Swede Arrested For Atom Smashing at Home

[Dotini]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_SWEDEN_NUCLEAR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-08-03-11-33-45

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said Wednesday he was only doing it as a hobby.

 

[daveb]

At least he had the flash to wonder if it might be illegal (i would have first wondered if what I was doing was safe, though).

 

[Bandit127]

The Register has an article including a photo of his 'reactor'.

Incredible.

Article:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/02/diy_swedish_nuclear_reactor/"

The photo of the 'reactor'

source: Helsingborgs Dagblad

 

[Dotini]

He tried for the Nobel Prize but got the Darwin Award!

 

[NUCENG]

See how an American boy went even further:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

and

https://www.amazon.com/dp/037550351X/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[skeptic2]

How many more undiscovered ones are out there?

 

[Dotini]

How many more undiscovered ones are out there?

One would like to hope that solitary mad scientists would be few. But in this age of individualism, democracy, free-enterprise and free information from the internet, one must probably expect more.

PS: Congratulations on your 1000th post, skeptic2!

Respectfully submitted,
Steve

 

[skeptic2]

Thanks, I hadn't even noticed!

 

[Sheets]

Anyone know the link to this guy's blog? It would be interesting to see what type of experiments he was trying to do.

 

[flpojken]

Anyone know the link to this guy's blog? It would be interesting to see what type of experiments he was trying to do.

http://http://richardsreactor.blogspot.com/

 

[Enthalpy]

Radium to emit alphas, beryllium hit by alphas to produce neutrons, americium absorbing neutrons to split.

So: nothing resembling a chain reaction. It's provoked fission, as physicists did nearly a century ago.

Mixing all metals in hot sulphuric acid may have produced a hydrogen explosion, but they were more probably ceramics, and not even the glass is broken. More of a concern, the incident can have dispersed radioactive material - chips, not fumes. It must be similar to a fire in a store selling smoke detectors.

To my eyes, a game hazardous within a very limited range, with consequences essentially for the experimenter, less dangerous than many chemistry experiments - and made without the necessary precautions, I'd say. The hype comes only from the words "nuclear" and "fission", which impacted police, media and the public.