00:00Did you know a 17-year-old boy built a working nuclear reactor in his mom's backyard shed?
00:05His name was David Hahn, Eagle Scout, honor student, suburban Michigan, 1994.
00:11He wanted to earn a nuclear science merit badge, so he started collecting radioactive material.
00:17He dismantled hundreds of smoke detectors. He bought old, radium-painted watches.
00:22He extracted radioactive thorium from camping lantern mantles.
00:25He did all of this alone, in a small potting shed, while his neighbors mowed their lawns 20 feet away.
00:32When authorities finally discovered what he had built, they called the EPA.
00:36Hazmat teams arrived in full protective suits.
00:39They dismantled the shed piece by piece and classified the entire property as a Superfund cleanup site.
00:45Nobody in the neighborhood had known, but the story doesn't end with the cleanup.
00:49By 2007, David was arrested for stealing smoke detectors again.
00:53His mug shot showed radiation burns spreading across his face and open sores.
00:58He died at 39.
00:59A kid who just wanted a merit badge poisoned himself slowly over 20 years.
01:04And the system let it happen the whole time.
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