What to do with all this magic?

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by Flint

~snip~
Did you know that a highschool student built a nuclear reactor in his spare time with off-the-shelf components? ~snip~

Did you know the human head weighs eight pounds? :p

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

Are you referring to David Hahn, the "Radioactive Boy Scout"?

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

http://www.amazon.com/Radioactive-Bo.../dp/037550351X

What happened to the boy? Does the ending raise thoughtful questions or is it just sad? I am thinking it might be a good read for a college student?

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

Did you know the human head weighs eight pounds? :p

funny
........and I didn't know that!

[Beest]

Originally Posted by skysidhe

What happened to the boy? Does the ending raise thoughtful questions or is it just sad?

We had our Radiation training a couple of weeks ago, I'm the Radiation Safety officer at my workplace, the instructor mentioned this guy, it's only a few miles us.
The latest part of the story is he got out of the Navy last year, and was soon arrested and convicted of stealing smoke detectors, one of his sources of Isotopes

So looks like he was up to his old tricks

It's covered on his wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

and this is him, that's not acne those are Beta radiation burns

[Flint]

What a freak. No, I'm not talking about him.

I was referring to 15yo Thiago Olson, who built a nuclear reactor in his basement for $3500.

HOW IT WORKS

Two vacuum pumps suck air out of the central chamber, leaving a near-total vacuum. Loose atoms in here interfere with fusion and lower yield.

The chamber is filled with deuterium and jolted with about 45,000 volts of electricity.

A negatively charged grid of thin steel wires attracts the now-positive particles, sometimes causing them to collide.

Colliding particles fuse to form helium-3. The resulting neutron emission is measured, proving that fusion occurred.

[Beest]

also in Michigan, you wouldn't think there would be two .

That's seroiusly good work and for $3500, one of those vacuum pumps on it's own costs that much.