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Author: Subject: Radioactive boy scout update....
Maroboduus
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[*] posted on 16-11-2016 at 08:29


Those sores on his face in that mugshot aren't that unusual looking. You see them on some meth heads.

Haven't read the book, but I did read the original article. It was a deluded kid who collected radioactive stuff and put it together without any real understanding of what he was up to. Lumps of charcoal wrapped in foil as a moderator, but he had no idea of the mean free path of what he was moderating. Cobalt steel drill bits as 'control rods'.

If you define his work as a reactor, then you'd have to say anybody wearing an aluminum foil hat who walks past a smoke detector just made a nuclear reactor out of his head. "Look Mom, I'm makin' tritium in my brain!!!"

But of course in retrospect he tries to make himself sound like a boy genius from some early 20th century children's book.
No, that junk in the shed was just what was left after my mom threw out the REAL stuff.

And of course he has the help of an unscrupulous journalist who wants the BIG BIG STORY so he can earn some royalties.

Now that he's dead, we'll see stories about how he was so corroded from the massive radiation doses from his breeder reactor that his body just disintegrated, or that he's been buried at a high level waste storage facility. Or some such bullshit.
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roXefeller
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[*] posted on 6-6-2018 at 13:46


I heard this story back in 2006 but I came across this video today when we were talking about this story. I hadn't realized that he was doing this in the 90s. I found the bias of the narrator to be repulsive. The attitude he possesses characterizes ambition and experimentation as public danger.video
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damanifesto
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[*] posted on 6-6-2018 at 14:43


David Charles Hahn died of alcohol poisoning


IMHO, his face epidermal skin looks damaged, but according to the VA doctors he had no lasting effects from his radiation experiments.


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roXefeller
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[*] posted on 6-6-2018 at 15:46


Working in the nuclear industry, I'm positive that his radiation dose added nothing to his death. I dont know how much nasty nuclide he ingested with his sloppy work practices however.
He unfortunately died the way many service men and women die, through a tragic life after discharge. I don't call him the genius wonderboy of the last century, but he at least showed talent and a desire to learn and expand. It's a shame that he was demonized by environmentalists that didn't really care about his neighbors, just in scandalizing the story.
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[*] posted on 7-6-2018 at 10:59


To me, that complexion says " drinks too much" rather than "Played with trivial radiation sources years ago.
Sorry to hear he's gone.
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[*] posted on 7-6-2018 at 14:18


When I first heard about it, I assumed people lauded his ingenuity. I also assumed it was during the golden nuclear days of the fifties. I didn't realize it was in the post TMI 90s. I draw a lot of parallels to that guy. He was getting fission and arrested the same time I was getting my fledgling lab confiscated. His story in Harper's was around the time I got my eagle rank. I probably read the same sources as him. I didn't see it back then but there were probably antinuke activists all around, and he was an early maker before the millenial maker boom. Now it's in vogue to fission in your shed aND oNE can buy heavy water on the internet. He was born at the wrong time. :(
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VSEPR_VOID
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[*] posted on 8-6-2018 at 18:21


Rest in peace. Its too bad about what happened to him.



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Within cells interlinked
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Mr. Rogers
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[*] posted on 11-8-2018 at 03:36


That picture of him on WP with scabs on his face are from meth use, I'm 100% sure of this. It's not from radiation, it's from picking at his face.

He looks a lot better in the later pictures FWIW.
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[*] posted on 13-8-2018 at 20:51


Agreed with mr. Rogers, radiation (xrays) used to be treatment for acne in first half of 20th century.
I work daily with high energy gamma (100keV-600keV in GBq range) and still no acne or any other skin damage.

[Edited on 14-8-2018 by Cezium]
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