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The boy scout was trying to build a breeder reactor, which is quite a different beast as it produces more fissile material over time. (edited: built -> trying
by nanomonkey 2y ago
The boy scout was trying to build a breeder reactor, which is quite a different beast as it produces more fissile material over time.
(edited: built -> trying to build)
- acidburnNSA 2y agoThe boy scout was attempting to do that, but did not come anywhere near achieving it. It's wrong to say he built one.
- nanomonkey 2y agoI stand corrected! The article I read about the boy lead me to believe that the neutron source had been pointed at other materials to produce more radioactive materials...I see from the Wikipedia article that wasn't the case.
- acidburnNSA 2y agoYes I think a lot of the articles are a bit hyped up and misleading. Thanks for checking on it! Even if he had produced something with the (alpha,neutron) sources he was making, it still wouldn't be a breeder reactor, but rather the same kind of neutron source the e.g. Enrico Fermi was using in the 1930s to investigate the nature of radioactive materials at the pre-dawn of the nuclear age. Breeder reactors require a neutron chain reaction that generates more nuclear fuel than they consume, which is far beyond just irradiating stuff with a neutron source. After the Manhattan Project it took our top reactor designers until about 1951 to really build one and demonstrate it, at the EBR-1 in Idaho [1]. I think it's safe to claim that no kid will ever build one in a garage. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I