build a reactor in a day?

["Michael Mokrzycki" <Michael_Mokrzycki@ap.org>]

The last few grafs of this story from yesterday's NY Times may be of
interest to RADSAFErs. Is such a thing really possible or was someone
hoodwinked here?

I ask strictly out of personal curiousity. I'm not writing a story about
this.

Mike Mokrzycki
Associated Press
mmokrzycki@ap.org



          May 19, 1999


          ON CAMPUS

          In Chicago, Ph.D.'s Take a Back Seat to a
          Degree of Silliness



               HICAGO -- "People think of the University of Chicago and
they
               think the students are weird," says Tom Howe, a junior from
          Atlanta. Having taken off his chicken suit, he is wearing a
cardboard
          crown from a Burger King Kid's Meal. "We want to show that
          intellectual doesn't necessarily mean stuffy."

          It is this philosophy -- that Chicago students can have fun if
they really
          put their minds to it -- that gave birth to the University of
Chicago
          Scavenger Hunt, a yearly celebration of looniness at a campus
far better
          known for its Nobel laureates. Putting aside term papers for a
long
          weekend, hundreds of undergraduates in teams representing
dormitories
          and student organizations range around the campus -- and, this
year, the
          North American continent -- in search of items that will never
be found in
          a course catalogue.

          The grand prize is $500, but the goal, says Howe, is loftier:
"to make the
          participants maximize their intellectual creativity."

          These were among the 339 items on the list for this year's
scavenger
          hunt, released at the stroke of midnight on May 6:

          No. 123: A computer suffering a year 2000 problem.

          No. 262: Five Mensa membership cards.

          No. 167: A 15-foot-tall monument to Grimace, the McDonald's
Happy
          Meal character.

          No. 40: A tenured professor willing to recite profane lyrics
from a
          gangsta rap song.

          Each team works from an identical list; items are assigned
points, based
          on difficulty, and the team with the most points by Sunday
afternoon is
          the winner. The wording of certain clues often suggests a trip
to a
          far-flung destination -- having a team member photographed with
an
          Ontario police officer, for instance.

          Teams are often elaborately organized, with "page masters"
assigned to
          each page of the list and at least one person operating a
computer long
          after midnight in search of Web sites that will lead the team to
cubic
          zirconia (20 points) or Chicago Bulls season tickets (15 points)
or an
          autographed photograph of the Food Network star Jacqui Malouf
(30
          points).

          "One of the items on the list was the 'street value of Mount
Everest,' "
          said Sam Hunt, a freshman competing for his dorm, Shoreland
Hall. "So
          we posted it on Ebay, and made it look pretty, with a nice
picture of the
          mountain and everything. The bidding got up to $180 before we
got
          kicked off the site."

          The Shoreland team is run out of sixth-floor dormitory room of
its
          captain, Ryan Miller. By the end of the weekend, Thai food
containers
          litter the floor and at least three trash cans are overflowing
with empty
          soda cans. The members have slept little if at all, and the room
is a nest
          of cables that wire no fewer than six personal computers.

          When the phone rings, it is answered with a curt "Command
central" and
          calls are kept short so that the line can be free for a check-in
from the
          road-trip group, probably somewhere in Canada.

          "From what we can gather, the road-trip team is doing really
well," Miller
          says. "Except last time they checked in, they sounded drunk."

          Other items on this year's list included building a nuclear
reactor from
          scratch (one team was actually successful -- this is the
University of
          Chicago, after all), an edible iMac computer and a ticket to a
local
          theater for a certain movie opening May 19. (To these students,
the date
          needs no further explanation.)

          No one is really sure how or when the scavenger hunt began, but
they do
          know it is a welcome break from economics exams and Shakespeare
          papers -- a way to demonstrate, in Howe's words, that "we
actually can
          have fun on this campus."

          And how do you say fun on a college campus better than a keg
toss? As
          part of the Scavolympics, a string of a dozen events before the
final
          judging that teams compete for points in, all 13 teams came
together to
          recreate a battle of the Civil War, to demonstrate a fight
between Aunt
          Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth, and, yes, to toss a keg.

          Competing for his dorm, Hitchcock-Snell, 23-year-old Niyi
Omojola,
          after minutes earlier winning the competition that called for
contestants to
          eat an entire bottle of squeeze cheese, won the keg toss. While
others
          had grabbed the kegs with two hands, taken a few steps and
heaved, he
          held it with one hand, arm extended, and spun around like a
discus
          thrower, propelling the keg beyond the other teams' markers.

          "I was trying to get some torque," said Omojola, a junior. "If
you can
          direct that torque in a straight line, you can throw it pretty
far. People
          were trying to muscle it, and that's not going to work."

          And if you can't say fun at the U. of C., with a little torque
and a keg
          toss, certainly you can with a nuclear reactor.

          Two physics majors, Justin Kasper and Fred Niell, gathered up
some
          spare junk from their physics labs and dorm rooms and built a
          plutonium-producing reactor.

          "It's kind of scary how easy it was to do," said Niell, assuring
onlookers
          that there was only a trace of plutonium -- nothing harmful. "It
only took
          us about a day to build it. We've been thinking about it for a
few days
          and we gathered the parts, and last night we assembled it. In
Justin's
          room -- he lost the coin toss."





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