Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen

[Serpentarius]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/828...to-split-atoms

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

Richard Handl on Wednesday said 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 unauthorised 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 realise 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."

The police raid took place in late July, but police have refused to comment. If convicted, Handl could face fines or up to two years in prison.

Although he says police didn't detect dangerous levels of radiation in his apartment, he now acknowledges the project wasn't such a good idea.

"From now on, I will stick to the theory," he said.

Hail to the DIY

[Hondacity]

I guess he doesn't have radiation training..tsk tsk

[Scubar]

The more concerning thing is how did he get hold of the radioactive material in the first place?

[s1nykuL]

The more concerning thing is how did he get hold of the radioactive material in the first place?

Smoke Alarms -- Americium-241. It's a very tiny amount that's in smoke detectors, it would take 3 million smoke detectors to produce a gram of the stuff. Americium-241's critical mass, the amount required to support fission and thus create a nuclear device is 80kg.

He would have to dismantle 240,000,000,000 smoke detectors for his attempt to be considered a real threat. It is highly radioactive though, with a half life of 432 year it decays to Neptunium-237 by emitting alpha particles and gamma rays.

[STEvil]

hmm.. gonna be a big hit to the @home reactor crowd...

[Tackleberry]

Soon there will be global arrests for folding proteins

[Gamekiller]

Soon there will be global arrests for folding proteins

You're giving them ideas!!

[NEOAethyr]

The more concerning thing is how did he get hold of the radioactive material in the first place?

None of those are that hard to get a ahold of except maybe radium, you could still find it but it would be by luck if you found something with it in it.

You don't actually need any sort of radioactive material to make a reactor though...
We've known that since maybe 70-80 years now.
I can't remember the design name though, I must have the page saved somewhere on my drive, but it's not something I should be posting anyways ^^.

Edit:
So I don't look like a fool talking shiz, here's what I "think" what I was mentioning before (don't blame me if the thread gets locked though...):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell

[vohu manah]

Boys & toys...

I wonder why the Swedish Radiation Authorities called the police, instead of explaining to him that what he was doing is illigal... and isn't it too expensive for a man like him, to make nuclear weapons that actually worked?

[NEOAethyr]

Under normal cercumstances, no.
You'de need you're own hydrogen plant to get enough heavy water to make pure enough uranium or plutonium.
The latter would likely not be possible under the norm.
The 1st, well, there is still a classified bomb spec (shot gunning) that uses just uranium and isn't complicated to build.

In either case it takes something like the scale of a gov to implement the avg 2 stage bomb, a single stage bomb you'de never get access to enough material these days without someone knowing even if you are a gov.
I'm guessing, given what they used at the fukushimi plants, not even a country liek japan can get access to enough high grade uranuim to make a single stage one.

[Ket]

I'm sorry.. the whole idea is retarded splitting atoms in your kitchen and it hurts my brain more that supposedly smart people take the stereotypical dumb persons panic button move and call the cops instead of just sending a team to take the materials and explain it is indeed illegal.

[Anemic]

Compleatly missed this piece of news but I did find his blog ; )
http://richardsreactor.blogspot.com/