Customer Reviews

The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have no quarrel with anti-nuclear books or thoughts, but this book presents itself as "The frightening true story of a whiz kid and his homemade nuclear reactor." It's not.

The author spends far too much time criticizing nuclear power and oddly enough, the Boy Scouts, and far too little on the actual incident that led to the story.

Silverstein's anti-nuclear slant is obvious. Chapter 2 (sarcastically titled "From the Radium Craze to the Soaring Sixties: Science Conquers All") is a criticism of all things nuclear, including Hiroshima, the Atomic Energy Commission, using nuclear energy to generate electricity, and the Cold War.

Writing about the Boy Scouts' "Atomic Energy" merit badge booklet, he says "Such was the pronuke slant of the pamphlet that it...was authored by a group of nuclear-power advocates." (Who else would the Boy Scouts ask to write it?) He continued "The Boy Scouts systematically whitewashed the many problems encountered by nuclear power."

Silverstein devotes nearly a full chapter to criticizing the Boy Scouts as an insitution. He writes "The Boy Scouts have always claimed to be apolitical, but the group has had a decidedly right wing character." He devotes a page to reciting a cynical poem that mocks the Boy Scout motto "Be Prepared" with lines like "Be prepared to hold your liquor pretty well" and "Keep those reefers hidden...when the Scoutmaster's around, for he will only insist that they be shared. Be prepared!" What's the point of that?

Siverstein also states "So shameless and enduring was [the Boy Scouts'] shilling for nuclear power the the scouts later helped the industry turn the partial core meltdown and mass evacuation of Three Mile Island into a marketing opportunity." (He later acknowedges that Three Mile Island produced zero fatalities and resulted in the precautionary evacuation of only pregnant women and small children.)

The book is not about a "radioactive Boy Scout." It is a critique of nuclear power and the Boy Scouts. He of course has every right to express those thoughts, but I felt deceived and cheated out of my $13.95.

(I Google'd the book's author, "Ken Silverstein." You might want to as well.)

I found it fascinating to read about the exploits of David Hahn and his ability to acquire and experiment with radioactive materials. Ken Silverstein has done a good job of including pertinent scientific background with the personal story of David.

My main criticism is that there are several errors in the technical chemistry provided in the book: For example, vinegar is 5% acetic acid (not 30%). Canthaxanthin is not a steroid. Electromotive force creates centrifugal force which then allows for the separation of U-235 and U-238. The combined number of protons and neutrons in a nucleus is called the mass number. When David used a charcoal grill inside the shed, the chief hazard was carbon monoxide (not carbon dioxide). Tyrosine is an amino acid (not an enzyme). Carboxylic acid refers to a class of compounds. Cesium-137 undergoes beta decay (not gamma ray emission). Also, the author confuses volatility with reactivity. It is unfortunate that the text was not reviewed by a chemist who could have pointed out these errors prior to publication.

I was David's scoutmaster when he was preparing for his Eagle Scout Board of Review. I was to contact five registered adult Scout leaders, who would comprise the Board. One prospective adult told me he could not sit on the Board, because "something happened".

I learned that David and some friends were stopped by the cavaliering Clinton Township (Michigan) Police, who were randomly stopping teens and searching their cars for stolen tires.

David was not allowed to keep his experiments in his stepmother's home, so he kept everything in his car trunk. The cops found no tires, but saw his stuff and overreacted.

Days later, David's father phoned and said that David would no longer pursue the Eagle Scout rank.

A month or so later, a man claiming to be a reporter phoned my home, wanting to do a telephone interview about David. After a few moments, I refused. There was something negative about the line of questioning.

As a Scout, David was always clean-cut, polite, and well-liked by the other boys. My take is that David had the scientific curiosity of a Tesla or Edison; not of an evil prankster.

David's father, like so many divorced and re-married men, walked a tightrope between caring for his son and appeasing a new bride.

As for Mr. Silverstein, he should keep his story factual, and keep his opinions about Scouting to the editorial pages.

Wow... That was my reaction to this book on a couple different levels. I first heard about his story when Mr. Silverstein was featured on NPR after his Harper's article appeared. I found the exploits of David Hahn fascinating and picked up the book when I spotted it. As others have mentioned here, the telling of David's story is very well written. Hahn's "Mad Scientist" persona and incredible disregard for the personal safety of
himself and others around him is alternatively very funny and scary. It's amazing that his family got to the point that they were "used it" the occasional explosion in the basement. It's also too bad that someone in David's life wasn't able to focus all of that brilliance.

However, also very funny (perhaps not in the way that Ken Silverstein intended) is the manner that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is portrayed in the book. The things that are said about the BSA are downright laughable. Per Silverstein, the BSA is a "dogmatic" right-wing political indoctrination machine that demands "absolute obedience" of its members. Such accusations (with no evidence cited) are heavily sprinkled thought the book. Furthermore, the author informs us that the founder of the Scouting movement, the UK's Robert Baden-Powell, formed Scouting so that the British Army and government would have a steady source of "A-1" manpower to keep the machine that was the British Empire alive and well. He even goes so far as to imply that Baden-Powell was a Nazi sympathizer before WW2. Later on we read about an un-holy conspiracy between the Atomic Energy Commission, the BSA, and Walt Disney (!!!) to peddle nuclear power to the masses. Wow... He's so wrong, and incomplete, on so many levels that I don't know where to begin.

