Meet David Hahn

Good Lord, this is the single most terrifying mugshot I have ever seen on the Associated Press wire. I apologize to any pregnant readers who might have been terrified into labor after seeing this photograph.

It belongs to a man named David Hahn. Name sound familiar? Back when he was a teenager, he was the subject of a book, "The Radioactive Boy Scout," because he came perilously close to building his own nuclear reactor. (Instead, it just gave off high amounts of radiation.)

Little David is all growed up now, but Michigan authorities think he's still trying to build something nuclear. He's been accused of stealing 16 smoke detectors so he can lay hands on radioactive material. Not sure where the marks on his face come from, but Wikipedia says he's refused examination for radiation exposure a couple of times.

Comments

[Tam]

I'm not pregnant and still about went into labor... OMG, that truly gave me a scare!

[RDM]

This guy doesn't look like a rocket scientist. He looks like a meth addict, judging from the scars on his face. Are they sure the nuclear material story wasn't a cover for buying parts and chemicals to produce meth?

[Tam]

Hahn told the magazine he had been exposed to radioactive chemicals but added: "I don't believe I took more than five years off my life."

I think his picture took that much from me...

Tam, it's a good thing I wasn't drinking, or I'd sure have a mess to clean up! You're hilarious!

THAT WAS ME, Tam - geez, TypePad is giving me absolute FITS today!

kmb

[You're a Mean Drunk R2D2™]

Folks..... Herpes is a serious disease. Please, wrap it before you attack it.

[Tam]

kmb, I'm blushing, thanks!

That was good R2D2...

[Quad Kings]

Tam, you are funny!

[willow]

Great, now I'm going to need therapy. (find a happy place, find a happy place)

[STARVE THE ARTISTS]

Looks like David was experimenting on rdaioactive pizza components. My guess is that he achieved a viable fission reaction, using pepperoni.

[The Zipper]

hate to say it but theres a lot of 14 year old guys that look exactly the same.

[The Zipper]

hate to say it but theres a lot of 14 year old guys that look exactly the same.

[rusty_shackleford]

how much radiation can 16 smoke detectors give off?

[Amber]

He kind of reminds me of Torch from Stephen King's TV movie "The Stand"....

[CareBear]

Just got back from the emergency room, had a panic attack after seeing his pic, there should have been a warning prior to viewing! lol

Amber, you are RIGHT, makes me want to get my book back off the shelf and read it again.

[Steelblues]

Looks to me like one of his small bombs blew up in his face, smart, very smart.

[Sheut]

Nah, you're all wrong about this guy. The man in the photograph is a carny and has worked the carnival circuit in these parts for many years. In his act, he goes by the name "Bob, the human dart board".

[James Hart]

CB: Very funny!

[ROBERT ZIMMERMAN]

Nothing a little proactive lotion won't cure. Works for Kelly Clarkson.and Sean Puffy Combs He just needs to stop picking and eating ther scabs.Good luck dude.Quit played with that nuke stuff, it will mess your endorsements with companies like qb Vick. Do you want an agent???

[Nick]

He'll be a celebrity in prison. His cell mates will have a great time betting on how long the pillow will stick to his face when they wake him.

[OLE MO/KY ALLEN]

I'M 70 AND I DON'T RECALL EVER SEEING ANYTHING LIKE THIS IN MY LIFE........UGH!

[Bohica]

I wonder if he glows in the dark??

[Engawyer]

And we're preparing to spend billions and spill blood to keep Iran from figuring out, what this guy was able to?

[hbh]

Oh, my mom used to have radiation treatments and she didn't have marks like THAT!!!!

Tweeking whilest Nucleacting them little smokie detectors may be the cause...he gets more done if tweeking while he's doing it cause he moves faster....yeeks...

[blarney]

He looks like Christopher Titus with a really bad case of acne.

[sma]

*singing*:

"Oooo meth....oooo meth, you're the one for me"

[Dee]

Big time Yikes!!

Hilarious comments? Where?

[derric]

This guy must be going through puberty and addicted to meth at the same time...

just when I think Ive seen everything...

[KansasKid]

I read that book. Now I picture him completely differently than what i though... Man thats scary.

[They Caught Me But I Escaped Again]

Looks like a good candidate for ProActiv.

[Mickey Mouse]

I agree with RDM - meth head delux or just had a bad day while shaving. Still looks like he has his teeth, but then again, maybe those are dentures gone awry.

[David Fordham]

Ever read The Stand, by Stephen King??

If this guy does not remind you of Trashcan Man, nobody would.

One freaky dude!

[joblo]

HOLY SHIT! NUCLEAR PIZZAFACE LOOKS LIKE AN ATOM BOMB WENT OFF IN HIS FACE.

[Al Briggs]

Smoke detectors use Americium 241 (Am-241). This radioisotope has a long half-life and is mainly an Alpha emitter. Alpha particles have little penetrating energy and the smoke detectors use AM-241 somewhere in the 1 micro Curi range. Not a real problem.
I would be interested in what was going on with his face though.

