Introduction
David Hahn also called the "Radioactive Boy Scout" or the "Nuclear Boy Scout", is an American who attempted to build a homemade breeder nuclear reactor in 1994, at the age 17. As a scout in the Boy Scouts of America, Hahn conducted his experiments in secret in a backyard shed at his mother's house in Clinton Township, Michigan. While his reactor never reached a dangerous state, the police became concerned when they stopped him for another reason and they found material in his vehicle that was dangerous. Ten months later, his mother's property was cleaned up by the Environmental Protection Agency at a Superfund cleanup site. Hahn attained Eagle Scout rank shortly after his lab was dismantled.
Key Idea 1
Growing up in suburban Detroit,
…show more content…
He was inspired in part by reading “The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments” and tried to collect samples of every element in the periodic table, including the radioactive ones. He later received a merit badge in Atomic Energy and became fascinated with the idea of creating a breeder reactor in his home. Hahn worked hard to acquire this radioactive material by collecting small amounts from household products, such as americium from smoke detectors, thorium from camping lantern mantles, radium from clocks and tritium from gunsights. His "reactor" was a bored-out block of lead, and he used lithium from $1,000 worth of purchased batteries to purify the thorium ash using a Bunsen burner. Hahn posed as an adult scientist or high school teacher to gain the trust of many professionals in letters, despite the presence of misspellings and obvious errors in his letters to them. Hahn ultimately hoped to create a breeder reactor, using low-level isotopes to transform samples of thorium and uranium into fissionable isotopes. Although his homemade reactor never came anywhere near reaching critical mass, it ended up emitting dangerous levels of radioactivity, likely well over 1,000 times normal background radiation. This scared Hahn and he began to dismantle his experiments, but when the police stopped him it led to the discovery of his …show more content…
His father and stepmother first encouraged him to attend Macomb Community College. He enrolled in a metallurgy program there but frequently skipped classes. He was then encouraged to join the military, so he enlisted in the Navy, assigned to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise as an undesignated seaman. Hahn had hoped to pursue a nuclear specialist career. EPA scientists believe that Hahn's life expectancy may have been greatly shortened by his exposure to radioactivity, particularly since he spent large amounts of time in the small, enclosed shed with large amounts of radioactive material and only minimal safety precautions, but he refused their recommendation that he be examined at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station. On August 1, 2007, Hahn was arrested in Clinton Township, Michigan, for larceny, in relation to a matter involving several smoke detectors, allegedly removed from the halls of his apartment building. His intention was to obtain americium from them. In his mug shot, his face is covered with sores which investigators believe are from exposure to radioactive materials. During a Circuit Court hearing, Hahn pleaded guilty to attempted larceny of a building. The court’s online docket said prosecutors recommended that
Jarrod J. Rein is an eighteen-year-old with dark brown hair and brown eyes to match the brown arid dirt of Piedmont, Oklahoma. His skin is a smooth warm tan glow that opposes his white smile making his teeth look like snow. Standing a great height of six foot exactly, his structure resembles a bear. He is attending Piedmont high school where he in his last year of high school (senior year). He is studying to be a forensics anthropologist. Also he is studying early in the field of anatomy to be successful in his profession. While not always on the rise for knowledge Jarrod’s swimming for his high school. In a sense it’s like you see double.
Imagine working with radioactive materials in a secret camp, and the government not telling you that this material is harmful to your body. In the book Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate Brown, she takes her readers on a journey to expose what happened in the first two cities that started producing plutonium. Brown is an Associate Professor of History at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has won a handful of prizes, such as the American Historical Association’s George Louis Beer Prize for the Best Book in International European History, and was also a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow. Brown wrote this book by looking through hundreds of archives and interviews with people,
Name of serial killer: My serial killer is named Richard Chase. He was also known as the “Vampire of Sacramento” or the “Dracula Killer”.
... it has been established that chemicals in radioactivity cause cancer. Second, there is much evidence that many U.S civilians died from the effects of nuclear fall-out. Third, Williams’ family has no background of cancer until 1950s.
