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The R-Ll/Dio-Ll/Ctive: Boy Scout
The R-Ll/Dio-Ll/Ctive: Boy Scout
THE R-LL\DIO-LL\CTIVE
BOY SCOUT
When a teenager attempts to build a breeder reactor
By Ken Silverstein
REPORT 59
You've got to do something.'" Commission into providing him with
What the men in the funny suits crucial information he needed in his You-Scientist!
found was that the potting shed was attempt to build a breeder reactor, and -The Golden Book of Chemistry
dangerously irradiated and that the then he obtained and purified ra- Experiments, Chapter 10
area's 40,000 residents could be at risk. dioactive elements such as.radium and
Publicly, the men in white promised thorium. nThe Making of the Atomic Bomb,
the residents of Golf Manor that they
had nothing to fear, and to this day
neither Pease nor any of the dozen or
I had seen childhood photographs
of David in which he looked perfect-
ly normal, even angelic, with blond
I Richard Rhodes notes that the
psychological profilesof pioneering
American physicists are remarkably
so people I interviewed knows the hair and hazel-green eyes, and, as he similar. Frequently the eldest son of
real reason that the Environmental grew older, gangly limbs and a peach- an emotionally remote, professional
Protection Agency briefly invaded fuzz mustache. Still, when I went to man, he-almost all were men-was a
their neighborhood. When asked, most meet him in Norfolk, I was anticipat- voracious reader during childhood,
mumble something about a chemical ing some physical manifestation of tended to feel lonely, and was shy and
spill. The truth is far more bizarre: the brilliance or obsession. An Einstein aloof from classmates.
Golf Manor Superfund cleanup was or a Kaczynski. But all I saw was a David's parents, Ken and Patty
provoked by the boy next door, David beefier version of the clean-cut kid in Hahn, divorced when he was a tod-
Hahn, who attempted to build a nu- the pictures. David's manner was odd- dler. Ken is an automotive engineer
clear breeder reactor in his mother's for General Motors, as is his second
potting shed as part of a Boy Scout wife, Kathy Missig, whom he married
merit-badge project. soon after the divorce. David lived with
It seems remarkable that David's his father and stepmother in a small
story hasn't already wended its way split-level home in suburban Clinton
through all forms of journalism and Township, about thirty miles north of
become the stuff of legend, but at the Detroit. Ken Hahn worked extraordi-
time the EPA refused to give out narily long hours for GM. With close-
David's name, and although a few lo- cropped hair and a proclivity for short-
cal reporters learned it, neither he nor sleeved dress shirts, Ken radiates a
any family members agreed to be in- coolness that, combined with his con-
terviewed. Even the federal and state stant preoccupation, must have been
officials who oversaw the cleanup confounding to a child. When asked
learned only a small parr of what took about his undemonstrative nature, Ken
place in the potting shed at Golf attributes it to his German ancestry.
Manor because David, fearing legal Yet for all his starchiness, it was Kathy
repercussions, told them almost noth- who was David's chief disciplinarian.
ing about his experiments. Then in David spent weekends and holidays
1996, Jay Gourley, a correspondent with his mother and her boyfriend,
with the Natural Resources News Ser- ly dispassionate, though polite, until Michael Polasek, an amiable but hard-
vice in Washington, D.c., came across we began to discuss his nuclear ad- drinking retired forklift operator at
a tiny newspaper item about the case ventures. Then, for five hours, light- GM. Golf Manor is demographically
and contacted David Hahn. Gourley ing and grinding out cigarettes for em- similar to Clinton Township, but the
later passed on his research to me, and phasis, David enthused about laboring two households could not have been
I subsequently interviewed the story's in his backyard laboratory. He told more different emotionally. Patty
protagonists, including David-now me how he used coffee filters and pick- Hahn committed suicide in the house
a twenty-two-year-old sailor stationed le jars to handle deadly substances a few years ago, but Michael still lives
in Norfolk, Virginia. such as radium and nitric acid, and there surrounded by pictures of her.
