm not sure we have that now, and I'm pretty sure we didn't have it back then.

There's also a mention of him having acquired thirty pounds of uranium. That's a lot of U-235... to go undetected? Hmmm...

So, overall, I suspect it's a very effective piece of creative writing. I'm more than willing to acknowledge anyone who can post third-party corroboration that stems from something other than this Harper's article.

Deejax · 08-27-2003, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Faceman:
Could be true. After all there are lots of materials out there which can be abused.
For example: The nicotine of a pack of cigarettes if extracted is easily enough to kill a grown man.

How about a teaspoon of ground apple seeds containing enough cyanide to kill a man.
Talk about your health foods!

Sir Kenyth · 08-27-2003, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Calaethis Dragonsbane:
Pretty disturbing story... is it true?

According to the source, who is Karl Kruszelnicki.

Karl Kruszelnicki used to be a "scientist, engineer and doctor", but is currently an author and science commentator on radio and television. He is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney, in the Science Foundation of the Physics Department.

Sir Kenyth · 08-27-2003, 12:51 PM

Thanks for the background check Bungleau! I'm going to put it to the test with the straight dope editorial. Cecil loves debunking stories like this!

Leonis · 08-27-2003, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Sir Kenyth:

quote:
Originally posted by Calaethis Dragonsbane:
Pretty disturbing story... is it true?

According to the source, who is Karl Kruszelnicki.

Karl Kruszelnicki used to be a "scientist, engineer and doctor", but is currently an author and science commentator on radio and television. He is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney, in the Science Foundation of the Physics Department. [/QUOTE]Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki still is a "scientist, engineer and doctor". (being "an author and science commentator on radio and television" doesn't automatically negate one's previous qualifications)

He's always been a reasonably reliable source and a really nice guy to boot (first hand experience here). I'd be interested to see the debunking of Professor Kruszelnicki's research. - Although he is very eager to admit when he's made a mistake....

[ 08-27-2003, 01:15 PM: Message edited by: Leonis ]

Sir Kenyth · 08-27-2003, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Leonis:

quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kenyth:

quote:
Originally posted by Calaethis Dragonsbane:
Pretty disturbing story... is it true?

According to the source, who is Karl Kruszelnicki.

Karl Kruszelnicki used to be a "scientist, engineer and doctor", but is currently an author and science commentator on radio and television. He is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney, in the Science Foundation of the Physics Department. [/QUOTE]Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki still is a "scientist, engineer and doctor". (being "an author and science commentator on radio and television" doesn't automatically negate one's previous qualifications)

He's always been a reasonably reliable source and a really nice guy to boot (first hand experience here). I'd be interested to see the debunking of Professor Kruszelnicki's research. - Although he is very eager to admit when he's made a mistake.... [/QUOTE]I meant he used to work as one. I didn't mean to belittle his status. Anyway, please post any info for, or against, this story. I'll do a little poking around on my own.

Chewbacca · 08-27-2003, 01:32 PM

The story sounds like a possible perloined letter to me.
Reading between the lines and assuming the facts behind the science are correct, seems to be instructions on how to aquire nuclear material from normal, but maybe hard to find items.

Or maybe this is just an instance of a story being nothing more than a story.

