Man arrested for trying to split the atom in his kitchen

Swede admits home-made atom experiment was 'crazy'

A Swedish man who tried to set up a nuclear reactor in his kitchen at home has admitted his plan was "crazy".

Richard Handl said he had just been "curious" and wanted to see if he would be able to split an atom.

Police were called to his flat in Angelholm in southern Sweden after he got in touch with Sweden's radiation authority to check if what he was doing was legal.

Mr Handl said he would stick to reading books about physics from now on.

Mr Handl, who is 31 and unemployed, told the BBC World Service he had bought the radioactive materials on the internet and from Germany.

He had been working on the experiment for around six months and posted regular updates on his blog.

He was questioned by police, who confiscated his nuclear materials as well as his computer.

"I had it under control, it was not so dangerous," he told the BBC.

But he added: "It was pretty stupid."

It is unclear what will happen next in the police inquiry. Mr Handl said he expected a fine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14406766

Brilliant.

This reminds me of that scifi story I read as a kid where a boy recreated a star in his room. It later went on to become a black hole and swallow the Earth. Cool story.

old.

Aren't atoms like 0.0001mm though? Only like brilliant scientists can split them.

Adz wrote:Aren't atoms like 0.0001mm though? Only like brilliant scientists can split them.

They are far, far, far smaller than that.

Rawk theif Jord

Nuclear fission is one of the hardest things to do, if this guy got close then he's an absolute genius.

He just needs a knife

ResurrectionRooney wrote:

Adz wrote:Aren't atoms like 0.0001mm though? Only like brilliant scientists can split them.

They are far, far, far smaller than that.

You get what I mean.

Mc Babel wrote:Rawk theif Jord

Rei Andros wrote:This reminds me of that scifi story I read as a kid where a boy recreated a star in his room. It later went on to become a black hole and swallow the Earth. Cool story.

Quite dark for a child's book?

That's what the Large Hadron Collider is for.

How the hell did he plan to do this in his kitchen?

Dude, What the hell?

Tio Nicci wrote:

Rei Andros wrote:This reminds me of that scifi story I read as a kid where a boy recreated a star in his room. It later went on to become a black hole and swallow the Earth. Cool story.

Quite dark for a child's book?

Never really thought about it at the time, but yeah, kinda.