Swedish nuclear power enthusiast: "I cooked radioactive materials in my kitchen"

A 31-year-old Swede has been arrested for illegal handling of radioactive materials in his home in southern Sweden. He wanted to build a nuclear reactor, but his experiment ended with a small explosion and a visit from the police, he explains to ing.dk.

By Thomas Djursing, Thursday 04th August 2011 pm. 12:51

"The whole thing exploded just as I cooked it."

How to explain Swedish Richard Handl the outcome of its attempt to make a nuclear reactor in his home. After six years of work he cooked ingredients americium, radium and beryllium in a 96 percent sulfuric acid solution, but the result was a small explosion.

Now his name is in the world media as the man who made a nuclear reactor in his oven, but the story holds water.

Instead, it is true that Richard Handl even contacted the Swedish radiation safety authority when he "just wanted to investigate whether it really legal to work with radioactive materials." And it is also quite correct that the Radiation Safety Authorities responded by going back to his home town Angelholm in southern Sweden with the police who promptly arrested him and charged him with illegal handling of radioactive materials.

At his residence, three men and asked him to come out with his hands up. Armed with Geiger counters were flat then searched for radioactivity, but it subsequently emerged that there was no danger.

Not near to split atoms
But Richard Handl was not even near to split atoms. It recognizes he is also facing ing.dk. He had bought the ingredients well enough americium, radium, uranium and beryllium on eBay and in Germany, he said. But he had not been reached to build reflectors or other hardware to be required to make an actual reactor.

"It was purely a hobby project and I had not really started a reactor yet. But I had read that beryllium mixed with radium could give a neutron, could split atoms, so I tried it on my stove. But it just ended up with an explosion, "said Richard Handl, which he documented the experiment in the form of text and images on his blog Richards Reactor.


According to Richard Handl, he is unemployed and his only background in physics and chemistry from high school, but through books and the Internet have given him ideas for his nuclear reactor.

"I've always been very interested in physics and nuclear power. It was definitely my big interest. But now it's hard to move forward, "says Richard Handl, who had seized all radioactive materials by the police and risking jail for up to two years.

It succeeded only Richard Handl to grab a few grams of the radioactive materials and according to senior scientist at Risø-DTU (Danish Technical University), Erik Nonbøl, it will also require up to 60 and 70 kg of radioactive elements to split atoms.

"It requires large quantities and unique compared to a fission to occur. There must be built reflectors and a lot else around to get a split to succeed. It is a very complicated process, "says Erik Nonbøl.

According to the Swedish radiation safety authority, so it would not have been possible for the Swede to do harm to its surroundings, and they assess nor that he would succeed in making a reactor.

"The measurements inside the apartment was very low and any measurement outside the apartment showed no signs of radioactivity. So there has not been a father for anyone, "says Leif Moberg, head of research at the Swedish radiation safety authority to ing.dk