A 17-year-old teenager once shocked the entire United States by building a nuclear reactor in his family’s shed. This young man passed away at the age of 40, but not due to radiation exposure.
In 1994, the name David Charles Hahn made headlines across American media, as the teenager’s home experiment left many people astounded.
At that time, Hahn was a 17-year-old Boy Scout living in Commerce, Michigan, who conducted a home experiment by constructing a nuclear reactor in his family’s shed.
David Charles Hahn stands in front of his family’s shed, where he built a nuclear reactor. This photo was taken in 1992 when Hahn was just 15 years old. (Photo: AlarmyPhoto).
Hahn gathered radioactive materials for his reactor from old household products, such as americium from smoke detectors, thorium from lantern mantle fabric, radium from watches, and lithium from batteries.
It is reported that David began his project two years prior, in 1992, when he was only 15 years old. It wasn’t until August 1994 that a neighbor spotted the teenager loading items into his family’s car, raising suspicions that David had stolen something and prompting them to call the police.
When the police arrived to inspect the Hahn family’s shed, what they discovered was not stolen property, but a nuclear reactor constructed by the teenager over the past two years. The radiation levels around David’s family’s shed were found to be 1,000 times higher than normal.
Police in protective gear cleaning out Hahn’s family shed. (Photo: AlarmyPhoto).
The police had to establish a “Federal Radiological Emergency Response Team,” which included the FBI and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to handle the situation at David’s shed. The entire shed and David’s homemade nuclear reactor were dismantled and buried deep in a desert in Utah.
Hahn’s parents reported that their son developed a passion for chemistry after receiving a chemistry experiment book from his grandfather at the age of 10. Hahn frequently conducted chemistry experiments in his bedroom and in the family shed.
Hahn was later arrested but refused to undergo a health assessment due to continuous exposure to radiation. Scientists believed that Hahn’s lifespan would be shortened because of his long-term exposure to radioactive materials in an enclosed environment without proper protective equipment.
However, Hahn was released without facing any charges for his homemade nuclear reactor. Nevertheless, the court ordered Hahn to promise not to engage in any further nuclear and radiation-related research.
Hahn then began attending college and enlisted in the United States Navy, where he worked on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.
Hahn with the chemistry experiment book gifted by his grandfather, which sparked his passion for chemistry. (Photo: AlarmyPhoto).
After leaving the military, David fell into depression and started using drugs. In January 2007, David was arrested for stealing multiple smoke detectors from the apartment where he was living. His aim was to extract the americium element from the smoke detectors to continue his radiation experiments.
David Charles Hahn was sentenced to three months in jail for theft.
On September 27, 2016, Hahn was found unresponsive at his home in Shelby, Michigan. The cause of death was later determined to be alcohol poisoning and drug overdose, unrelated to radiation exposure as many had speculated.
The tumultuous life of David Charles Hahn has inspired various films and books about this remarkable man. Hahn was even nicknamed “The Radioactive Boy Scout” by the American media.
