It is an interesting read. Many of the early steps taken seem plausible, but
the article ends by implying that he had created a "reactor" that had an
increasing level of radioactivity. The article claims that radiation was
detectable five houses away with a Geiger counter. I don't doubt that one could
make quite a mess with the materials said to have been collected, but I would
love to read an experts analysis about what reactions and how many nuclear
reactions were actually involved.
That article also lead to a couple of Web pages of interest to the smoke
detector discussion. A photo of the source in a smoke detector is given at:
howstuffworks.com/inside-smoke.htm
and a fact sheet on americium in smoke detectors is given at:
www.uic.com.au/nip35.htm
The fact sheet says that the americium is in the form of AmO_2 and that 1 gram
of the oxide makes about 5000 detectors. The sheet says that since it is in the
oxide form and therefore not soluable in the body, the small amount is not an
ingestion hazard. It doesn't discuss possible inhalation hazards. The fact
sheet is at the web site of an Australian company called the Uranium Information
Centre, which appears to be supporting the Australian uranium industry, but
which I know nothing else about.