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Rockwall man
A Rockwall man's attempt to build a small version of a nuclear reactor in his house drew the attention of federal nuclear investigators.

Rockwall Man Tries To Build Nuclear Reactor In Home

POSTED: 12:05 am CST January 10, 2008
UPDATED: 12:36 am CST January 10, 2008

The FBI said it does not plan to file criminal charges against a Rockwall man who tried to build a small version of a nuclear reactor in his house.


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The man's experiment drew the attention of federal nuclear investigators. Federal investigators searched his home, but said there was no cause for concern.

The man's family asked NBC 5 not to use his name.

The man is an out-of-work computer whiz who redesigns video games. He said he started studying physics around the eighth grade. He said he is a science buff who is fascinated by nuclear reactions and radiation.

"These things are in your tap water, you know, in the dirt," he said. "You could hold a Geiger counter up to a banana and get a count off of it."

He said he has always been curious about how things work and likes to do his own experiments.

The man decided to create a small-scale nuclear reaction in the same room he plays his video games as his latest experiment.

"People do it in universities all the time," he said. "It's just not usual that somebody does it outside of a university."

Someone alerted federal investigators after he blogged about possessing uranium and wrote that the background radiation in his home had doubled.

Rockwall police, the FBI, and officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission showed up unannounced at his home early Friday morning.

"They're just doing their job," the man said. "That's their job to come and check on stuff like that. When they left, it had been deemed that, you know, everything was within reason."

He said he doesn't plan on doing any more similar experiments.

"I think I'll keep it cool for awhile," he said.

Federal investigators said they found slightly elevated levels of radiation in the house but nothing considered dangerous. They removed the man's experiment at his parents' request.

The FBI said the agency considers the case closed.

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