Swedish man caught trying to split atoms at home

[billw]

Swedish man caught trying to split atoms at home

http://news.yahoo.com/swedish-man-caught-trying-split-atoms-home-153341057.html

STOCKHOLM (AP) — 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.


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."
http://www.peasoupandersens.net/Hap-Pea-trans-3.gif

[Damien Evans]

One wonders how he got his hands on Radium and Uranium.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

One wonders how he got his hands on Radium and Uranium.

One wonders how he got his hands on an atom? They're quite small.

[ApolloGnomon]

Geez, and I get nervous just experimenting with homemade hooch in my kitchen.

[dafydd]

He's going to need a very sharp chisel.

[Jalok]

One wonders how he got his hands on Radium and Uranium.

Americum-241 is apparently used in some smoke detectors, radium was once used in watches with the glowing paint, and apparently uranium could be found in older enamels, jewelry, stuff like that. Not being a chemist or such, I do not know how easy it would be to isolate the components, or even if they are the correct ones for what he was trying to do, but apparently aquiring small amounts of materials might be possible; it's aquiring enough to be useful for more than table-top experimentation which is hard.


jalok

[Beanbag]

Try United Nuclear:

http://unitednuclear.com/

Ask about their complete line of fissionable material. Their death ray supplies are superb.

Beanbag

[Vorticity]

Off topic:

http://www.peasoupandersens.net/Hap-Pea-trans-3.gif

Andersen's Pea Soup Restaurant (http://www.peasoupandersens.net/) in Buellton. I used to go there all the time when I lived in California.

[Kopji]

I'm not even going to guess if this is legal in the US. If he said he was only exercising his 2nd amendment right to make nuclear weapons he'd probably draw a crowd of supporters.

I love this story though, he makes me feel less naive about the world.

[Southwind17]

"... created a small meltdown on his stove."

Either he's come across an appliance brand that, thankfully, has eluded my missus so far, or the article's alluding to some kind of variant cheese and tuna concoction that one spreads on warm toast?!

[MG1962]

Try United Nuclear:

http://unitednuclear.com/

Ask about their complete line of fissionable material. Their death ray supplies are superb.

Beanbag

And sold out :(

[Kevin_Lowe]

Swedish man caught trying to split atoms at home

http://news.yahoo.com/swedish-man-caught-trying-split-atoms-home-153341057.html

http://www.peasoupandersens.net/Hap-Pea-trans-3.gif

Oh no! The atom-splitting boogyman is coming for us!

Unless he's got a critical mass of enriched uranium or plutonium in the cupboard, which strikes me as extraordinarily unlikely, I don't see why he shouldn't split all the atoms he wants.

[Southwind17]

Oh no! The atom-splitting boogyman is coming for us!

Unless he's got a critical mass of enriched uranium or plutonium in the cupboard, which strikes me as extraordinarily unlikely, I don't see why he shouldn't split all the atoms he wants.
Forget uranium and plutonium, if he starts splitting peas it's curtains for us all!

[Captain Obvious]

I didn't think you needed a licence to go fission in Scandinavia.

[Furcifer]

Unless he's got a critical mass of enriched uranium or plutonium in the cupboard, which strikes me as extraordinarily unlikely, I don't see why he shouldn't split all the atoms he wants.

He sounds like a copy cat of this kid in Michigan that collected a bunch of smoke detectors and glow in the dark stuff. I think he also ordered radioactive teaching materials from NIST and took them out of the plastic casings. There may have been tracer rounds too. Anyways, despite not being able to make a bomb he made quite a mess, radiation levels were off the charts and they had to destroy most of the stuff and send in a contamination team. I'll see if I can find the article.

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

[Kevin_Lowe]

He sounds like a copy cat of this kid in Michigan that collected a bunch of smoke detectors and glow in the dark stuff. I think he also ordered radioactive teaching materials from NIST and took them out of the plastic casings. There may have been tracer rounds too. Anyways, despite not being able to make a bomb he made quite a mess, radiation levels were off the charts and they had to destroy most of the stuff and send in a contamination team. I'll see if I can find the article.

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

Heh, that's awesome but I can see why you don't want it next door.

[billw]

I didn't think you needed a licence to go fission in Scandinavia.

Especially on a new clear day like this.

[Fredrik]

He's going to need a very sharp chisel.
I thought I was the only one who saw that movie.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I'm not even going to guess if this is legal in the US. If he said he was only exercising his 2nd amendment right to make nuclear weapons he'd probably draw a crowd of supporters.

Libertarian hero and failed Presidential candidate Michael Badnarik would certainly support him.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Forget uranium and plutonium, if he starts splitting peas it's curtains for us all!

What if he splits hairs?

[Sledge]

What if he splits hairs?

Then he'll be right at home on this forum.

[CapelDodger]

Geez, and I get nervous just experimenting with homemade hooch in my kitchen.

And now you've blogged about it :rolleyes:. Did you miss the moral of this tale?