08-26-2003, 03:57 PM	#1
Sir Kenyth Fzoul Chembryl Join Date: August 30, 2001 Location: somewhere Age: 54 Posts: 1,785	Most kids have some kind of hobby - a sport, collecting stamps or computer games. But David Hahn, who lived in Commerce Township in Michigan, about 40 km out of Detroit, had a scientific hobby - chemistry. And so he tried to build a nuclear reactor. At the age of ten he was given a book called The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. Something clicked, and by the age of 12 he had mastered his father’s University-level chemistry books, and by 14, he had made nitroglycerine. His father thought that David needed a stabilising influence, so he advised him to try for the goal of Eagle Scout - which needs a total of 21 Merit Badges. Some Merit Badges (like citizenship, first aid and personal management) are compulsory, while some (from American Business to Woodchuck) are chosen by the scout. David chose the Merit Badge in Atomic Energy. To get this badge, you have to know about nuclear fission, know who the important people in the history of Atomic Energy were, and make a few models of some atoms, and other stuff. David built a model of a nuclear reactor with some tin cans, drinking straws and rubber bands, and earned his Merit Badge in Atomic Energy on May 10, 1991 (when he was 14 years and 7 months old). Then he decided to aim higher. Atoms have a core of positively-charged protons, and neutral neutrons. Some of the bigger atoms (like uranium, for example) have unstable cores. If a neutron hits this core, it splits into two smaller atoms and a neutron or two - and also gives off a huge amount of energy. So David started off by making a neutron gun. He pretended to be a Physics Lecturer, and got lots of professional help from industrial companies, the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He found out that he could get radioactive Americium-241 from household smoke detectors - so he bought 100 broken ones at a dollar each. The friendly customer-services representative told him exactly where the Americium-241 was, and how to remove it from its inert gold matrix. He then put his tiny pile of Americium-241 inside a hollow lead block, and drilled a small hole in it. As Americium decays, it gives off a-particles. When a-particles hit aluminium, the aluminium gives off neutrons. So he put a strip of aluminium in front of the hole in the lead block where the a-particles came out, and bingo - he had a neutron gun. He had found out that the cloth mantles in gas lanterns are covered with thorium-232 (because thorium is very resistant to high temperatures). He also knew that if you hit thorium-232 with enough neutrons, the thorium-232 would turn into uranium-233. So he bought thousands of gas mantles and turned them into thorium ash with a very hot gas flame. How did he purify the thorium? Simple - he bought a few thousand dollars worth of lithium batteries, cut them open, and did some simple chemistry to concentrate the thorium. But alas, the effort was wasted. His neutron gun didn’t have enough grunt to turn thorium-232 into uranium-233. Time for Plan B. Radium delivers heaps of α-particles, and he had been told if you blast these α-particles onto beryllium, you get enormous numbers of neutrons. But how could he get some radium? Well, until the late 1960s, the glow-in-the-dark faces of clocks, and car and airplane dashboard instruments glowed because they were painted with radium. So he started the slow process of haunting junk and antique shops, surreptitiously chipping off the glowing radium. But one day, he got lucky when his Geiger Counter went off its brain. He bought the clock for $20, and inside, found a complete vial of radium paint conveniently left behind. So he rigged up a more powerful neutron gun with a hollow lead block with a hole, his precious radium inside, and some beryllium to get hit by the a-particles and give off neutrons. What did he use for a target? Some uranium ore he got from a friendly supplier. But failure again. The neutrons were moving too fast (about 27 million kilometres per hour) and just zipped through the uranium. So he slowed them down to about 8,000 km/h by running them through tritium (which he painstakingly scraped off modern glow-in-the-dark gun and bow sights) - and the uranium ore got more radioactive. By this time, David Hahn was 17, and he decided to stop fooling around. He mixed his radium with his americium and aluminium, wrapped it in aluminium foil, and then wrapped the whole mess in his thorium and uranium - of course, all held together with gaffer tape. Finally he had success - the bizarre ball got more radioactive every day. Perhaps too much success - he could pick up the radioactivity 5 houses away. He panicked, and began to dismantle his creation. At 2.40 am on the 31st of August, 1994, the local police were called because a young man was doing something suspicious near a car. David told the police to be careful of his toolbox, because it was radioactive. Soon some men in ventilated white moon suits were chopping up his radioactive shed with chainsaws, and stuffing the parts into thirty nine 200-litre sealed drums which they took away to a nuclear waste repository. The clean-up cost about $120,000 - but it did protect the 40,000 nearby inhabitants from harm. And David? Well, while he was a whiz at science, he never was much good with maths and English. So today, he’s a junior sailor/deckhand on the aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, which has 8 nuclear reactors. __________________ Master Barbsman and wielder of the razor wit!<br /><br />There are dark angels among us. They present themselves in shining raiment but there is, in their hearts, the blackness of the abyss.

08-26-2003, 11:45 PM	#3
Faceman Hathor Join Date: February 18, 2002 Location: Vienna Age: 42 Posts: 2,248	Could be true. After all there are lots of materials out there which can be abused. For example: The nicotine of a pack of cigarettes if extracted is easily enough to kill a grown man. __________________ \"I am forever spellbound by the frailty of life\"<br /><br /> Faceman

08-27-2003, 12:54 AM	#4
Bungleau 40th Level Warrior Join Date: October 29, 2001 Location: Western Wilds of Michigan Posts: 11,752	Wet blanket time... Well, I was living in the Detroit area until early 1994, and still living in Michigan, get back there frequently. I don't recall hearing anything about this, back then or now. A check of the Detroit Free Press archives (www.freep.com) shows no stories from 1993 through 1996 about a neutron gun or any of this material. As one of the two primary newspapers for the Detroit metro area, it would likely cover the story, especially one as intriguing as that (Eagle Scout is a mad scientist? Hold page one!). A google search revealed around five or six references, all of which appear to be the same story (slightly edited), and all of which appear to stem from a Harper's 1998 story, some three years after the event supposedly happened. The story itself contains a number of factual inaccuracies, such as Clinton Township being 30 miles north of Detroit. It's more like six, depending on where you count from. Perhaps 14 from the heart of Detroit, but 30? Also, the article refers to mandatory educational testing in order to graduate from high school. I'm not sure we have that now, and I'm pretty sure we didn't have it back then. There's also a mention of him having acquired thirty pounds of uranium. That's a lot of U-235... to go undetected? Hmmm... So, overall, I suspect it's a very effective piece of creative writing. I'm more than willing to acknowledge anyone who can post third-party corroboration that stems from something other than this Harper's article. __________________ B Save Early, Save Often Save Before, Save After Two-Star General, Spelling Soldiers -+-+-+ Give 'em a hug one more time. It might be the last.

08-27-2003, 12:51 PM	#7
Sir Kenyth Fzoul Chembryl Join Date: August 30, 2001 Location: somewhere Age: 54 Posts: 1,785	Thanks for the background check Bungleau! I'm going to put it to the test with the straight dope editorial. Cecil loves debunking stories like this! __________________ Master Barbsman and wielder of the razor wit!<br /><br />There are dark angels among us. They present themselves in shining raiment but there is, in their hearts, the blackness of the abyss.

08-27-2003, 01:32 PM	#10
Chewbacca Zartan Join Date: July 18, 2001 Location: America, On The Beautiful Earth Age: 50 Posts: 5,373	The story sounds like a possible perloined letter to me. Reading between the lines and assuming the facts behind the science are correct, seems to be instructions on how to aquire nuclear material from normal, but maybe hard to find items. Or maybe this is just an instance of a story being nothing more than a story. __________________ Support Local Music and Record Stores! Got Liberty?

08-26-2003, 10:49 PM	#2
Calaethis Dragonsbane Legion Symbol Join Date: May 29, 2002 Location: Somewhere in between Age: 39 Posts: 7,029	Pretty disturbing story... is it true?

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