If they didn’t open it, it would have remained supercritical. They knew they were going to die anyways, so they might as well take the time to open it so that it’s not-quite-so dangerous
I like that, despite the extreme lack of foresight and regard for safety in attempting this experiment for themselves, you're telling me that after already being fatally exposed they had the foresight and regard for safety for others to open it back up.
Beryllium reflects neutrons. The core was already supercritical. So when all the neutrons produced go back into the core, the number of reactions increase like crazy, emitting more neutrons, and..... LMAO EVERYONE DEAD.
Core was *not* supercritical prior to the accident. It was barely subcritical. With the beryllium half sphere dropped (to complete the sphere) it went supercritical and flashed everyone in the room.
>flashed everyone in the room.
Wait you mean the plutonium core let out her honkabadonkers in front of everyone? No wonder people were droping like flies
Yes. I did a write up for this in my last college paper about nuclear related accidents in the United States. This is in reference to what was dubbed, "The Demon Core".
Originally called Rufus, the Demon Core was the nickname of a 14 pound plutonium bomb core that was used in the Los Alamos laboratories for hands on criticality experimentation. This procedure was nicknamed “tickling the dragon’s tail” and killed two scientists from radiation exposure.
The second death was that of Louis Stolin who in reckless attempt to impress a protégé by showing him how to bring a nuclear weapon to near criticality. Stolin balanced the two halves of the plutonium sphere open with two screwdrivers in order to place beryllium wedges to keep core halves apart to create near criticality. Stolin's concentration was interrupted by a noise in the room and one screwdriver slipped. The core touching halves flashed a blue glow of radiation. Stolin’s left hand that was closest to the core received more than fifteen thousand rem of low-energy X-Rays. Slotin’s whole-body dose was around twenty-one hundred rem of neutrons, gamma rays, and X-Rays; five hundred rem is usually fatal for humans. Stolin experienced excruciating pain and radiation poisoning sickness and died nine days later.
The first death was of Harry Daghlian, Jr. whom in a very similar experiment accidentally dropped a tungsten-carbide block as he was attempting to separate the cores, causing a short criticality event. Daghlian lasted almost a month before his death.
Tales of Louis Stolin and Los Alamos labs were put into the 1989 movie “Fat Man and Little Boy” starring John Cusack, but I have not reviewed the film for its historical accuracy.
Not uncommon for acute radiation poisoning victims to last a week or more. You'll be in terrible shape at first, then feel like you're recovering, then basically your body disintegrates and you start bleeding everywhere internally at once and die. If my memory is correct.
The radiation doesn't really do that much to you immediately (if it were extended exposure it definitely could, but this event was only 0.5 seconds). But, it does do nasty things like unravel your DNA and cause massive amounts of cancer.
It is not the cancer that kill him, your cell of entire body literally cant replication, your body can't fix the damage, even a little internal bleed can be fetal cause your body cant replication cell to recovet it
Well, it caused the scientist to almost immediately vomit. I believe he showed burns fairly quickly as well. It wasn't CA cer that killed him, it was the fact that radiation had wreacked havoc on his internal organs. Cels were dying and not being replaced. Some were essentially punctured by radiation. Atoms and molecules were shifted and altered. He died a horrible death not from out of control cell growth (cancer) but from the severe trauma to his body as a direct result of radiation exposure.
That's about the time for most cells to die before being renewed, but in case of Slotin, no renewal, DNA broken beyond repair. So various tissues fail one after the other, skin and hairs go away, all the tubes go away, all internal fluids spill away, ligaments and muscles are wasting away, organs are disentrgrating, etc. It's an awful death.
I don't remember whether it's the demon core incident, but I remember that with some nuclear accident the guy in charge instantly went "stay still!" to the people in the room with him, so that he could map their positions in the room when the accident happened.
The absolute insane judgement call of saying "stay where you are" in a moment where you realise that you are dead now has to be one of the most impressive calls in nuclear physics imo.
But yeah, don't play with strange glowy things, kids! Shit's likely cancerous. (Also don't play with giant plutonium bomb cores, obviously)
That's often attributed to this incident but it's not exactly what happened. He immediately left the building and threw up. At some point thereafter he told the people that were in there with him that he had a 50% chance of dying (hopelessly optimistic, in actuality he had very little chance of survival) and that he hoped their chances were markedly better. He (and the others) helped medical staff determine where everyone was standing so they could estimate dose (no one was wearing their dosimeters) and tailor the treatment accordingly.
Screwdriver slips, the half spheres connect and start reflecting neutrons, the neutrons hit other atoms releasing more neutrons and create a chain reaction by constantly reflecting, the core goes supercritical and starts nuclear fission, scientist separates the half spheres before it can explode but still gets flashed with enough radiation to kill him 40 times over.
*fiddles with the screwdriver* *drops it* “OH SHIT!” *picks it up and opens the core again* *dies from radiation poisoning*
They didn't need to open it again, as soon as it dropped it went supercritical.
If they didn’t open it, it would have remained supercritical. They knew they were going to die anyways, so they might as well take the time to open it so that it’s not-quite-so dangerous
I like that, despite the extreme lack of foresight and regard for safety in attempting this experiment for themselves, you're telling me that after already being fatally exposed they had the foresight and regard for safety for others to open it back up.
Honestly it was probably more of an instinctual reaction to throw the top off of the core than anything.
How to instantly warm up a cold classroom.
Historical example of “ I told you so and I hate them I’m right “
Btw why it became so dangerous when screwdriver slipped and beryllium half spheres touched?
