The Radioactive Boy Scout: the True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor.Silverstein elaborates on a true story he published in Harper's Magazine Harper's Magazine Monthly magazine published in New York, N.Y., U.S., one of the oldest and most prestigious literary and opinion journals in the U.S. Founded in 1850 as Harper's New Monthly Magazine by the printing and publishing firm of the Harper brothers, it was a leader about a high school student taking the pursuit of his atomic energy Boy Scout badge to the next level. He built a nuclear-breeder reactor in his backyard. Silverstein reports that the youth, David Hahn, easily garnered the information he needed from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an independent U.S. government commission, created by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 and charged with licensing and regulating civilian use of nuclear energy to protect the public and the environment. and old physics textbooks. Outdated smoke detectors and gas lanterns provided enough radioactive material radioactive material Radiation A substance that contains unstable–radioactive–atoms that give off radiation as they decay. See Radioactive decay. to fuel a device that threw off toxic levels of radiation--so toxic, in fact, that it put a town of 40,000 people at risk. After Hahn's lab was discovered in the summer of 1995, the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and had to bury it at a radioactive dumpsite in Utah. Silverstein explores how Hahn's passion for chemistry led to this seemingly unthinkable outcome and how the youngster pulled it off without his parents, his scoutmaster, or the government knowing about it. RH, 2004, 209 p., hardcover, $22.95. |
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