I met with David in the hope of he sheepishly divulged the various ("She was a beautiful person," he says.
making sense not only of his experi- cover stories and aliases he employed "She was my whole life.") He keeps
ments but of him. The archetypal to obtain the radioactive materials. A five cats and a spotless household, and
American suburban boy learns how shy and withdrawn teenager, David looks like a member ofSha Na Na.
to hit a fadeaway jump shot, change a had confided in only a few friends Despite the fact that David was shuf-
car's oil, perform some minor carpen- about his project and never allowed fled between households, his early years
try feats. If he's a Boy Scout he mas- anyone to witness his experiments. were seemingly ordinary. He played
ters the art of starting a fire by rubbing His breeder-reactor project was a baseball and soccer, joined the Boy
two sticks together, and if he's a typ- means-albeit an unorthodox one- Scouts, and spent endless hours ex-
ical adolescent pyro, he transforms of escaping the trauma of adolescence. ploring with his friends. An abrupt
tennis-ball cans into cannons. David "I was very emotional as a kid," he change came at the age of ten, when
Hahn taught himself to build a neu- told me, "and those experiments gave Kathy's father, also an engineer for
tron gun. He figured out a way to dupe me a way to get away from that. They GM, gave David The Golden Book of
officials at the Nuclear Regulatory gave me some respect." Chemistry Experiments. The book
David's potting-shed project had some- for sustained growth while providing
thing to do with creating energy. "He'd reduced volatility compared with
20,000
say, 'One of these days we're gonna small- and mid-cap companies. 15,000
run out of oil.' He wanted to do some- The fund's strategy has proven
10,000
thing about that." effective. As the chart indicates, the 6/93 '9'
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Experiments
B..'I:
they have a certain notoriety, at the
time they represented a breakdown in !
Ij
·GI.< ..,.•
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A
materials he needed to build his neu-
Operation Pedro Pan and the tron gun and experiment with it. By his friends in government and
Cuban Children's Program writing up to twenty letters a day and industry, David typed up a list
Victor Andres Triay claiming to be a physics instructor at of sources for fourteen radioactive iso-
A stirring account of the covert effort to topes.Americium-241, he learned from
Chippewa Valley High School, David
smuggle Cuban children into the United
sayshe obtained "tons" of information the Boy Scour atomic-energy booklet,
States in the aftermath of Fidel Castro's rise
to power. Cloth, $49.95 from those and other groups, though could be found in smoke detectors; ra-
some of it was of only marginal value. dium-226, in antique luminous dial
The Enduring Seminoles The American Nuclear Society sent clocks; uranium-238 and minute quan-
From Alligator Wrestling David a teacher's guide called "Goin' tities of uranium-235, in a black ore
Fission,"which featured an Albert Ein- called pitchblende; and thorium-232,
to Ecotourism
stein cartoon character: "I'm Albert. in Coleman-style gas lanterns.
Patsy West
"An excellent, innovative history and ethnog- Und today, ve are gonna go fission. To obtain americium- 241, David
raphy of the most important and most typi- No, ve don't need any smelly bait and contacted smoke-detector companies
cal Florida Seminole economic activity of the der won't be any fish to clean. I mean and claimed that he needed a large
twentieth century."-William C. Sturtevant, fission, not fishin'." number of the devices for a school
National Museum of Natural History, Other organizations proved to be project. One company agreed to sell
Smithsonian Institution him about a hundred broken detec-
far more helpful, and none more than
Cloth, $24.95
the NRC. Again posing as a physics tors for a dollar apiece. (He also tried
teacher, David managed to engage the to "collect" detectors while at scout
Mention this ad for 20% off!
agency's director of isotope produc- camp.) David wasn't sure where the
Source Code: ADH8
Order with VISA or M/C toll free:
tion and distribution, Donald Erb, in americium-241 was located, so he
1-800-226-3822 a scientific discussion by mail. Erb of- wrote to BRK Electronics in Aurora,
fered David tips on isolating certain Illinois. A customer-service represen-
radioactive elements, provided a list tative named Beth Weber wrote back
Happy Holidays from of isotopes that can sustain a chain re- to say she'd be happy to help out with
action, and imparted a piece of infer- "your report." She explained that each
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA
Gainesville, Tallahassee, Tampa, Boca Raton,
Pensacola, Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville
detector contains only a tiny amount
HIGH INCOME
of americium- 241, which is sealed in a
gold matrix "to make sure that corro- WITH A MODERATELY
sion does not break it down and re-
lease it." Thanks to Weber's tip, David
extracted the americium components
AGGRESSIVE APPROACH
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blowtorch. can help investors seek a higher level of income than
As it decays, amertcium-Z'[l emits high-quality bond funds offer while taking less risk
alpha rays composed of protons and than with an investment solely in "junk" bonds. It
neutrons. David put the lump of ameri- invests primarily in corporate investment-grade bonds,
cium inside a hollow block of lead with with up to one-third of the fund's assets invested in
a tiny hole pricked in one side so that high-yield "junk" bonds.
