[ RadSafe ] Fission at home

[stewart farber]

We should be thankful that this foolish person "Handl" did not succeed in
creating an uncontrolled criticality in his kitchen with some smoke detector
scrapings. If so, he might have set off some "Royal Fireworks" and met his
Messiah. Ouch! :-)

Yes, I know its "Handel" vs. "Handl" so don't get classically upset. But
this liberty was necessary to make the above sentence to make any little bit
of humorous sense. And Handel was born in 1685 in Germany so I don't think
he'd be playing around in a Swedish kitchen more than 326 years after he was
born.

Stewart Farber
SAFarber at optonline.net
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/stewart-farber/7/998/989
203-441-8433
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-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Joel C.
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2011 1:10 PM
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Fission at home


Swedish man caught trying to split atoms at home

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."
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.
8/3/2011



Joel Cehn, CHP
http://www.linkedin.com/in/joelcehn 
510-863-1570
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