Man Arrested For Trying to Split the Atom at Home

[Hugga_Bear]

Okay first up weapon grade uranium is something like 98% pure, most of the stuff kicking around won't break 50% and it gets progressively more difficult to purify. In order to make a serious explosion it needs to be very high.

This would probably 'just' melt stuff and maybe cause a bit of radiation to kick around but in small quantities it's not gonna be terrible.

Guy was stupid to be trying it but I'm a bit weirded out, I mean he phoned the police to check it was legal before proceeding, you'd think he'd be let off with a slap on the wrist...I mean I don't want to punish someone for asking about it before they do, otherwise next time he'll just...do...

 

[Shadow flame master]

... I am baffled wondering if this guy was a genius or a moron.

And thus the basis of this entire thread is laid bare.

OT: Seriously, way to go guy, six more months and I presume he would have made a giant robot to be powered by his mini-reactor.

Does this mean that he could have made a Gundam???? If so, I want him on my team when we get super giant fighting robots as a world sport.

 

[Alcamonic]

Building a small power reactor at home is a genius idea, why didn't I think of that?
You can't really blame him with the increase in cost per watt.

 

[martin's a madman]

Sweden is really piling in the weirdness this week...

First we have news about the Millenium Falcon at the bottom of the ocean, now a guy building a nuclear reactor in his kitchen.

I'm waiting to see what comes out next

And all Norway got was a lousy terrorist attack.

 

[martin's a madman]

I must also concur. He seems the very image of the baffled, absent-minded scientist, diligently working on his experiments but inept at everything else.

Still, considering he turned himself in can we not be too hard on the guy?

I know a lot of guys like this at uni. They remind me of Halley's comet; a long and eccentric circuit through life, only briefly approaching our world before disappearing into the ether once more.

They're harmless right up until they get the bit between their teeth and then nothing and no one will stop them. The main danger of their good natured obsessions is their complete inability to risk assess and think something through in practical terms.

I'm studying physics in university!

I'm a bit more grounded than that.

 

[loc978]

this guy sounds like he could be a D20 modern ability score trope:
"Intelligence is the stat that will help you figure out how to build a fission reactor from common household items.
Wisdom is the stat that will tell you not to do it in your kitchen."

Also, holy crap, following a few links from this thread led me to this:

Spoiler: this is the most awesomely narrated mad science fair project ever!

 

[Esotera]

This is amazing, he's taking it old-school like the Curies. Reminds me of the Boy Scout who tried building a nuclear reactor in his shed by collecting the necessary material from 6,000 smoke alarms...at a cost of $10,000.

 

[Tvaren]

I remember reading about this on a Swedish web-site yesterday. I took particular interest in it as it all happened to occur in the town where I live. It's a quiet little town without all that much to do on your spare time, so this could actually likely be a project born out of sheer boredom.

or sheer crazy boredom...
or I guess sheer crazy boredom of madman proportions...

I'm also weirdly proud to have been living sort of next-door to what could have been the first actual supervillain in history, had he been able to keep pursuing his hobby.

I see it now...

"Richard Handl was just a normal guy trying to cleave atoms in his stove when a teerrrrrible accident occured! A great explosion caused him to merge with his makeshift fission-chamber and SUCH was the birth of the sinister DR STOVE!"

 

[Agayek]

it kinda feels like the Radiation people were not cool at all, calling the police. The guy just wanted to know if everything was okay and good, and just had to call the cops. They just couldn't say "No, you shouldn't do that, if you already didn't know that", before making the call to the cops. Sure it's kinda obvious that splitting an atom in your kitchen isn't the best of ideas, but still. Quite rude of them to do this.

Honestly, it really isn't that bad. Simply put, you can't generate enough energy to create a proper explosion in a home. At absolute worst, he could create a low-yield "dirty bomb" that would damage (possibly destroy, but I doubt it) his home and leak a non-fatal amount of radiation.

That said, just having the compounds needed for such experiments is dangerous and the radiation from them could have side-effects on his neighbors if they were improperly contained for a long period.

 

[DaJoW]

It's kinda funny to find out stuff like this from the Escapist rather than any Swedish newspaper. It made it to Fox News but not to Aftonbladet?

OT: Kind of impressive, but obviously illegal. Something he should have been able to figure out on his own.

 

[MikailCaboose]

Only two years? Sweden is light on atomic crime. Being caught with fissionable materials in the US would net you a much longer stay in a Fed facility.

it was only 1 atom. no one would miss it...

Would anybody miss the one town it would take with it?

I don't think splitting one atom = nuclear explosion.

I think splitting the atoms in a chunk of unstable uranium = nuclear explosion.

Well, the article didn't mention just how much he had. Plus, it's not the problem of a nuclear explosion, but radioactive material being in a humble house.

 

[SpaceGnome]

To be quite honest Sir:
I SALUTE YOU

 

[martin's a madman]

I'm studying physics in university!

I'm a bit more grounded than that.

I'm in IT and I know a lot of other assorted scientists through halls, my housemates last year and the rock society and of that number about five exhibit that worrying laser-focussed enthusiasm. I've watched someone erase his entire year's work trying to customise a Linux distro to boot marginally faster because, hey, why not? I worked with another guy who rewrote our entire web design project a day before the deadline because the CSS template was one pixel the wrong way on a few pages.

They pick a pet project and follow along behind it laughing giddily like Peter Griffin from Family Guy chasing the ball across the street, blissfully unaware of the cars crashing around them.

If you haven't met these people then God help you...because believe me they're all around you and you don't know who they are!

EDIT: IT is more engineering than science but the same worrying personality types seem to be drawn to it. Honestly, some of the things my coworkers produce are beautiful but I still feel the urge to cover all the sharp corners in foam.

Oh, I've met people with that level of absent mindedness, I just wanted to show that at least one future physicist (if all goes well) is more aware of his surroundings.

 

[Pinkamena]

Only two years? Sweden is light on atomic crime. Being caught with fissionable materials in the US would net you a much longer stay in a Fed facility.

it was only 1 atom. no one would miss it...

Would anybody miss the one town it would take with it?

I don't think splitting one atom = nuclear explosion.

I think splitting the atoms in a chunk of unstable uranium = nuclear explosion.

I have to agree, the explosion wouldn't be that big with one atom, maybe part of his street, the residual effects could be more troublesome though.
The Chernobyl problem was a two-stage explosion that only blew up the plant, and that was a fair bit of unstable uranium, but the residue went across half the planet.

Uh, no. One atom wouldn't even be notable. 100 000 atoms wouldn't be notable. Lrn2physics.

 

[Quaxar]

Bah, nuclear fission is soooo 90s. Home fusion reactors is where the future lies!

I mean they couldn't say a word against helium or hydrogen. Also, your own sun to put on your living room table.

 

[mrmistake]

Ok, for everyone that is curious (read not Swedish) the man was never sent to jail he was just fined.
He started to self study nuclear science when he was 14 years old. He stated that it was one of his passions from early age.
As stated in this thread he used easy to find items including a smoke detector.
He already had everything he needed just never got around to building it (that why he called to ask if it was ok to assemble it).
He spend somewhere between 940-780 dollars for all the material.
All the equipment was taken by the police and he decided to keep it theoretical in the future.
The meld down only amounted to soot on the stove, it was no more than that.

Hope this will keep the speculation to a minimum and clarify what the U.S media has inadequately reported.