alpha rays would stream out. In front Remember, the riskier securities in the fund will increase its poten-
of the lead block he placed a sheet of tial for volatility, and the share price and yield will fluctuate with
aluminum. Aluminum atoms absorb interest rate and market changes. Minimum investment is $2,500
alpha rays and in the process kick out ($1,000 for IRAs). No sales charges.
neutrons. Since neutrons have no
charge, and thus cannot be measured Call 24 hours for your
by a Geiger counter, David had no free investment kit
way of knowing whether the gun was including a prospectus
working until he recalled that paraffin
throws off protons when hit by neu- 1·800·401·5342
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trons. David aimed the apparatus at
some paraffin, and his Geiger counter 12.3S 8
'0 and 9.038
'8 are the I-year and sinceinception (J 0/3 )/95) averageannualtotalreturns,respectively,
forthe periodsended 6/30/98. Thesefiguresincludechangesin principalvalue,reinvesteddividends,andcapitalgaindistribu-
registered what he assumed was a pro- tions.Pastandpresentexpenselimitationshaveincreasedthefund'syieldandtotalreturn.Investmentreturnandprincipalvalue
ton stream. His neutron gun, crude willvary,and sharesmaybeworthmore or lessat redemptionthanat originalpurchase.Readthe prospectuscarefullybefore
investin.1. RowePriceInvestmentServices,lnc.,Distributor. CIF044254
but effective, was ready.
With neutron gun in hand, David
was ready to irradiate. He could have
concentrated on transforming previ-
ously nonradioactive elements, but in
a decision that was both indicative of
his personality and instrumental to his
HEAR THE RADIO THAT WOKE Up
later attempt to build a breeder reac-
tor, he wanted to use the gun on ra-
AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY.
dioisotopes to increase the chances of
making them fissionable. He thought The sound of card-sized remote
that uranium-235, which is used in most tabletop control, six AM
atomic weapons, would provide the radios leaves much and six FM station
"biggest reaction." He scoured hun- to be desired. But presets, and more. It
dreds of miles of upper Michigan in
now the rich-sounding Bose" fits almost anywhere and is
his Pontiac looking for "hot rocks"
Wave® radio changes all that. available directly from Bose
with his Geiger counter, but all he
could find was a quarter trunkload of We think it's the best-sounding radio for $349. Call today to learn more about
pitchblende on the shores of Lake you can buy, and audio critics agree. Like our six-month, interest-free payment
Huron. Deciding to pursue a more bu- Popular Science, which gave it their "Best plan, 100% satisfaction guarantee, and
reaucratic approach, he wrote to a of What's New" award. And Radio World, in-home trial.
Czechoslovakian firm that sells urani- which called the sound "simply amazing:' And hear for yourself what Wired called
um to commercial and university buy- The Wave radio includes a credit the "clean, sweet sound"of the Wave radio.
ers, whose name was provided, he told
me, by the NRC. Claiming to be a Call today, 1-800-681-BOSE, ext. R8753.
professor buying materials for a nu- For information on all our products: www.bose.com/r8753
clear-research laboratory, he obtained
a few samples of a black ore-either Please specify color choice: 0 Imperial White :J Graphite Gray For free shipping,
pitchblende or uranium dioxide, both MrJMrs./Ms. order by
Name [Please Print)
of which contain small amounts of ura- November 30, 1998.
nium-235 and uranium-238. Address City State Zip
©1998 Bose Corporation. Covered by patent rights issued and/or pending. Installrner.t payment plan and free outbound shipping offer not to be
combined with any other offer. Installment payment plan available on credit card orders only. Price does not include applicable sales tax
Price ar.d/or payment plan subject to change without notice. Frank Beacham, Radio World, 12/93. Wired,6/94.
use nitric acid to isolate uranium. Un- and 170 times the level that requires dropped by the boutique later that
able to find a commercial source for NRC licensing. night to leave a note for Gloria, telling
nitric acid-probably because it is At this point, David could have used her that if she received another "lu-
used in the manufacture of explosives his americium neutron gun to trans- minus [sic] clock" to contact him im-
and thus is tightly controlled-David form thorium-232 into fissionable ura- mediately, "I will pay any some [sic)of
made his own by heating saltpeter nium-233. But the americium he had money to obtain one."
