Activation of unknown nuclear reactor in Germany causes panic.

[Kludge]

"TWO six-year-old boys pretending to have built a mini nuclear power plant prompted German police and the fire brigade to clear their street, authorities said today.

The schoolchildren in the western town of Oelde had built the nuclear reactor mock-up out of a computer casing and taped a "radioactivity warning'' they had printed out from the Internet on its side.

"When the boys returned to their 'nuclear power plant' from a brief stop at home they were sent away again as the area and a wide radius around it had been cleared and blocked off,'' police said in a statement.

Residents were ordered not to leave their homes and firefighters tested for a radioactive leak.

The boys' parents thought the fire department was conducting a drill until they read about the operation online and what led to it.

They reported to the police station and explained their six-year-olds had not managed to build an actual nuclear reactor."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25682518-12377,00.html

[mediahasyou]

we are scared shit in this world. some need to chill. you cant make this world better when you live in a bubble.

[dannno]

They reported to the police station and explained their six-year-olds had not managed to build an actual nuclear reactor.

Amazing.

[coyote_sprit]

Those little kids are terrorists.

[Brian4Liberty]

Lol! Reminds of the days after 9/11. Mass paranoia. The police taped off my entire block because of an "unknown box". I volunteered to open the box for them, or at least give it a few good kicks. It took several hours for the bomb squad to determine it was nothing.

[angelatc]

Here in the US those kids would face charges.

[Sean]

I think the Iranians were looking to hire them for their program.

[Kraig]

Here in the US those kids would face charges.

Hopefully! I think they could just as easily be sent to some prison without trial at all.

[silverhawks]

Just goes to show that insanity reigns in Europe.

[Steeleye]

Germans have become really quite simple since the War ended.

[TonySutton]

http://cache.consumerist.com/assets/images/consumerist/2008/05/boston-guerilla-bomb-scare_02.jpg

[Objectivist]

Hahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Thanks Kludge, I needed a good laugh.

[coyote_sprit]

http://cache.consumerist.com/assets/images/consumerist/2008/05/boston-guerilla-bomb-scare_02.jpg

The mooninites are real and they have destroyed our armies, villages, people and all of our pets and destroyed our craps.

[tangent4ronpaul]

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

David Hahn (born October 30, 1976) is a man known for his attempt to build a fast breeder nuclear reactor in 1994 in his backyard shed in Commerce Township, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at age 17.

Hahn, nicknamed the "Radioactive Boy Scout", is an Eagle Scout who got a merit badge in Atomic Energy and spent years tinkering with basement chemistry which sometimes resulted in small explosions and other mishaps. He was inspired in part by reading The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, and tried to collect samples of every element in the periodic table, including the radioactive ones. Hahn diligently amassed this radioactive material by collecting small amounts from household products, such as americium from smoke detectors, thorium from camping lantern mantles, radium from clocks and tritium (as neutron moderator) from gunsights. His "reactor" was a large, bored-out block of lead, and he used lithium from $1,000 worth of stolen batteries to purify the thorium ash using a Bunsen burner.[1]

Hahn posed as an adult scientist or professor to gain the trust of many professionals in letters, despite the presence of misspellings and obvious errors in his letters to them. Hahn ultimately hoped to create a breeder reactor, using low-level isotopes to transform samples of thorium and uranium into fissionable isotopes.

Although his homemade reactor never achieved critical mass, it ended up emitting dangerous levels of radioactivity, likely well over 1,000 times normal background radiation. Alarmed, Hahn began to dismantle his experiments, but a chance encounter with police led to the discovery of his activities, which triggered a Federal Radiological Emergency Response involving the FBI and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, having designated Hahn's mother's property as a Superfund hazardous materials cleanup site, dismantled the shed and its contents and buried them as low-level radioactive waste in Utah. Hahn refused medical evaluation for radiation exposure.

[...]

-t