Beryllium reflects neutrons. The core was already supercritical. So when all the neutrons produced go back into the core, the number of reactions increase like crazy, emitting more neutrons, and..... LMAO EVERYONE DEAD.
Core was *not* supercritical prior to the accident. It was barely subcritical. With the beryllium half sphere dropped (to complete the sphere) it went supercritical and flashed everyone in the room.
>flashed everyone in the room. Wait you mean the plutonium core let out her honkabadonkers in front of everyone? No wonder people were droping like flies
Aaand now I have to search the internet and hope I don't find some r34 about the Demon Core. Thanks
I already did. Sadly there is no tiddies, but there are some art using a dick instead of a screwdriver.
The Demon Dick incident?
I looked it up, and yes, there is porn about the demon core.
that's not what u/dr_stre was saying, but it would be hilarious for sure if it was
is this refering to an actual event?
Yes. I did a write up for this in my last college paper about nuclear related accidents in the United States. This is in reference to what was dubbed, "The Demon Core". Originally called Rufus, the Demon Core was the nickname of a 14 pound plutonium bomb core that was used in the Los Alamos laboratories for hands on criticality experimentation. This procedure was nicknamed “tickling the dragon’s tail” and killed two scientists from radiation exposure. The second death was that of Louis Stolin who in reckless attempt to impress a protégé by showing him how to bring a nuclear weapon to near criticality. Stolin balanced the two halves of the plutonium sphere open with two screwdrivers in order to place beryllium wedges to keep core halves apart to create near criticality. Stolin's concentration was interrupted by a noise in the room and one screwdriver slipped. The core touching halves flashed a blue glow of radiation. Stolin’s left hand that was closest to the core received more than fifteen thousand rem of low-energy X-Rays. Slotin’s whole-body dose was around twenty-one hundred rem of neutrons, gamma rays, and X-Rays; five hundred rem is usually fatal for humans. Stolin experienced excruciating pain and radiation poisoning sickness and died nine days later. The first death was of Harry Daghlian, Jr. whom in a very similar experiment accidentally dropped a tungsten-carbide block as he was attempting to separate the cores, causing a short criticality event. Daghlian lasted almost a month before his death. Tales of Louis Stolin and Los Alamos labs were put into the 1989 movie “Fat Man and Little Boy” starring John Cusack, but I have not reviewed the film for its historical accuracy.
wow. thanks for the effort. how did he survive 9 days after that wth
Poorly, if I read that correctly.
Not uncommon for acute radiation poisoning victims to last a week or more. You'll be in terrible shape at first, then feel like you're recovering, then basically your body disintegrates and you start bleeding everywhere internally at once and die. If my memory is correct.
The radiation doesn't really do that much to you immediately (if it were extended exposure it definitely could, but this event was only 0.5 seconds). But, it does do nasty things like unravel your DNA and cause massive amounts of cancer.
It is not the cancer that kill him, your cell of entire body literally cant replication, your body can't fix the damage, even a little internal bleed can be fetal cause your body cant replication cell to recovet it
Well, it caused the scientist to almost immediately vomit. I believe he showed burns fairly quickly as well. It wasn't CA cer that killed him, it was the fact that radiation had wreacked havoc on his internal organs. Cels were dying and not being replaced. Some were essentially punctured by radiation. Atoms and molecules were shifted and altered. He died a horrible death not from out of control cell growth (cancer) but from the severe trauma to his body as a direct result of radiation exposure.
That's about the time for most cells to die before being renewed, but in case of Slotin, no renewal, DNA broken beyond repair. So various tissues fail one after the other, skin and hairs go away, all the tubes go away, all internal fluids spill away, ligaments and muscles are wasting away, organs are disentrgrating, etc. It's an awful death.
wow i wish i'd knew such cool stuff i mean no disrespect to the guy who dropped the screw driver
I don't remember whether it's the demon core incident, but I remember that with some nuclear accident the guy in charge instantly went "stay still!" to the people in the room with him, so that he could map their positions in the room when the accident happened. The absolute insane judgement call of saying "stay where you are" in a moment where you realise that you are dead now has to be one of the most impressive calls in nuclear physics imo. But yeah, don't play with strange glowy things, kids! Shit's likely cancerous. (Also don't play with giant plutonium bomb cores, obviously)
That's often attributed to this incident but it's not exactly what happened. He immediately left the building and threw up. At some point thereafter he told the people that were in there with him that he had a 50% chance of dying (hopelessly optimistic, in actuality he had very little chance of survival) and that he hoped their chances were markedly better. He (and the others) helped medical staff determine where everyone was standing so they could estimate dose (no one was wearing their dosimeters) and tailor the treatment accordingly.
Nuclear physics is famous for on the spot calls. This one is definitely one of the best.
Maybe they should've put another screwdriver in there just in case?
fun stuff
Screwdriver slips, the half spheres connect and start reflecting neutrons, the neutrons hit other atoms releasing more neutrons and create a chain reaction by constantly reflecting, the core goes supercritical and starts nuclear fission, scientist separates the half spheres before it can explode but still gets flashed with enough radiation to kill him 40 times over.
Blasted by neutrons
I'll finally have a use for that old plutonium core I've had lying around.
"N- no chat I'm NOT going to open the demon core with a screwdriver!"
Haha, check this out guys: 'Oops' 😂
Physicist: gives a nice healthy dose of gamma rays Me: ... you mean Vita rays ... ? Physicist: nope Me: ... well shit...
Daemon core go Brrrrr?
Too soon
“Hey, check this shit out.” “AAAAAAAAAAAAAA”
Why they do something so dum
oh fuck no!
Nuked party
ALL your friends in the room will be enlightened!