Swedish man caught trying to split atoms at home


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STOCKHOLM -- A Swedish man who was arrested after trying to split atoms in his kitchen said Wednesday he was only doing it as a hobby.

Richard Handl told The Associated Press that he had the radioactive elements radium, americium and uranium in his apartment in southern Sweden when police showed up and arrested him on charges of unauthorized possession of nuclear material.

The 31-year-old Handl said he had tried for months to set up a nuclear reactor at home and kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove.

Only later did he realize it might not be legal and sent a question to Sweden's Radiation Authority, which answered by sending the police.

"I have always been interested in physics and chemistry," Handl said, adding he just wanted to "see if it's possible to split atoms at home."

The police raid took place in late July, but police have refused to comment. If convicted, Handl could face fines or up to two years in prison.

Although he says police didn't detect dangerous levels of radiation in his apartment, he now acknowledges the project wasn't such a good idea.

"From now on, I will stick to the theory," he said.

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and now they are going to have to put stickers on nuclear reactors. "Do Not Try This At Home"

would have been epic had it actually achieved it.

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I thought he actually had a contained reaction going O.o

Anyone know?

P.s. Hum is getting slow.. This happened a couple of days ago :whistle:

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So police had not made the raid before? Even though he blogged about it.

And only when he asked them if it's legal, that they actually arrested him. It would be really bad if he got a very strict punishment, since his intentions were well.

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So police had not made the raid before? Even though he blogged about it.

And only when he asked them if it's legal, that they actually arrested him. It would be really bad if he got a very strict punishment, since his intentions were well.

They let him go on the promise he won't do it again.

And just because you blog about something, doesn't mean anyone reads it :p I doubt anyone who was in law enforcement read it before they arrested him.

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this is the guys blog http://richardsreactor.blogspot.com/ he was the one who called the police as wondered the legality of it all lol, hes been released though, as seems quite clear his intentions, however crazy were out of curiosity rather anything else. And his "meltdown" was Americium, Radium and Beryllium cooked in 96% sulphuric-acid and reacting quite badly.

His blog is quite interesting, as to where he got everything from, it does seem really anyone could potentially do it

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So police had not made the raid before? Even though he blogged about it.

And only when he asked them if it's legal, that they actually arrested him. It would be really bad if he got a very strict punishment, since his intentions were well.

If I had blogged that I was turning my cooker into a nuclear reactor, I doubt anyone would take me seriously!

(In reality, I'm trying to do COLD FUSION in my fridge!)

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Cold Fusion is easy. Get two pieces of ice and a few drops of water then put them together and place in a freezer. They should be fused together after several minutes.

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