Only in America!

Simlife · Post by **Simlife** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 10:29 pm

Last week in the UK a program was aired about a boy scout who in the 1980's, built a nuclear reactor in his garden shed.
He managed to build a small reactor using old burnt lamp filiments, glowing pain off old clocks and a few hundred smoke detectors all crushed in to blocks using old 1950's / 60's physics books as a guide. Complete with pictures.

Needless to say that things started to go wrong and more penetrating particles started to pass through his crude concreate block sheilding.

It cost alot of money to clear up and now lies somewhere in the Utah desert.

But he got his atomic boy scout badge in the end.

Raymondo · Post by **Raymondo** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 10:31 pm

Only In America you say.

Last week in the UK a program was

Simlife · Post by **Simlife** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 10:34 pm

The boy scout was in America.

Raymondo · Post by **Raymondo** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 10:35 pm

Yeah right, thats what they all say.

Simlife · Post by **Simlife** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 10:40 pm

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/ ... rint.jhtml

http://www.meritbadge.com/bsa/mb/024.htm

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriang ... abomb.html

SuperH · Post by **SuperH** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 10:55 pm

I don't really believe that story at all. What's up with the picture of people in rad suits and large barrels of glowing goo? How the hell did that kid make enough glowing goo to fill several large barrels in his backyard shed? Especially since all he had in the shed was something like a pie tin and a pyrex beaker?

Jack_Deth · Post by **Jack_Deth** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 10:57 pm

I saw that movie once, with John Lithgow.

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Thu Jul 24, 2003 11:12 pm

SuperH wrote:I don't really believe that story at all. What's up with the picture of people in rad suits and large barrels of glowing goo? How the hell did that kid make enough glowing goo to fill several large barrels in his backyard shed? Especially since all he had in the shed was something like a pie tin and a pyrex beaker?

...the remains of David's experiments were entombed with other radioactive debris

There's your answer.

Ruben Rooben Reuben · Post by **Ruben Rooben Reuben** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 1:53 am

Big deal. Teenage boys secretly "make goo" in garden sheds all the time. Just ask Pope.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:12 am

my goo also glows green

ONLY IN AMERICA YAYAYA DOWN WITH BUSH UP WITH NOTHING BECAUSE ANYTHING THATS NEW WE HATE RAR!

BlackDog · Post by **BlackDog** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 11:06 am

gotta love fake-ass tabloid stories! sounds more like it was tried (and failed) in the 1950's than the 1990's. Seeing as most smoke detectors that contained enough of the stuff to even be able to get anything near radioactive out of them have been long since destroyed.

SuperH · Post by **SuperH** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 2:24 pm

Mad Max RW wrote:
...the remains of David's experiments were entombed with other radioactive debris
There's your answer.

So during the 90's there was a task force of people going around cleaning up kids radioactive experiments? Or were they other people's experiments... hmm. Either way, they wouldn't cart the stuff around that's for sure.

"K got this reactor checked off the list. Oh, yeah, there's this kid making more goo over by the fish pond, let's stop there and clean it up on the way back."

I understand if it was taken away and put somewhere with more radioactive stuff... but that's definatey not what's in that picture. That picture has open barrels of radioactive glue, and as far as I can tell it's supposed to be a picture of the site of his experiments. If they were entombed anyway, they still wouldn't be open. Unless they were just gonna pop one of the un-full barrels open and mix the kids stuff with it to save room.

Evil Natured Robot · Post by **Evil Natured Robot** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 3:18 pm

I'll admit the story sounds a bit iffy, but had you read it, you would've seen how they found out about his little science project. He got stopped by the cops, who searched his car and found a toolbox of his that had some of his radioactive material in it. Go read. It's a good story. And it's not too hard.

The cops called the EPA. The EPA sent in a HAZMAT team because the site had highly radioactive materials. I don't think it's that ridiculous. As for "glowing goo," it doesn't mention anything. They broke down the kid's entire shed and put the pieces in there. It's buried with other waste, but it's not like they're carting it around and unsealing barrels of the stuff willy-nilly throughout the US. Just read the actual story. It's not that ridiculous.

