David Hahn
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Nicknamed the "Radioactive Boy Scout", David Hahn is known for his attempt to build a nuclear breeder reactor in 1995 in his backyard shed in Commerce Township, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at the age of 16. Hahn managed to acquire significant amounts of radioactive material by collecting mostly household products, such as smoke detectors, thorium lantern mantles, and radium luminescent paint, that contained small amounts of radioactive materials. Although his home-made reactor never achieved criticality, it ended up emitting toxic levels of radioactivity.
The authorities eventually discovered Hahn's activities and the EPA had to dismantle the shed and bury it as low-level radioactive waste in Utah.
A biography by Ken Silverstein called The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor was written about the incident and was published by Random House in 2004. The book was based on an article, The Radioactive Boy Scout, written by Silverstein that appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1998.
A biographical documentary television show called The Nuclear Boyscout (http://www.eagletv.co.uk/home/nuclear.htm) was shot by Eagle&Eagle Television in June 2003 for the UK's Channel 4. The show documented David's experiment and even had him reenact some of his methods for the camera. Originally slated for the Discovery Channel, the show has not yet been aired in the U.S.
See also: Nuclear reactor#History
