Tale of the Radioactive Boy Scout
"These are conditions that regulations never envision," says Dave Minnaar, radiological expert with Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality. "It's simply presumed that the average person wouldn't have the technology or materials required to experiment in these areas."
Read the account, which happened way back in 1995. A Brilliant teenager’s step-by-step journey toward a working nuclear reactor.
Whoa.
I also found this note very interesting:
Note: This article is being reprinted here as an example of what NOT to do with radioactive materials. Please do NOT attempt to recreate any part of these experiments for the following reasons:
You will most likely poison yourself and/or others
Nobody really needs an unsafe homemade reactor (especially one made of duct tape and foil)
If enough people try these dangerous experiments, the government will try to outlaw any sort of legitimate private experiments with radioactivity or possession of any radioactive minerals or materials (thus spoiling all of our fun).
Fun?