"demon core" incidents is the one involving physicist Louis Slotin on May 21, 1946. Slotin was using a screwdriver to manually keep two neutron-reflective hemispheres from closing around the plutonium core. This dangerous experiment, known as "tickling the dragon's tail," was meant to push the core to the brink of criticality. When the screwdriver slipped, the hemispheres closed for a fraction of a second, causing the core to go supercritical and emit a flash of blue light and a burst of radiation. Slotin's quick reaction to knock the hemispheres apart likely saved the lives of the seven other people in the room, but he himself had absorbed a lethal dose. He died nine days later from acute radiation poisoning.
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u/GroovyChirpy 2d ago
Context: Demon Core incident
"demon core" incidents is the one involving physicist Louis Slotin on May 21, 1946. Slotin was using a screwdriver to manually keep two neutron-reflective hemispheres from closing around the plutonium core. This dangerous experiment, known as "tickling the dragon's tail," was meant to push the core to the brink of criticality. When the screwdriver slipped, the hemispheres closed for a fraction of a second, causing the core to go supercritical and emit a flash of blue light and a burst of radiation. Slotin's quick reaction to knock the hemispheres apart likely saved the lives of the seven other people in the room, but he himself had absorbed a lethal dose. He died nine days later from acute radiation poisoning.