Police arrest Swedish man who tried to split atom in his kitchen.

Run_to_da_hills

Going by the above i'm sure almost every resident in this country could be busted for the possession of radioactive substances. :eek:

Your average Ionization chamber in a smoke detector would contain approximately 0.5 grams of americium-241 encapsulated in a metal chamber.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2022333/Police-arrest-Swedish-man-tried-split-atom-KITCHEN.html

Absurdum

I like the images they use to accompany the story, not far-fetched at all.

ICE HOUSE

Just hope he was wearing his safety glasses.

feelpablo

KABOOM.....oh excuse me, it must have been that "bean" i ate today!!!

admiralofthefleet

my sides are splitting


sorry

Run_to_da_hills

ICE HOUSE wrote: »

Just hope he was wearing his safety glasses.

And ate his iodate tablets.

admiralofthefleet

swamp gas reflecting off of venus or some other kind of shite, nothing to see here

skelliser

The excerpt on how to perform the experiment is wrong as well.

The atom was first split by Cockroft and Walton, who was irish btw, in the 1930's.
They won the nobel prize for physics.
His son is also a Professor of Physics at NUIG.

The experiment is not actually that difficult to perform.

skelliser

double post

dvpower

^^ For someone who can split posts

Slunk

I'm sure investigators are dying to get atom

CardBordWindow

Before the police arrested him, did they say 'UP AND ATOM!!'?

Parsley

skelliser wrote: »

The excerpt on how to perform the experiment is wrong as well.

The atom was first split by Cockroft and Walton, who was irish btw, in the 1930's.
They won the nobel prize for physics.
His son is also a Professor of Physics at NUIG.

The experiment is not actually that difficult to perform.

they split a lithium atom though, didn't they? i think the article's talking about splitting radioactive nuclei to produce chain reactions, the kind used in bombs and reactors. they should've clarified that.

skelliser

Parsley wrote: »

they split a lithium atom though, didn't they? i think the article's talking about splitting radioactive nuclei to produce chain reactions, the kind used in bombs and reactors. they should've clarified that.

yes but the principle is the same.

In this case radium, americium and uranium are obviously not easily found!

besides the health and safety aspects i dont see what wrong this guy did! all the tools and components can be gotten easily enough.

AgileMyth

CardBordWindow wrote: »

Before the police arrested him, did they say 'UP AND ATOM!!'?

Up and At-Them!

Wibbs

skelliser wrote: »

In this case radium, americium and uranium are obviously not easily found!

Radium is pretty easy to get. Old clocks and watches with luminous dials before the late 50's. The radiation burns off the phosphors withing about 20 years so the old dials won't glow(or very little) today, but the radium is still running very strong. After the 50's they switched to Tritium which is much less radioactive but has a much shorter half life. You might beable to get usable uranium from thorium which is very common. Americium? Lots and lots of smoke detectors I suppose. It would be very long winded though.

maxxie

spas!

Emiko

For such a dastardly crime he'll probably be sentenced to half-life.

Lapin

I split an atom once.

Messy.

I won't try that again in a hurry.

krudler

Wibbs wrote: »

Radium is pretty easy to get. Old clocks and watches with luminous dials before the late 50's. The radiation burns off the phosphors withing about 20 years so the old dials won't glow(or very little) today, but the radium is still running very strong. After the 50's they switched to Tritium which is much less radioactive but has a much shorter half life. You might beable to get usable uranium from thorium which is very common. Americium? Lots and lots of smoke detectors I suppose. It would be very long winded though.

Is there some sort of supervillian night course I can attend to learn more about this sort of stuff?

discus

He wasn't splitting atoms, he was just making a strong Curie.

Sykk

Daily Mail wrote:

Picture of a nuclear bomb exploding
Safety first: It's best to split atoms in a nuclear reactor - or somewhere far from civilisation

Haha, classic skilled writing.. Daily mail never fails to make me laugh

looksee

and kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove.

So? I do that all the time.

discus

He gave himself away with his "gone fission" sign on the door

castletownman

"No police officer, that glowing is only the aurelius borealis"
"In your kitchen?"
"Yes"

Wertz

A long read but worth the effort:

http://www.wesjones.com/silverstein1.htm

Something a bit more concise:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

Basically a guy in the 'States that wanted to get some obscure boy scouting badge in chemistry by developing a fully functional slow breeder reactor from parts he cobbled together from smoke alarms and old watch dials...
The first link goes into the detail of what he did, fascinating in it's complexity and scary that you might be living next door to the type who takes up a hobby like this...