[ApolloGnomon]

What with this being splitting-hairs-jref and all...

this isn't a blog. It's a forum. The correct verb isn't blogging. It's posting.

And Apollo Gnomon isn't my real name. I also post at a home-made-hooch forum. Ain't been busted yet. "Don't tell, don't sell, and don't make a smell." I challenge feds to identify my rig when disassembled from the rest of the chaos of mad science in my shop.

[jasonpatterson]

Pitchblende is fairly easy to come by. Heck, they sell it on eBay. If you want uranium and are willing to pay for the ore, it's right there... Getting something that could produce an actual meltdown is a whole other story though, of course.

[Southwind17]

Pitchblende is fairly easy to come by. Heck, they sell it on eBay. If you want uranium and are willing to pay for the ore, it's right there... Getting something that could produce an actual meltdown is a whole other story though, of course.
So what's your point, then?!

[Beanbag]

And sold out :(
I understand some guy in Sweden bought them out in one large order.



:D

Beanbag

[elgarak]

Pitchblende is fairly easy to come by. Heck, they sell it on eBay. If you want uranium and are willing to pay for the ore, it's right there... Getting something that could produce an actual meltdown is a whole other story though, of course.
I don't believe he actually had a 'meltdown' in the nuclear sense. He even put quotation marks around it on his blog.

What he wanted to do was processing/blending the materials by dissolving them in hot sulphuric acid, and experienced a superheating event. Fairly common lab accident. I happen to work in a lab which occasionally does chemical processing; at one time in my career it was everyday work for me. Working with hot acids is one of the processes I dread most, only topped by hydrofluoric acid. Which is why you have labs with safety equipment like fume hoods, and don't do it in a kitchen.

I'm not even sure he can be charged with illegal possession of radioactive materials (which, as I understand, is the only outlawed activity of his in most jurisdictions). I glanced over his blog, and most of the stuff was everyday, legal to obtain merchandise that just happens to have radioactive parts, like smoke detectors and uranium glass objects.

[ApolloGnomon]

I don't believe he actually had a 'meltdown' in the nuclear sense. He even put quotation marks around it on his blog.

Link, for the curious:

http://richardsreactor.blogspot.com/

[epepke]

It was only a pickled herring atom.

[blutoski]

I don't believe he actually had a 'meltdown' in the nuclear sense. He even put quotation marks around it on his blog.

What he wanted to do was processing/blending the materials by dissolving them in hot sulphuric acid, and experienced a superheating event. Fairly common lab accident. I happen to work in a lab which occasionally does chemical processing; at one time in my career it was everyday work for me. Working with hot acids is one of the processes I dread most, only topped by hydrofluoric acid. Which is why you have labs with safety equipment like fume hoods, and don't do it in a kitchen.

I'm not even sure he can be charged with illegal possession of radioactive materials (which, as I understand, is the only outlawed activity of his in most jurisdictions). I glanced over his blog, and most of the stuff was everyday, legal to obtain merchandise that just happens to have radioactive parts, like smoke detectors and uranium glass objects.

I was actually trying to figure out how he even broke a law in Sweden.

Surely if it was illegal to possess these materials, they would have been stopped at customs?

[CapelDodger]

What with this being splitting-hairs-jref and all...

this isn't a blog. It's a forum. The correct verb isn't blogging. It's posting.

Colour me chastened. (I wanted to keep the connection with "he blogged about it", and knew I was taking a risk here.)

And Apollo Gnomon isn't my real name. I also post at a home-made-hooch forum. Ain't been busted yet. "Don't tell, don't sell, and don't make a smell." I challenge feds to identify my rig when disassembled from the rest of the chaos of mad science in my shop.

There's more than a hairbreadth difference between "Don't tell" and "I post about it" but let's not meet at dawn over this :).

(CapelDodger isn't my real name either.)

[RossFW]

I thought I was the only one who saw that movie.

No, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only sucker who paid to see his NEXT Movie!

[Checkmite]

If I see a man with fissile material on a plane, etc.

[Southwind17]

I'm not even sure he can be charged with illegal possession of radioactive materials (which, as I understand, is the only outlawed activity of his in most jurisdictions). I glanced over his blog, and most of the stuff was everyday, legal to obtain merchandise that just happens to have radioactive parts, like smoke detectors and uranium glass objects.
Isn't it all about intent? Like it's not illegal to possess fertilizer, or sugar, for example, but get caught with 10 barrels of each in your garden shed and ...

[Myriad]

In the U.S. many laws of this type fall under licensing requirements. Regardless of the legality of possession of the materials, when the activity the materials are being used for falls under a category or definition that requires a license, and you don't have a license, you're breaking the law. And applying for a license to build and operate an experimental nuclear reactor of unspecified design in a residential zoned area would be no small task.

Respectfully,
Myriad

[Checkmite]

Just like you don't need a license to own a vehicle, just to operate it on public rights-of-way.

[rjh01]

A scientist discusses the news
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