and sodium bisulfate, then bubbling was not capable of producing enough To concentrate the radium, David
the gas that was released through a neutrons, so he began preparing radi- secured a sample of barium sulfate
container, of water, producing nitric um for an improved irradiating gun. from the X-ray ward at a local hospi-
acid. He then mixed the acid with Radium was used in paint that ren- tal (staff there handed over the sub-
the powdered ore and boiled it, end- dered luminescent the faces of clocks stance because they remembered him
ing up with something that "looked and automobile and airplane instru- from his merit-badge project) and
like a dirty milk shake." Next he ment panels until the late 1960s,when heated it until it liquefied. After mix-
poured the "milk shake" through a it was discovered that many clock ing the barium sulfate with the radi-
coffee filter, hoping that the urani- painters, who routinely licked their um paint chips, he strained the brew
um would pass through the filter. But brushes to make a fine point, died of through a coffee filter into a beaker
David miscalculated uranium's solu- that began to glow. This time, David
bility, and whatever amount was pre- had judged the solubility of the two
sent was trapped in the filter, mak- substances correctly; the radium so-
ing it difficult to purify further. lution passed through to the beaker.
Frustrated at his inability to isolate He then dehydrated the solution into
sufficient supplies of uranium, David crystalline salts, which he could pack
turned his attention to thorium-232, into the cavity of another lead block
which when bombarded with neutrons to build a new gun.
produces uranium-233, a man-made Whether David fully realized it or
fissionable element (and, although he not, by handling purified radium he
might not have known it then, one was truly putting himself in danger.
that can be substituted for plutonium Nevertheless, he now proceeded to ac-
in breeder reactors). Discovered in 1828 quire another neutron emitter to re-
and named after the Norse god Thor, place the aluminum used in his previ-
thorium has a very high melting point, ous neutron gun. Faithful to Erb's
and is thus used in the manufacture of instructions, he secured a strip of beryl-
airplane engine parts that reach ex- lium (which is a much richer source of
tremely high temperatures. David knew neutrons than aluminum) from the
from his merit-badge pamphlet that chemistry department at Macomb
the "mantle" used in commercial gas Community College-a friend who
lanterns-the part that looks like a cancer. David began visiting junkyards attended the school swiped it for
doll's stocking and conducts the and antiques stores in search of radium- him-and placed it in front of the lead
flame-is coated with a compound con- coated dashboard panels or clocks. block that held the radium. His cute
taining thorium-232. He bought thou- Once he found such an item, he'd chip little americium gun was now a more
sands oflantern mantles from surplus paint from the instruments and col- powerful radium gun. David began to
stores and, using the blowtorch, re- lect it in pill vials. It was slow going un- bombard his thorium and uranium
duced them into a pile of ash. til one day, driving through Clinton powders in the hopes of producing at
David still had to isolate the thori- Township to visit his girlfriend, least some fissionable atoms. He mea-
um-232 from the ash. Fortunately, he Heather, he noticed that his Geiger sured the results with his Geiger
remembered reading in one of his dad's counter went wild as he passed Gloria's counter, but while the thorium seemed
chemistry books that lithium is prone Resale Boutique! Antique. The pro- to grow more radioactive, the uranium
to binding with oxygen-meaning, in prietor, Gloria Genette, still recalls remained a disappointment.
this context, that it would rob thorium the day when she was called at home Once again, "ProfessorHahn" sprang
dioxide of its oxygen content and leave by a store employee who said that a into action, writing his old friend Erb
a cleaner form of thorium. David pur- polite young man was anxious to buy at the NRC to discuss the problem.
chased $1,000 worth of lithium bat- an old table clock with a tinted green The NRC had the answer. David's neu-
teries and extracted the element by dial but wondered if she'd come down trons were too "fast" for the uranium}
cutting the batteries in half with a pair in price. She would. David bought the
of wire cutters. He placed the lithium clock for $10. Inside he discovered a
and thorium dioxide together in a ball vial of radium paint left behind by a 3 Manhattan Project scientists discovered that
of aluminum foil and heated the ball worker either accidentally or as a cour- some neutrons can move at speeds of about 17
million miles per hour. If they are slowed down
with a Bunsen burner. Eureka! David's tesy so that the clock's owner could or "moderated," to about 5 ,000 miles per
method purified thorium to at least touch up the dial when it began to hour, they have a better chance of being ab-
9,000 times the level found in nature fade. David was so overjoyed that he sorbed by another arom.
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indignity, some area scout leaders at-
tempted (and failed) to deny David
his Eagle Scout status, saying that his
extracurricular merit-badge activities
had endangered the community.
