Seeing what's up in your WWW World...  :)  TRM

Hey, man.  I reposted that MSNBC article about the narcotics delivery methods.  That's insane stuff!  Thanks for posting that...  TRM / The Regulator Room founder

So, have you heard of the Radio Active Boy Scout? here's a brief look.

 

June 26, 1995, in Commerce Township Michigan. The law enforcement finally caught up to David Hahn. At the time David Hahn was 17.

 

When he was 10 he joined the Boy Scouts and also became interested in Chemistry after reading some of his father's books.

 

Age 12, David had read all of his father's chemistry college text books.

 

Age 14, he made nitroglycerin and one night he created a large explotion in his family's basement and was rushed to the hospital to have his eyes washed out.

 

Age 14/15, David earned the Atomic Energy Merit Badge and began to try and make a neutron gun.

 

As he tried to secure radioactive material, David wrote to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), claiming to be a physics instructor at Chippewa Valley High School. The agency's director of isotope production and distribution, offered him tips on isolating and obtaining radioactive elements, and explained the characteristics of some isotopes. Which, when bombarded with neutrons, can sustain a chain reaction becoming radioactive.

 

To avoid the licensing issues through the Federal Government, David learned that a tiny amount of the radioactive isotope "americium-241" could be found in smoke detectors. he then contacted smoke-detector companies and claimed that he needed a large number for a school project. One company sold him about a hundred broken detectors for a dollar apiece. David soon realized that he did not know were the isotopes were in the detectors and wrote to a electronics firm in Illinois, stating that he was doing a report. He was given the information and was able to extract the material. He then put the americium inside a hollow block of lead with a tiny hole pricked in one side so that alpha rays would stream out. In front of the block he placed a sheet of aluminum, its atoms absorb alpha rays and kick out neutrons. His neutron gun was ready.

David then needed a compound called  thorium-232, when bombarded with neutrons it produces uranium-233, which is fissionable. Thorium-232 can be found the mantle in gas lanterns, in the small cloth pouch over the flame. David bought thousands of lantern mantles from surplus stores and blowtorched them into a pile of ash.

To isolate the thorium from the ash, he purchased $1000 worth of lithium batteries and cut them in half with wire cutters. He then placed the lithium and thorium ash together in a ball of aluminum foil and heated the ball with a Bunsen burner. As it purified the thorium, it became at least 9000 times the level found in nature, and up to 170 times the level that requires NRC licensing. But David's americium gun wasn't strong enough to transform thorium into uranium. He need to go further.

 

David began to visit junk yards and antique stores looking for radium-coated clocks, collecting the radium by chipping away and gathering the paint chips. It was taking a long time until he hit "pay dirt" in a $10 clock, which had a small vial of paint in it.

 

He then consitrated the radium by drying it out into salt form, were unknown to him, he became in danger. He then had a friend swipe a strip of beryllium from a chemistry lab, and placed it in front of the lead block that held the radium. His americium neutron gun was now a more powerful radium gun!

 

Later David located some "pitchblende", an ore containing tiny amounts of uranium, and turned it into a powder by hitting it with a hammer. He aimed the gun at the powder to try and produce some fissionable atoms, but it didn't work. The neutron particals were moving too fast so he added a filter and tried again. This time the uranium powder appeared to grow more radioactive by the day.

 

When David turned 17 he decided to go further and create a model breeder reactor, which is a nuclear reactor that not only generates electricity, but also produces new fuel. David took the items that he had and combined them in a foil wrapper, which made a makeshift reactor. He surrounded this radioactive ball with a blanket of small foil-wrapped cubes of thorium ash and uranium powder, held together with duct tape.

 

Soon David realized that he was in danger when he began to pick up radiation on his Geiger counter, 5 houses away! He then began to take his reactor apart and seperate the itmes so that they were not to close to each other. One night at 2:40 a.m. on August 31, 1994, Clinton Township police responded to a call concerning a subject who appeared to be stealing tires from a car. When the police arrived, David stated that he was meeting a friend. The police didn't believe him a decided to search his vehicle.

When they opened the trunk they discovered a toolbox shut with a padlock and sealed with duct tape. The trunk also contained foil-wrapped cubes of mysterious gray powder, small disks and cylindrical metal objects, and mercury switches. The police questioned David regarding the items and became alarmed when he stated that it was radioactive.

The discovery eventually triggered the Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan, and state officials would become involved in consultations with the EPA and NRC.

 

On June 26, 1995, the EPA and NRC along with other officials arrived at Davids home and confiscated the shed and all of his materials. David is now in the Navy and has been quoted saying "I don't believe I took more than five years off my life."

 

I haven't found out if he was ever charged with anything yet, but thank god it was a over achieving Scout and not a terrorist.
 

I've had several people ask about the Boy Scout Swastika, so here's a little info an the subject.

 

When most people see that the boy scouts had used swastikas at one time they get up set. But, what most people are forgetting is that for thousands of years before the Nazi's the swastika was a symbol of good will and good luck.

 

From 1911 to 1934, the BSA used the swastika as a symbol of good fortune, as seen on the medal of merit in the photo album. It was also used to as a symbol for a secret society in the BSA during that time, known as the "Order of the White Swastika". It was the precursor to the "Order of the Arrow" and was seen at camps in Portsmouth, Ohio; Camp Russell, New York; and St. Joseph, Missouri. Scouts would go through a "tough man" compitition that covered thier scoutting skills over a 12 weekend period. Out of the 100 or so scouts that started, there usually were only about 5 left by the 12th weekend. Those scouts were honored with the "White Swastika Badge" whiich you can see in the photo album.

 

After 1934 how ever; the European front was increasing in problems and the Nazi party had adopted the swastika. Even though the Nazi's had changed the direction of the legs of the swastika, the public began to complain about the BSA using the symbol and despite Lord Baden-Powell's opinions regarding the swastika being a peaceful symbol, it was removed from scouting.

 

And that my friends, is the history of the swastika and the boy scouts. Pretty cool huh?