The only thing I can figure is that Silverstein must have had one really bad experience with Scouting as a child. I've been involved with the BSA as a youth and an adult for 30 years in numerous places in two different states. The BSA that the author describes is totally unknown to me. I've never met a "dogmatic" troop leader who attempts to impose mindless group-think or politics on his or her charges. If Mr. Silverstein were to spend some actual time with some units and see how they actually operate (the best term I can think of is "organized chaos"), I think he's change a few things in this book!

As for the BSA's "alliance" with the AEC... that's not the full picture either. The Atomic Energy merit badge was introduced during the halcyon days of "The Atom" in America. As Ken Silverstein points out, our whole culture was swept up in "atom fever" then. Whenever the BSA introduces a Merit Badge, it usually partners with an outside authoritative organization to write the requirements and develop any instructional materials. In the case of a "Medicine" MB, it could be the AMA. For photography, they might call on Kodak for help. And so on. Working with the AEC would have been a logical choice for the BSA. Once created, Merit Badges will only live so long as their popularity allows. Once the number of Scouts earning a Merit Badge drops below levels that can support the cost of printing and stocking their associated materials, they are dropped from the BSA's program (see if you can earn Pigeon Raising MB today!). If kids didn't want it still today, the Atomic Energy MB wouldn't exist today. The BSA's "agenda" isn't driving things.

A quick look at the actual requirements for the BSA's Atomic Energy MB today also undercuts a lot of the criticism expressed in this book. Right off the bat a Scout is asked to explain the hazards of radiation to living things and the environment and an experiment performed by the Scout (irratiating seeds) demonstrates that further. Most of the MB deal with non-power generating aspects of nuclear science (medicine, food safety, etc.)

A quick look at some of the requirements for other MB's also undercuts Silverstein's claims about the BSA right-wing political agenda. I defy anyone to examine the requirements for MB's like Environmental Science, Nature, Soil and Water Conservation, or Weather and conclude that the BSA is a tool of the right. They even have a merit badge concerning labor unions!

So go ahead and read the book and be amazed by the antics of David Hahn... it's a quick read. Just take the author's personal agenda with a grain of salt the size of a potting shed!

I agree with "Umm...yeah". I saw this book reviewed by TIME mag and thought it looked like a good read. Unfortunately I felt allot like this kid as a child and resented the writer's condescending tone towards his subject and wondered if David had any idea he would be treated like this in the book. I think it is amazing what David accomplished and sad that the writer spent so little time talking about it. Instead he uses it as a anti-nuclear forum and and somehow equates poor spelling on David's part as an indication of his lack of sophistication. I enjoyed the background history on atomic power even though it reminded me on how I used to fill in my reports in high-school. I couldn't help but wonder how David has turned out now. I hope he is still living an adventure. I would recommend this book but be aware the writer did not do justice to the subject.

At a time of extreme concern with terrorism, and the dangers of radioactivity in general, this may well be a scary book for many. It is a credit to the author, Ken Silverstein, that he exercises great restraint in playing the terrorism card. Rather, the tone of the book is the development of a precocious but troubled teen, with a peculiar but narrow talent in science -- and in keeping a girl friend.

The book, written in 2004, is an expansion of an article by the same author written in 1998 for "Harper's Magazine." It chronicles the life of a teenager, David Hahn, during the approximate period 1991 - 1995. David was a troubled youth who spent his time between his mother's and father's new families. Neither family was what one might consider ideal, but his mother's seems to have been the more peculiar.
David took refuge in science. He was certainly not the first on this path; many famous scientists were the products of a troubled home life -- the great Newton being a prime example. The trouble was that David's talent seems to be of a type that was more appreciated 150 years ago than now. Specifically, it is the talent of the lone-wolf tinkerer, who has enormously great visions and takes great risks in trying to achieve these, but tends to work in isolation. Examples were Tesla, Nobel and Edison. The scientist of today is generally a team-player with strong academic background. The tragedy of David is that he does not seem to do well in the academic environment.

David's strength was a quick intuition for the basic concepts, and a ferocious single-mindedness. He hatched the idea of building a home-made-nuclear-reactor --and managed to go surprisingly far in that direction before his plans were upset by those ubiquitous spoil-sports, "the authorities."

The question which will trouble many is: "If David could get radioactive materials so easily cannot terrorists do the same? The answer is "yes," but a device on David's level would be more of a nuisance that a genuine weapon of mass-destruction. The scary truth is that terrorists have access to much more "professional" resources.

Ken Silverstein is a professional writer who has done his homework well. Chapters two and six give an outstanding summary of the history of radioactivity and atomic energy. They are self-contained, and by themselves would make the book worthwhile.

