Trying Too Hard
Irradiated by Stingray
Apparently, having been foiled (pardon the pun) once, and doing some paid pro-time in the Navy, the Radioactive Boy Scout is, like the atomic version of a pyro playing with matches, up to his old tricks.
Now I certainly don’t begrudge the man a thing. Nuclear power is just freakin’ cool as all get-out. The fact that he, single-handed, built a nuclear program in his back yard that would make that wacky Iranian Pres. Ahmadinnerjacket weep with envy is outright amazing, and very certainly praise-worthy, if a tad below OSHA standards.
I’ll admit happily I’ve toyed off and on with going a similar route, though for preference with less stealing (since it attracts attention). If nothing else, disconnecting the house from the power co would make those smarmy “green” idjits who are always going on about how wonderful not-currently-viable alternative energy sources are both a) crap themselves with fear and b) at least have to consider the notion that nuclear energy is basically our must-do path forward right now. Mostly A though. I like when stupid people crap themselves in terror.
That said, while a lot of the fear and panic around the term “radiation” is overblown, and OSHA standards are often more than a little excessive, I think there’s one very important lesson to take away from Mr. Hahn: When your face begins to melt off, CHECK YOUR FUCKING SHIELDING!
Edit: Son of a bitch, of course it’s way out of date. My bad.
September 29th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Holy 2007, Batman! CHECK YOUR FUCKING ARTICLE DATE
September 29th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Yeah, this is somewhat dated - he pled out, got sentenced 90 days, but that was delayed while he was treated for radiation exposure.
As for the sores - some have pointed out that what he was working with wouldn’t cause that particular type of skin issue, and looks far more likely caused by meth usage - see “meth bugs”.
September 29th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Heh.
When the firefighters at Chernobyl felt invisible rain on their faces, this was a good sign that something was really badly going wrong at the plant ….
September 29th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Yea, I agree on the meth eval … he’s well on his way to meth-asshole status.
Too bad. Someone with that much talent needs a real job.
As usual, the mundane folks are scared by the instabilities of the truly gifted.
September 29th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
That dude looks like his face caught fire and someone put it out with a wet shovel.
That said I admire his ingenuity.
Jim
September 29th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Hey, this was new to me, thanks for posting it.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:53 am
So . . . What are his chances of making it to 40 years of age without one really nasty cancer or more?
September 30th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Ooooh… yeah, it’s always seriously tempting to build a vest-pocket reactor - especially something with nifty direct radiovoltaic conversion rather than pratting about with tea-kettles and spinny things. I hadn’t heard about this guy before, so thanks anyway.
On the Point A note, I had some muggle in a panic pointing out that uranium occours naturally in soil, and is the same stuff as “depleted uranium”. I laughed. Cruelly.
September 30th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Kevin - it depends on how much of what he got and where. Being that he likely had no dosimetry while he was tinkering, I think the best anyone can do is guess.
Jim
September 30th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
This man needs a Real Men Of Genius commercial dedicated to him:
Here’s to you, Icarus of the isotopes!
September 30th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Mark: IIRC, the uranium in soil is not quite the same stuff as depleted uranium. DU - U238 - is what is left after all of the U235 has been extracted from the ore. Therefor, the stuff that is in the soil is slightly more radioactive than DU, as it includes some U235.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:22 am
Check out the Amateur Scientist articles from Scientific American in the early ’50s. There is a high school science project cyclotron and at least one home built reactor in there.
Kids just wanna have fun.
and maybe glow in the dark a little.
October 1st, 2009 at 10:17 am
Guess I’d best not mention the ion motor I built in high school.
That was back when science projects were interesting.
Rabbit.
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
…And I suppose my High School physics X-ray machine is right out — though it made nice radiographs with old Polaroid sealed singles. (Given a high-voltage AC source, it’s almost sinfully easy. My lab partner and I remote-controlled the machine, along wth inadequate lead shielding).