This is an interesting story, published by Harper's magazine in November 1998, about a boy scout who wanted to build a homemade breeder reator so he could get his atomic energy merit badge. He obtained radium paint from some antique clocks, thorium from latern mantles, and americum from smoke detectors. Here are some excerpts from the article.
You can read the article at:I
gnoring safety, David mixed his radium and americium with beryllium and aluminum , all of which he wrapped in aluminum foil, forming a makeshift reactor core. He surrounded this radioactive ball with a blanket of small foil-wrapped cubes of thorium ash and uranium powder, tenuously held together with duct tape.W
hen David's Geiger counter began picking up radiation five doors from his mom's house, he decided that he had "too much radioactive stuff in one place" and began to disassemble the reactor. He hid some of the material in his mother's house, left some in the shed, and packed most of the rest into the trunk of his Pontiac.
The radioactive boy scout: when a teenager attempts to build a breeder reactor
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/n1782_v297/21281407/print.jhtmlWhat does this has to do with Jehovah's Witnesses? Not much I admit, but, could you imagine going out in service in David's neighborhood? Come back irradiated and glowing in the dark! --VM44