The Radioactive Boy Scout: When a teenager attempts to build a breeder reactor (harpers.org)

There is a book about this incident by the same title. It's been so long since I've read it that I don't remember if it was any good.

I got my atomic energy merit badge as a teen, though I was content to make my model reactor out of K'Nex.

David, the lad in this tale, has since been diagnosed with mental illness and arrested for stealing smoke detectors.

Sadly, things didn't turn out as well as they could have for someone with so much drive.