“I belong to a Clan of One-Breasted Women. My mother, my grandmothers, and six aunts have all had mastectomies. Seven are dead. The two who survive have just completed rounds of chemotherapy and radiation” (Williams 275). This author uses real life situations from her life to create this short story. Her story reflects on what she thought had been a flash in the night her whole life until talking with her father. Indeed, it had not been a flash in the night and was instead a bomb during the Nuclear War testing. “On August 30, 1979, during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, a suit was filed entitled “Irene Allen vs. the United States of America.” Mrs. Allen was the first to be alphabetically listed with twenty-four test cases, representative of nearly 1200 plaintiffs seeking compensation from the United States government for cancers caused from nuclear testing in Nevada” (Williams 277). With cancer being so common in the Utah area where the Nuclear testing was done many people wondered if there was a connection. “It was the first time a federal court had determined that nuclear tests had been the cause of cancers” (Williams 278). Some plaintiffs had been awarded and the other cases of this matter were not proved that nuclear testing had resulted in cancer. This was a strong topic amongst the Utah community and the United States that is still up in the air to this very day. Terry cannot prove or disprove that all these people had developed cancer from the nuclear fallout, but it is
The article that I read was about US District Judge Andrew S. Hanen. He had stopped plans to protect around four million undocumented immigrants from deportation and giving work permit; he copied a promise made by Justice Department attorneys that “nothing would happen” before his order. Hanen was furious to find out that even after releasing this information, government officials gave out 100,00 permits. He was so angry he ordered some attorneys off the case. A Justice Department lawyer said attorneys gave information because they forget other officials were going to provide permits. James Gilligan had apologized on behalf of the attorneys, basically saying they were sorry for their mistake and the time it is taking up. The point of Trump,
Leif Erickson. You may not know him, but he was the founder of America. He was a viking, one of the only ones to step foot on the North American continent. I know, you were taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America. Well you were taught wrong. People can argue this but there is actually a Leif Erikson day. October 9th.
Tom Griffith is a 60-year-old Nuclear Safeguard Inspector. Using a shipping container he tried building his own DIY root cellar, which was to serve as a bunker too, and failed. When
Despite all of the security used by the officials in charge of the “Manhattan Project,” soviet spies managed to leak information to the Soviet Union that allowed them to create a nuclear bomb of their own. Klaus Fuchs, an important scientist to the “Manhattan Project,” managed to move throughout the project and provide crucial information to the Soviets. David Greenglass also provi...
Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) succeeded in splitting the uranium atom and the Nobel Committee later awarded him the 1938 prize for physics. At Columbia University in New York, Fermi realized that if neutrons are emitted in the fissioning of uranium then the emitted neutrons might proceed to split other uranium atoms, setting in motion a chain reaction that would release enormous amounts of energy.(1) Fermi had succeeded in taking one of the first steps to making an atomic bomb.
As chief chemist in the nuclear power division he analyzed material used in reactor plant construction, nuclear propulsion plant systems, and worked on radiochemistry on nuclear submarines.
Bill Robinson is one of the most famous tap dancers that has ever lived. To most people, Bill Robinson was known for being Shirley Temple’s tap-dancing partner in the 1930’s. Bill Robinson nickname was “Bojangles”. Bojangles stood for a cheerful, happy-go-lucky demeanor for his white friends, despite the meaning being on opposite ends in the black community. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was a man that claimed he could run faster backwards than most men could run forwards.
David Cook can sing. The boy can sing well. Phenomenally actually. He is what embodies the true American Idol. Over the course of the show he has been consistent and brings quality music every time he takes the stage.
In 1939 rumor came to the U.S. that Germans had split the atom. The threat of the Nazis developing a nuclear weapon prompted President Roosevelt to establish The Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer set up a research lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico and brought the best minds in physics to work on the problem of creating a nuclear weapon. Although most the research and development was done in Los Alamos, there were over 30 other research locations throughout the project. After watching the first nuclear bomb test Oppenheimer was quoted as saying simply “It works.”.
The impact of nuclear power on the modern world has improved Various sectors of the economy and society .i.e. Food and Agriculture, Insect control, Food Preservation, Water Resources, Military, Medicine, Research and Industry. “In 1911 George de Hevesy conducted the first application of a radioisotope. At the time de Hevesy was a young Hungarian student working in Manchester with naturally radioactive materials. Not having much money he lived in modest accommodation and took his meals with his landlady. He began to suspect that some of the meals that appeared regularly might be made from leftovers from the preceding days or even weeks, but he could never be sure. To try and confirm his suspicions de Hevesy put a small amount of radioactive material into the remains of a meal. Several days later when the same dish was served again he used a simple radiation detection instrument - a gold leaf electroscope - to check if the food was radioactive. It was, and de Hevesy's suspicions were confirmed.