It'd be interesting to find out if this story is true or not. Did the UK show actually feature any of the people involved?

BlackDog wrote:Seeing as most smoke detectors that contained enough of the stuff to even be able to get anything near radioactive out of them have been long since destroyed.

What are you talking about? Who told you that? Your dad? I bet he's a smoke detector destruction specialist, right? All smoke detectors use a tiny bit of radiological matter in their inner workings. It's not dangerous at all. On top of this, who's going to destroy the ones with rad material? The Federal Smoke Detector Destruction Authority? And why bother?

BlackDog · Post by **BlackDog** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 10:09 pm

Evil Natured Robot wrote:What are you talking about? Who told you that? Your dad? I bet he's a smoke detector destruction specialist, right? All smoke detectors use a tiny bit of radiological matter in their inner workings. It's not dangerous at all. On top of this, who's going to destroy the ones with rad material? The Federal Smoke Detector Destruction Authority? And why bother?

Actually, yes he did. One of his friends worked at one of the companies that makes them - and made them for decades. The older ones did have alot more of the radioactive matter in them then they do nowadays. They stopped making them and recalled or destroyed most of the ones that had the higher amount of radioactive isotope things in them. I don't make them so I have no clue but what my dads friend told me when I was a kid.

Evil Natured Robot · Post by **Evil Natured Robot** » Fri Jul 25, 2003 10:17 pm

:roll: riiiiight.

BlackDog · Post by **BlackDog** » Sat Jul 26, 2003 12:29 pm

Evil Natured Robot wrote::roll: riiiiight.

Thanks. I always am! :roll: :badgrin:

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 12:14 am

*attacks Black Dog with a pin in an attempt to burst his ego*

NachoMonkey · Post by **NachoMonkey** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 8:20 am

It doesn't sound too far off, still if it were an urban legend the guy who made it up did their homework.

Yep, smoke detectors hold minute amounts of radiological material, and yes in the past they held a fair bit more, but still, you could probably break up hundreds of them and have enough to hold such an experiment.

Couldnt tell you if this one was real, might/might not, its a tough one to call

my question is why didnt the radium-laced paint cake up and become useless/ lose its radioactivity due to its short half-life

Simlife · Post by **Simlife** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:13 pm

Its actualy quite easy to do if you understand what you are playing with.

This is the stats for radium and it can last in some isotopes for up to 1600 years.

http://www.scescape.net/~woods/elements/radium.html
http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele088.html

Notice the ore pitchblende, this is what our little boy scout had and in it it had quanties on naturaly occouring urainium. If he didn't have this then he could not build his reactor the size it was.
He didnt extract the radaium from the ore, only isolating the uranium. U-238 is not a fissionable but it can made to be.

This is made possable by nutrons. You will notice that David has spent most of his boyhood making bigger and radon guns. When you fire enouch protons at U-238 it becomes plutonium.

People may or may not know that radium produces ALOT of alpha particles and with this he dangeriously squashed together most of his alpha particle producing elements he had together in a ball, radium and americium in the centre, and with the outer reactor cover beryllium and aluminum. The last two are not radioactive but when hit with alpha particles (Electrons) it disloges a nutron. Lots and lots of them.

He added his two elements, thorium ash (The uranium-233)and uranium powder (U-238), both are fissionable, to the out side of the ball in blocks.

Adding carbon as a way of control (Which was not enought I think) he could generate a reactor that could refuel itself and generate lots of heat. The long island desaster had a similar reactor that almost had a meltdown due to the lack of enough controling (carbon) rods in the reactor.

Now after a few days it became more radioactive that his orginal project that means other radioactive elements had been produced (plutonium?) and panic set in.

Tthe rest is history.

If you can find this on Ebay this may be fun way of learning about the powers of the atom!

http://members.tripod.com/glenthorne/gilbert.html

Simlife · Post by **Simlife** » Sun Jul 27, 2003 6:23 pm

Whops slight error. A alpha particle is not a electron. Thats a beta particle.

Its actualy two protons and two neutrons.