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Are we playing the repeater? WTF is with people and their fascination w/ irradiating themselves?
Ban homemade reactors! It's for the children!
8/3/11
And before that:
Go pick up a copy of The Radioactive Boyscout.
A 17 yr old kid in Michigan in the '90s built a breeder reactor in his backyard. It never reached critical mass but the backyard shed he did his final experiment in was dismanted by the NRC and hauled away in nuclear waste barrels.
Here's a synopsis:
The book goes into much greater details on ihs life, why he did this, his ambition, how he got the Americum from smoke detectors, the Thorium from gas lantern mantles, how he purified these elements through other methods, the cover stories he used to get information from experts, etc.
For those unaware:
Breeder Reactor - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor
Ban homemade reactors! It's for the children!
8/3/11
Originally posted by Talisman
And before that:
Originally posted by Strychnine
Originally posted by 5.0_CJ
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A 17 yr old kid in Michigan in the '90s built a breeder reactor in his backyard. It never reached critical mass but the backyard shed he did his final experiment in was dismanted by the NRC and hauled away in nuclear waste barrels.
blah blah background blah... The police were especially alarmed by the toolbox, which David said was radioactive and which they feared was an atomic bomb.
The discovery eventually triggered the Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan, and state officials would become involved in consultations with the EPA and NRC.
At the shed, radiological experts found an aluminum pie pan, a Pyrex cup, a milk crate and other materials strewn about, contaminated at up to 1000 times the normal levels of background radiation. Because some of this could be moved around by wind and rain, conditions at the site, according to an EPA memo, "present an imminent endangerment to public health."
After the moon-suited workers dismantled the shed, they loaded the remains into 39 sealed barrels that were trucked to the Great Salt Lake Desert. There, the remains of David's experiments were entombed with other radioactive debris
The discovery eventually triggered the Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan, and state officials would become involved in consultations with the EPA and NRC.
At the shed, radiological experts found an aluminum pie pan, a Pyrex cup, a milk crate and other materials strewn about, contaminated at up to 1000 times the normal levels of background radiation. Because some of this could be moved around by wind and rain, conditions at the site, according to an EPA memo, "present an imminent endangerment to public health."
After the moon-suited workers dismantled the shed, they loaded the remains into 39 sealed barrels that were trucked to the Great Salt Lake Desert. There, the remains of David's experiments were entombed with other radioactive debris
Here's a synopsis:
The book goes into much greater details on ihs life, why he did this, his ambition, how he got the Americum from smoke detectors, the Thorium from gas lantern mantles, how he purified these elements through other methods, the cover stories he used to get information from experts, etc.
For those unaware:
Breeder Reactor - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor
A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material in fuel than it consumes. These reactors were initially (1940s and 1960s) considered appealing due to their superior fuel economy: a normal reactor consumes less than 1% of the natural uranium that begins the fuel cycle, while a breeder can burn almost all of it (minus re-processing losses), also generating less waste for equal amounts of energy.[1] Breeders can be designed to use thorium, which is more abundant than uranium. Currently, there is renewed interest in both designs of breeders because of the increased price of natural uranium.
Fissile material is produced by neutron irradiation of fertile material, particularly uranium-238 and thorium-232. This happens to some extent in most reactors. Towards the end of its life, a uranium (not a mixed oxide fuel or MOX, just uranium) pressurized water reactor fuel element is producing more power from bred plutonium than from the remaining uranium-235. In a breeder reactor, fertile materials are deliberately provided, in the fuel and/or a breeder blanket surrounding the core. Historically, a machine specifically designed to create more fuel than it consumes is called a breeder.
Fissile material is produced by neutron irradiation of fertile material, particularly uranium-238 and thorium-232. This happens to some extent in most reactors. Towards the end of its life, a uranium (not a mixed oxide fuel or MOX, just uranium) pressurized water reactor fuel element is producing more power from bred plutonium than from the remaining uranium-235. In a breeder reactor, fertile materials are deliberately provided, in the fuel and/or a breeder blanket surrounding the core. Historically, a machine specifically designed to create more fuel than it consumes is called a breeder.
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