Man Arrested Before He Can Finish His Nuclear Reactor

If a man told you he was getting ready to build a nuclear reactor in his apartment, you’d think he was crazy. Too right. But one Swedish man went for it. And if he hadn’t been caught, he could’ve succeeded.

The unnamed 31-year-old Swede from the town of Ängelholm started up on his project six months ago, keeping a blog of his progress along the way. He planned on building the reactor in his kitchen, maybe because of the kitchen’s southern exposure? He got all the radioactive material he needed from overseas and from a domestic fire alarm, and got a Geiger counter from the US. The only reason he got caught is because he asked the Swedish Radiation Authority if his project was on the up and up. Granted, he probably would have been wise to ask before he got started, but the best laid plans… Anyway, the police came, raided his place, and took him into custody. When he stated that he never detected any radiation, they had to let him go.

But isn’t building a nuclear reactor in your home, like, exceedingly dangerous? No, actually. It’s already been done. Last year and in Brooklyn, as a matter of fact. Our Swede would not have been the first to accomplish something like this, so long as he did it under the table. More complicated, though? Actually building a generator, which would take more time-and space-than one Swede in a kitchen can probably muster. But I wanna see more stuff like this

Discuss

(6 Comments)
  • [–]

    Henry

    Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 9:03 AM

    Do we know if this guy was making a nuclear fission or fusion reactor? The Brooklyn guy made a fusion reactor (there’s a nice cartoon explaining the difference in the article you linked to here).

    If it’s fusion he shouldn’t really need any radioactive material (like in Brooklyn), but if it’s fission then the fact he could just get “all the radioactive material he needed from overseas” is pretty concerning.

    • [–]

      Ollie

      Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 10:22 AM

      Only concerning from a radiation point of view, he couldn’t build a weapon with it or anything.

    • [–]

      Gabriel

      Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 10:31 AM

      He probably just bought a few Japanese Cattle

      • [–]

        james_whatsit

        Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 2:22 AM

        LOL!!!! #]

  • [–]

    Sean

    Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 11:29 AM

    Back in the 90s a US boy scout named David Hahn attempted the same thing using the Americum from smoke detectors.

  • [–]

    scallywag

    Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 11:47 AM

    One has to appreciate Richard’s laissez-faire attitude towards the whole thing. But judging from his blog his pretty gushing about all the attention. Imagine all the more attention he would have received had he blown up. Now that’s splitting atoms for sure…

    http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2011/08/swedish-man-wonders-if-splitting-atoms-at-home-is-legal-gets-arrested/

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