In the fall of 1995, Ken and Kathy
'k.
:GUAGE
"< &, demanded that David enroll in Ma-
comb Community College. He ma-
jored in metallurgy but skipped many
of his classesand spent much of the day
'The
~E AMERICAN HERITAGE® Third DICTIONARY, in bed or driving in circles around their
AMERICAN
Edition, adds new meaning to "the perfect gift" by block. Finally, Ken and Kathy gave
HERITAGE"
him an ultimatum: Join the armed
offering a wealth of language, art, and history.
dic-tion-ar-y forces or move out of the house. They
With more than 350,000 meanings and entries, ~l called the local recruiting office,which
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
nearly 4,000 pieces of art, extensive usage notes, sent a representative to their house or
and more etymological information than any com- called nearly every day until David fi-
parable dictionary, THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® nally gave in. After completing boot
camp last year, he was stationed on
DICTIONARyis a fresh and engaging resource for the curious reader.
the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise
aircraft carrier.
At Bookstores Everywhere ~ HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Alas, David's duties, as a lowly sea-
man, are of the deck-swabbing and
potato-peeling variety. But long after
SOLUTION TO THE KR KKt KB K 0 OB OKl OR his shipmates have gone to sleep, David
OCTOBER PUZZLE stays up studying topics that interest
him-currently steroids, melanin, ge-
netic codes, antioxidants, prototype
reactors, amino acids, and criminal law.
And it is perhaps best that he does not
NOTES FOR "CHESSMEN-II": work on the ship's eight reactors, for
EPA scientists worry that his previous
Anagrams are indicated with an asterisk (*) .
exposure to radioactivity may have
TOP ROW: p(h)easant. greatly cut short his life. All the ra-
BOTTOM ROW: D.(own-war)D.
dioactive materials he experimented
KING'S ROOK: prince (homonym); ere (hidden); epee (ho- with can enter the body through in-
mophone); (t lendls): d-osed". KING'S KNIGHT: (r)heft; gestion, inhalation, or skin contact
tier (two mngs.), r-in-G; Gore (two rnngs.); eddy (hidden);
year (ear[l]y*); (b)rave; e.g.vos (rev.): S.(he)S.; Soho*. and then deposit in the bones and or-
KING'S BISHOP: (b)eagle; E-as-Y; yam (rev); me-ow. gans, where they can cause a host of ail-
KING: ALAN (King); ELLERY (Queen); JOEY (Bishop); ments, including cancer. Because it is
WAYNE (Knight); VERNON (Castle). QUEEN: sank (ho-
mophone); killing (two mngs.): gorgons*; S-N(O)-W.
so potent, the radium that David was
QUEEN'S BISHOP: A-LP; p-I-u-s (last letters); sewer (pun); exposed to in a relatively small, en-
Rig-a. QUEEN'S KNIGHT: nine (homophone); el(U)I; KR KKt KB closed space is most worrisome of all.
Lo(ui lse: ESP(y); yaks (two mngs.): s-curfs); (squir)rels; slur (two mngs.). Back in 1995, the EPA arranged for
tank(a-rd)s; s-pewts); w-ave; (f)eels; sod (rev.)
David to undergo a full examination at
SOLUTION TO OCTOBER DOUBLE ACROSTIC (NO. 189). KENNETH A. BROWN: FOUR COR- the nearby Fermi nuclear power plant.
NERS. High cliffs ... rise ... from the highway's edge ... the same brightly colored rocks that ...
David, fearful of what he might learn,
form a backdrop for Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O'Keeffe came to live and paint, creating her
stark and surreal images of the Southwest. refused. Now, though, he's looking
ahead. "I wanted to make a scratch in
CONTEST RULES: Send the quotation, the name of the author, and the title of the work, together
with your name and address, to Double Acrostic No. 190, Harper's Magazine, 666 Broadway, New
life," he explains when I ask him about
York, N.Y. 10012. If you already subscribe to Harper's, please include a copy of your latest mailing his early years of nuclear research. "I've
label. Entries must be received by November 9. Senders of the first three correct solutions opened at still got time. I don't believe I took
random will receive one-year subscriptions to Harper's Magazine. The solution will be printed in the more than five years off of my life." _
December issue. Winners of the September Double Acrostic (No. 188) are Marjorie Holstege, Port
Angeles, Washington; Sam Cargill, Greenville, South Carolina; and Paul Abrahams, Deerfield,
Massachusetts.