Richard Handl arrested for attempting to split atoms at home and creating small nuclear meltdown on his stove
I’m putting this one on as for me it simply has the WOW factor:
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.
Hat-tip to Kevin Brown on Twitter
Tags: News
August 3rd, 2011 at 8:02 pm
The Swedish Radiation Authority is such a spoilsport.
August 3rd, 2011 at 8:04 pm
August 3rd, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Luckily things like that were not available when I was a teen. I remember trying to make my own gun powder in my bedroom just to see if I could. Then my Dad found out.
August 3rd, 2011 at 8:35 pm
Yes, I also played with gun powder after my dad showed me how and I nearly blinded myself, but ‘home nuclear experimentation’? The mind boggles doesn’t it.
Also, I’m being told on Twitter that this is not as rare as we might imagine.
Loads of searches coming into the blog from folk looking for
Richard Handl’s blog. Should we be worried
August 3rd, 2011 at 8:45 pm
I wish my Dad had been as understanding as yours, lol. You also just reminded me of a time one of my brothers showed me how to make a ‘genie’ using the powder from bangers. Unfortunately I lit the fuse to soon, whilst my face was looking down at the pile of powder. You know those cartoons where the character has a blackened face from an explosion with just two eyes visible…?
But ‘not as rare as we might imagine’? Oh dear :s I guess though that if we are too close to an accident we wouldn’t have time to worry as the next thing we’d be doing would be saying hello to John Stott.
August 4th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
Good job it wasn’t illegal when the first atom was split. Or perhaps it should have been. Anyway, killjoys.