By Stevie Smith Jan 11, 2008, 6:54 GMT
FBI agents in Rockwall, Texas have this week prevented an out of work computer whiz who ‘redesigns’ videogames (*cough*) from finishing a personal home-based project that would have seen his life bolstered by a small nuclear reactor.
Rockwall gamer builds an at-home nuclear reactor. Credit: NBC5i.
Federal nuclear investigators were alerted to the man’s activities after he blogged about possessing uranium and outlined that levels of radiation had doubled in his family home as a result of his experimental progress.
As a result, members of the Rockwall police, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission arrived at the man’s home early on Friday to search the property.
After removing the project experiment and conducting a thorough search of the house, investigators said that while radiation levels were indeed up, they were still within safety parameters and posed no threat.
The man, who has not been named, revealed to NBC5i that he studies physics and is a science buff who enjoys carrying out his own experiments. With regard to creating something as potentially dangerous as a nuclear reactor, the man conceded that while similar experiments are regularly performed in universities “it’s just not usual that somebody does it outside of a university.”
“They're just doing their job," he added regarding the early morning visit of various authorities. "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."
Reassuringly, the Rockwall resident maintains that he has no plans to pursue any other nuclear projects in the immediate future. According to the FBI, no charges will be brought and the case is now closed.
Interestingly, the NBC5i video report shows the man playing a first-person shooter while sat at his computer - not looking over information pertinent to nuclear reactors. Yet another journalistic swipe at videogames being in some way responsible for any and all forms of social deviancy.
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