PrzemoF

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

G[..]
Your average Ionization chamber in a smoke detector would contain approximately 0.5 grams of americium-241 encapsulated in a metal chamber. [..]

With 0.5 g of americum you could make 1.000.000 smoke detectors - average detector contains 0.3 microgram of americium-241.

opinion guy

BBC interview here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14403432

The interviewer clearly thinks he could have blown up the neighbourhood

Jam

Ah yes, the typical ignorance of the media, and population in general, with regards to nuclear fission.

I once tried to explain to an acquaintance, an artist, what they are trying to do at CERN with the LHC, I got as far into the explanation as the weak nuclear force before she looked at me in horror.

cosmicfart

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Going by the above i'm sure almost every resident in this country could be busted for the possession of radioactive substances. :eek:

Your average Ionization chamber in a smoke detector would contain approximately 0.5 grams of americium-241 encapsulated in a metal chamber.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2022333/Police-arrest-Swedish-man-tried-split-atom-KITCHEN.html

they should bring the death penalty back for this guy and nuke the fooker straight up!

Paddy Cow

This comment from the DM made me chuckle

I'm sorry to bring a little of the ridiculous into an obviously important and scentific subject. I just had this surreal fantasy of the guy in his kitchen, armed with a meat cleaver and holding an atom with the salad tongs...

Magic Beans

Or maybe he wasn't trying to split the atom at all, maybe he bought it in IKEA and was trying to put it together.

SuperInfinity

You people disgust me. This isn't funny at all.

Why laugh at something so dangerous? There's something mentally wrong with people who laugh at this.

Emiko

SuperInfinity wrote: »

You people disgust me. This isn't funny at all.

Why laugh at something so dangerous? There's something mentally wrong with people who laugh at this.

No need to be so Bohr'ing.

niemad

It's so surreal that it is funny, thats why people are laughing :P

Fremen

skelliser wrote: »

besides the health and safety aspects i dont see what wrong this guy did! all the tools and components can be gotten easily enough.

People can't go around splitting atoms willy-nilly. There are only so many atoms out there, and if people go around splitting them whenever they feel like it, pretty soon we'll run out. And where will we be then? Answer me that!

Fremen

SuperInfinity wrote: »

You people disgust me. This isn't funny at all.

Why laugh at something so dangerous? There's something mentally wrong with people who laugh at this.

Easy there, don't have a meltdown.

senorwipesalot

Hachet chop

SuperInfinity

niemad wrote: »

It's so surreal that it is funny, thats why people are laughing :P

Well answered, but that's the whole problem. People seem to be disconnected from reality.

They call it "progress" when science allows us to do things more easily, even if allows people to blow everyone up more easily. Nobody wants the ability to blow up a city or the entire world in someone's kitchen, but hard as it may be to believe it could become a reality.

Emiko

SuperInfinity wrote: »

Nobody wants the ability to blow up a city or the entire world in someone's kitchen.

He was probably just trying to rustle up some fission chips.

PseudoFamous

A friend of mine found a Tritrium vial on a Chinese website that sells incredibly cheap crap, which is marketed as a Glowing Keychain.. Semi worrying how easily someone could get that.

Jam

SuperInfinity wrote: »

Well answered, but that's the whole problem. People seem to be disconnected from reality.

They call it "progress" when science allows us to do things more easily, even if allows people to blow everyone up more easily. Nobody wants the ability to blow up a city or the entire world in someone's kitchen, but hard as it may be to believe it could become a reality.

People also seem to be disconnected from facts. The bombs dropped on Japan, for example, contained 65kg of enriched Uranium each. This is not feasible without a centrifuge and a lot of government attention.

PseudoFamous wrote:

A friend of mine found a Tritrium vial on a Chinese website that sells incredibly cheap crap, which is marketed as a Glowing Keychain.. Semi worrying how easily someone could get that.

Tritium is H3, unless you're planning to revolutionize science and the world by solving nuclear fusion, the best you could do is mildly poison your neighbours and that's only if they inhale it.

PseudoFamous

Jam wrote: »

Tritium is H3, unless you're planning to revolutionize science and the world by solving nuclear fusion, the best you could do is mildly poison your neighbours and that's only if they inhale it.

Hey, I'm no rocket surgeon, I don't know much about it other than the fact that it's radioactive.