The principal shortcoming of the book is that since Mr. Silverstein is not a professional nuclear physicist, it is difficult to assess exactly what David accomplished. Silverstein implies that David managed to build a device which somehow multiplied the radioactivity of the material he started with; though in fairness, he does state that David was far short of creating the "breeder reactor" he was aiming for. Without actually creating a chain reaction, it is difficult to "multiply" radioactivity. David may well have succeeded in creating a neutron gun and trough it transmuted a small amount of material so as to make it radioactive. However, the book seems to imply that David radioactivity spread something akin to the "The Blob" of the fifties movie. More likely, David simply spread radioactive material around due to carelessness -- but then again, who knows what exactly he achieved?

The title is misleading. It should indicate that a great deal of other information is brought into play, such as history, politics, and propoganda. Many will, no doubt, make the case for how these add information to the main story line. I don't see how a flawed and simplistic history of early research in radiation helps tell the story of how a boy becomes interested in building a reactor. If you want to read a better and more correct history of the discovery and early work in radiation, even an encyclopedia does a better job. And the author's drive to paint nuclear energy as black as possible leads him to huge errors in his facts. What Wernher von Braun has to do with radiation, I can't begin to guess, but he was never a major in the SS. He was never an officer in any Nazi organization. Some reviewers dispute the author's aim to attack nuclear energy. It's very telling that one of his oft quoted sources, "Nukespeak" was published by the Sierra Club and written by a trio who have made it public that their aim is to be sure this country turns permanently away from this energy source. The author's significant mistakes are enough to discredit this book on their own merit, or lack of.

I feel a need to also address his characterization of David and other geeks. Especially in lack of a mentor or proper guidance with potentially lethal equipment, an enthusiastic student shouldn't be run down by adults. That, as much as any other event in David's life, helped push him further into the hole he was digging, withdrawing from possible assistance, and causing David to adopt a suspicious and sarcastic attitude toward adults. That's a certain recipe for the disaster that nearly was in David's life. I do know of that which I speak. My own experiments when I was younger nearly disposed of me, and the abuse I took from peers and adults only made me more determined to show them I knew what I was doing. I secreted all I did, as David began to do. We dorks may be dorks, but alienating eccentrics doesn't help them or those affected by them.

A disappointing book, one that could have risen to great heights. The bigger shame is that there is no other book on the subject that I can recommend.

The *story* is very interesting, but the author repeatedly annoyed me. As others have said, if he had stuck to the story, the book would have been much, much shorter. There was some useful background information about nuclear history and research, but there was also absolutely useless information thrown in as well. [...].

The author was also rather condescending toward David (the boy), his parents, and virtually anyone else who knew him, it seemed. I felt bad for David in particular. The author clearly interviewed him and got to know him somewhat, then he took quotations and used them in ways that David didn't intend for them to sound. And the general tone toward David seemed rather uncharitable. I think he realized this and tried to remedy it a bit in the epilogue, but it doesn't undo the rest of the book. I think that a better author could have conveyed the obvious, that David needed better direction, without the condescending tone.

In the end, I'm definitely glad that I read the book, but I find the author distasteful. I would have preferred to have read the book from someone who left less of their own personality stamped on the story. I would definitely like to know what David is doing now. He should start a blog.

This book was a fun educational read, and highlights David's singular, and at times both under and over informed pursuit of all things scientific.

The author for some reason feels the need to point out that david wasn't your average science geek (Here's a shocker: He had a girlfriend!! Imagine that!!!) And, although he "unquestionably" absorbed the Boy Scouts "Pro-Nuclear" teaching, he thought the Simpsons, and Homer's ineptitude working in a nuclear power plant, were funny!!! Oh my god!!! How is that possible!!

He also takes pot shots at the Boy Scouts for no apparent reason other than 1) They have an "Atomic Energy" Merit Badge adn 2) the materials for said merit badge were developed with the help of the NRC. (How dare they!!!) Who would he have preferred it be written by, Ken Silverstien perhaps?

In one totally nonsensical paragraph, he, I think, is taking another shot a both the scouts and the NRC because, a few years after the Three Mile Island incident, a local boy scout was given a tour of the plant. I have to admit, it left me scratching my head saying "What's your point?"

All that being said, I enjoyed Davids exploits and agree with most of the adults in his life at the time: He was a good kid. A good kid who built a Nuclear Reactor in his mom's shed....

If you aren't a geek yourself, you may be able to digest this anti-nuclear tract masquerading as a human-interest story. But if you are, you will find more to argue with than to enjoy. It's not that the author has an axe to grind - the book comes off more as an attempt to convince the reader that an anti-nuclear consensus exists worldwide and if he or she isn't already hip to the evil of nuclear power plants (regularly conflated here with nuclear weapons - where have you seen that before?) well, better not betray it in polite company!
As other reviewers have noted, the author's distaste for all things atomic competes for space with his too-horrified fascination with the Boy Scouts. The careless science (re: nuclear) and repeated innuendo (re: scouting) will leave you holding a book that is less about it's purported subject (half-way through the book I had to look up his name again) than it is about the author's own quirky vendettas.
With any luck at all you won't finish it.