Teen boy scout made his entire neighbourhood radioactive after building nuclear reactor in his mother’s yard.

A Boy Scout created a homemade nuclear reactor in his mother’s garden. 

Nuclear experiments and Boy Scouts don’t usually go hand in hand, but that’s not the case with David Charles Hahn from Michigan, who may have taken the badge-earning process a little too seriously.

With the aid of basic kitchen equipment in his mother’s shed, the then 15-year-old boy started working on a nuclear reactor which he completed in August 1994.

Sadly, David’s joyride came to an end on August 31 when he attached his nuclear reactor to his toy car and triggered the neighbors to call 911…

But not for this reason…

In fact, the cops were called because the neighbors thought David was stealing tyres but stumbled up on his radioactive experiment, which ultimately got him arrested.

Eventually, the authorities disposed of the nuclear waste and buried his reactor at a disposal site in the desert.

However, not everyone was left unscathed, because David’s project caused radiation that spread around his neighborhood.

The Aftermath

Surprisingly, the charges against the young wannabe scientist were dropped, but under one condition — he would not return to his mother’s house until the shed was cleared of hazardous materials.

And David’s father was pleasantly surprised with what his son was able to create out of nothing, saying:

“I’m very proud of Dave it’s not many fifteen-year-old kids that can put something together like this in my wildest dreams I don’t think I could have done it.”

Sadly, David’s life didn’t go as well as his parent’s had hoped. 

David was later arrested for smoke alarm theft, supposedly to get his hands on more items to build a reactor, and during his time in prison was seeing a psychiatrist.

After suffering from mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse, David passed away in 2016 due to an apparent overdose.

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