A Box of Scraps
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“Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!”
— Obadiah Stane, Iron Man (2008)
Tony Stark is a fictional comic book superhero and genius inventor. In the 2008 film Iron Man, while he’s held captive in a cave by the bad guys, he successfully manages to build a miniature arc reactor using nothing but some spare parts and crude tools.
Iron Man is a fictional comic book, and you’d think that this kind of thing could never happen in real life right? Right?!?!
David Hahn was a real-life person, a Michigan teenager who lived at home with his parents. In 1994, in his parents’ backyard shed, he tried to build a homemade nuclear reactor.
He ended up collecting radioactive materials from smoke detectors, camping lanterns, and old clocks, and causing a bit of a mess in the process. He exposed himself to dangerous levels of radiation and contaminated the shed and surrounding yard. The Environmental Protection Agency later had to come in and clean up the site.
Although he was aiming for a nuclear reactor, he ended up with a neutron source. Scientists use neutron sources to test materials, check radiation detectors, or study how neutrons behave. Hahn was basically trying to copy what real nuclear labs do, but with household junk instead of proper equipment.
David didn't have a proper laboratory, or hi-tech equipment. He had his parents’ backyard shed, some DIY tools, and quite a lot of determination.
Governments spend billions of dollars, and employ lots of PhD scientists and smart people, trying to master nuclear technology. Hahn got alarmingly far with household junk in his parents’ backyard.
I guess it’s very difficult for a country to get nuclear weapons, and once it has a credible nuclear deterrent, attacking that country becomes a much more dangerous proposition.
You don't have to admire North Korea to wonder whether, from Pyongyang's narrow perspective, refusing to surrender its nuclear weapons has started to look uncomfortably rational.
David Hahn couldn't understand why everyone wanted him to stop trying to build nuclear capability. North Korea can't understand why anyone expects it to give theirs up.