{"product_id":"the-radioactive-boy-scout-the-true-story-of-a-boy-and-his-backyard-nuclear-reactor","title":"The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor","description":"\u003cp\u003eGrowing up in suburban Detroit  David Hahn was fascinated by science  and his basement experimentsbuilding homemade fireworks  brewing moonshine  and concocting his own self-tanning lotionwere more ambitious than those of other boys. While working on his Atomic Energy badge for the Boy Scouts  Davids obsessive attention turned to nuclear energy. Throwing caution to the wind  he plunged into a new project: building a nuclear breeder reactor in his backyard garden shed.  In The Radioactive Boy Scout  veteran journalist Ken Silverstein recreates in brilliant detail the months of Davids improbable nuclear quest. Posing as a physics professor  David solicited information on reactor design from the U.S. government and from industry experts. (Ironically  the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was his number one source of information.) Scavenging antiques stores and junkyards for old-fashioned smoke detectors and gas lanternsboth of which contain small amounts of radioactive materialand following blueprints he found in an outdated physics textbook  David cobbled together a crude device that threw off toxic levels of radiation. His unsanctioned and wholly unsupervised project finally sparked an environmental catastrophe that put his towns forty thousand residents at risk and caused the EPA to shut down his lab and bury it at a radioactive dumpsite in Utah.  An outrageous account of ambition and  ultimately  hubris that sits comfortably on the shelf next to such offbeat science books as Driving Mr. Albert and stories of grand capers like Catch Me If You Can  The Radioactive Boy Scout is a real-life adventure with the narrative energy of a first-rate thriller.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44986133217333,"sku":"ByrdShop_037550351X","price":27.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780375503511.jpg?v=1770888489","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-radioactive-boy-scout-the-true-story-of-a-boy-and-his-backyard-nuclear-reactor","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}