Radioactive Boy Scout

[Stuart Leinoff <Leinoffs@ACC.SUNYACC.EDU>]

Greetings,

Dan Burns wrote on thursday:

 There was an incident where a
> high school student collected defective detectors by the dozen and removed and
> concentrated the Americium. He did the same thing with lantern mantles and Thorium
> and tried to make a reactor. This resulted in quite a radioactive cleanup problem.
> I would avoid doing this in high school for this reason.

The article he mentions is from Harper's Magazine and was published again in the March issue of Reader's Digest, as "Tale of the Radioactive Boy Scout."

It's worth the read.

Stu Leinoff
ACC