Swedish man caught trying to split atoms at home

Swedish man caught trying to split atoms at home

hosted.ap.org

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

Richard Handl told The Associated Press that he had the radioactive elements radium, americium and uranium in his apartment in southern Sweden when police showed up and arrested him on charges of unauthorized possession of nuclear material.

The 31-year-old Handl said he had tried for months to set up a nuclear reactor at home and kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove.

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Uhhh... All I can say is WOW! Someone has watched "The Manhattan Project" one too many times.

Certainly, plenty of questions are racing through my brain at the moment. Mostly Why? and How? Furthermore, this fella kept a blog about his little project.

I wouldn't like to be his neighbor in the Apartment Complex. This guy was not even out in some isolated countryside.

Very Interesting.

hosted.ap.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

Here's the kicker. He basically gave himself up

Only later did he realize it might not be legal and sent a question to Sweden's Radiation Authority, which answered by sending the police.

"I have always been interested in physics and chemistry," Handl said, adding he just wanted to "see if it's possible to split atoms at home."

Sometimes smart people don't always have the most common sense!!! Assuming this guy is smart


hosted.ap.org...

Atoms belong to us all,

Splitted or not.

Aren't we all in possession of radioactive materials?

A lot of us are forced by mandates and regs to have them.

Some safety equipment like smoke detectors and CO detectors have radioactive materials in them.

How many smoke detectors do I need to run afoul of the law?


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

The 31-year-old Handl said he had tried for months to set up a nuclear reactor at home and kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove.


Who wants to eat what he bakes in that oven?

This guy reminds me of the nuclear boyscout. A US boyscout who for his nuclear energy badge actually build a working nuclear reactor in his backyard. He was 'caught' but they couldn't charge him cause all nuclear regulations are against companies etc. and not against private individual. Very interesting documentary. Highly recommended.

Its happened here in the US. "The radioactive boyscout". In short, a teen built a thorium reactor at home, crudely, and spread radiation all over his neighborhood. Joined the Navy. Gets out of the Navy and does it again.

www.dangerouslaboratories.org...

Here's the story.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


DHS is cracking down on Ammonium Nitrate Sales so why not smoke detectors and microwave ovens.

Man, a little bit of knowledge can really be a dangerous thing. I am glad that the amount of plutonium needed to split an atom is very hard to obtain.

The terms 'radioactive', and 'radiation', are amusing to me. It all depends on the context.

When the desired result is to spread fear, then it is far too easy to accomplish that goal, by using those terms.

When fear is not the goal, then it is very easy to calm the nerves with a comparison to the radiation that is received through any of the numerous items, or procedures, which occur in normal everyday daily life.

Meh the government probably just doesnt like people knowing its probably quite possible to have micro nuke facilities runing your town and houses power for the next 50,000 years. Surely miniaturization of atomic energy has come along way in 60/70 years?

Originally posted by Johnze
Meh the government probably just doesnt like people knowing its probably quite possible to have micro nuke facilities runing your town and houses power for the next 50,000 years. Surely miniaturization of atomic energy has come along way in 60/70 years?

Yeah great. Why wait for deadly Fukushima fallout to slowly trickle down in the rain when you can make it happen yourself?

reply to post by Observer99


Well man if you want to build your very own micro reactor on a fault line using 40 year old technology, then thats something you can do, seems pretty stupid, but you know, up to you!

Originally posted by Johnze
reply to post by Observer99

 

Well man if you want to build your very own micro reactor on a fault line using 40 year old technology, then thats something you can do, seems pretty stupid, but you know, up to you!

If you did any research at all into nuclear power, you would know that even nuke plants in "normal operation" are constantly releasing quantities of radioactive material. People living in the downwind plumes of nuke plants have measurably higher cancer and death rates. Our DNA can't deal with isotype decay, we don't have the biological mechanisms to repair that kind of continuous cell damage. Until someone redesigns the human genome to be cancer-free and regenerative, nuclear power is one of the stupidest things imaginable.

Originally posted by Johnze
Meh the government probably just doesnt like people knowing its probably quite possible to have micro nuke facilities runing your town and houses power for the next 50,000 years. Surely miniaturization of atomic energy has come along way in 60/70 years?

I would imagine that the smaller these devices become the exponentially safer the result. I've always wondered if we would have AA nuke batteries myself.

NOTE: There is a rather large group of people working on this sort of thing, I believe I saw a couple of forums for it

reply to post by jibeho


This is too funny. Can we give nominate him for the Darwin Award? I love how Sweden’s Radiation Authority responded.

BTW, hope this man gets a new hobby. Something safer, like chainsaw juggling or Russian roulette.

If some sociopath actually managed to get a hold of the necessary unobtanium technology and set off a nuclear blast would we even hear about it through the MSM? Wouldn't they just report a fertilizer bomb or something?

Originally posted by EartOccupant
Atoms belong to us all,

Splitted or not.

We ARE atoms.

Originally posted by earthdude
Man, a little bit of knowledge can really be a dangerous thing. I am glad that the amount of plutonium needed to split an atom is very hard to obtain.

Watch the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Events Reports on their website.

Nuclear material gets lost/stolen every single month. U238 was swiped by some contractor who was supposed to ship it for DOD and nobody knows where it is. You can read about it in last months Event Reports on their website.