[Al Briggs]

TYPO: Curie, not curi

[Jen]

This is too funny because i know this guy, he has always been creepy, he roofied my friends drink when we were 17. He used to live near Mexico Missouri. . . WEIRD

[cloud9ine]

Tam, that sensation of going into labor wen u r not pregnant is called pooping

David Hahn is not a meth addic he looks like that from repeated radiation expose. when he was in high school he obtained various kinds of radioactive materials in diffrent ways. He tried to make a nuclear reactor in his moms potting shed but ie ended up being a box that gave off extreme amounts of radiation which at one point he could pick up with his giger ditector 5 blocks away from the shed. he was cought with the box dismantled in his car and was arrested. the police FBI DPH, EAP and NRC were called to dismantel the shed which now is buried undre ground in a radiocative dumping ground in utah where most of the gov's failed a bomb expirements are and other assorted radioactive expirements are buried. ALL OF THIS INFO IS FROM THE BOOK THE RADIOACTIVE BOY SCOUT

[Chuck]

I served with Mr. Hahn onboard the USS Enterprise in 2001. The kid is the best kind of genius out there, the kind that doesn't rub what they know in your face.

At the age of fifteen, he almost had a functioning breeder reactor, a feat the US government, to this day, struggles getting to work. And he did it with no government funding, no labor help, and having to create alliases and coverstories to obtain the radioactive materials needed.

Instead of encouraging one of the greatest minds of our age, Mr. Hahn has been criminalized and labeled as a danger.

It should have been in the best interest of the government give Mr. Hahn direstion and growth. However when he joined the navy, and was stationed on an aircraft carrier, government agencies did everything possible to keep him from seeing a reactor.

Now the man is in legal trouble for trying to create something you dullards couldn't understand, even if you had four years of formal eduction on the subject.

I understand how people can make comments on anothers appearance over the internet, the ability to never be accountable for one's own words must be a comfort.

But know that the man you all berate is not only a good human being, and an unsung genius, he is also a decorated war hero, giving years of his life to protect your right to belittle him.

So go on and make comments on David's thorium poisoning. I would hate for us to have given up those years in our lives for nothing.

[Greg]

Does anyone know if David's appearance is because of RECENT radiological exposure? Because it has been quite some time now since he was a teenager. It is definitely of interest to authorities when someone is toying with radioactive materials in a non-controlled or regulated environment. It would definitely worry me even if it just experimental purposes. BTW, I grew up in MI and my friends and I thought this guy was a wicked genius back in the day.

[David Mudkips]

To the person that served with DH and thinks that he's some sort of persecuted genius:

This guy is an idiot. I have a lot of respect for intellectual curiosity and daring to take (personal) risks to further a scientific goal.

Fueling one's hobbies with felony theft of smoke detectors... putting the other residents in his apartment building at risk of dying in a fire while simultaneously exposing himself (and possibly others) to dangerous levels of radiation isn't a sign of repressed genius.

It's a sign of an idiot who is:

1. A criminal.
2. Doesn't worry about how his actions put others at risk.
3. Is too intellectually lazy to jump through the hoops required to realize his dreams.

You're right about one thing though: he does need "guidance." In his case, appropriate guidance is several months in a county jail or federal prison.

He didn't wise up after his first bust at age 17. Ten years later and he's still up to the same crap? Stealing smoke detectors?

He came nowhere near building a viable breeder reactor at 17. All he managed to do was scrape together enough Americurium 241 and Radium in one place (mom's shed) to require a Superfund clean-up of his mess, at the taxpayer's expense.

I shudder to think what the consequences would be if this idiot managed to lay his hands on a more dangerous radiological hazard... like a medical therapeutic source.

[crazzzy]

they believe that the sores on his skin was caused by exposure to radioactive materials.
yikes, he could be a future terrorist.

he iz a great man

[daniel]

Read the book the radioactive boyscout. He's not a terrorist. He's an obsessive compulsive tinkerer and brainiac. He can't get enough of thinking. Really it's an amazing book about a pretty amazing kid. All growed up now tho. He needs to get out of the nuclear business.

[Jay Christopher]

ok first of all allow me to set the record straight... i lived about 10 feet
across the hall from david in green valley apts in clinton twnshp mi.
i knew the man, many of people will so readily chastise as a drug addict.
David suffered horribly from delusions I had a confrentation with him at the amoco gas station in mid 2005 where he insisted we (the tenants) were beeming messages into his head using radio waves. Several of us at that point did everything possible to get him admitted the the st. johns physciatric ward to get him the help he needed. I have no doubts that david was a very smart man, also at the ripe age of 14 i dont think he understood the ramifications of building that device. We even had gone as far as to have the front office call his father to assist in our efforts. The front office made the discovery of the smoke alarms only after someone lead them to a website detailing davids exploits in building his first reactor. Yet still no help he was sentenced to 6 months in mcj. So please though i would not consider myself a friend of davids' i know that he was sick and should be left alone.

[Fudge]

He got half his face burned off when he was 17 and tried to build a breeder reactor (which gave off huge amounts of radiation but didn't work). He was arrested and then released, but backed out at the last minute when offered a scan to see how much radiation he had taken in.

[??]

@Jay Christopher:
The book I read didn't mention him living in an apartment at all, but said he didn't earn enough money to move out of his parent's house.

[Nunya]

To the person who served with Dave- here's some advice that could serve you well in the future. Don't belive everything someone tells you or that you here!

[Camilla Jasperssen]

I would love to speak with David to make up my own mind. It is easy to poke fun at people.

I would like to hear about his project and his ambitions, I would do this without criticism.