The Demon Core

[Shannow]

Learned about this today, the "demon core", a piece of Plutonium that the physicists were playing with in the Manhattan Project.

Playing is not too far from the truth, "tickling the dragon's tail" by bringing the orb closer and closer to criticality. Supposed to have safety shims in to act as a safety stop, but balanced on edge of screwdrivers instead.

Recreation of one of the incidents here.



Nickname "Demon Core" because it bit more then one party.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core

 

[john_pifer]

complacency killed him. Criticality incident with the same core killed another guy as well, at a later date.

Check out the photos on this page showing the damage to metal support rods just from an intense radiation release:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident

 

[Anduril]

Did anyone else think of this upon reading the topic "Demon Core?"

 

[Garak]

Complacency might have been an issue, but we must not forget that these guys were the pioneers in the field. Today, there are decades worth of knowledge backed by such mistakes, and some pretty impressive security and safety procedures that wouldn't have even occurred to people at the time.

Additionally, not everyone is good in the lab, but they need to understand that themselves. There is a reason I've stayed away from the lab as much as is possible and stuck with theory and mathematics. What's the saying - one lab accident away from becoming a super villain?

I wasn't the clutziest person in the lab by far. However, back in my student days, I preferred harassing chemistry grad students over their lack of mathematical skills, rather than getting harassed by them for being oblivious to safety procedures. The last thing I need my hands on is plutonium.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: john_pifer
complacency killed him. Criticality incident with the same core killed another guy as well, at a later date.

Check out the photos on this page showing the damage to metal support rods just from an intense radiation release:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident


Agree with both yourself and Garak here...these guys were learning their way all the way.

Fermi on the pile had my head spinning when that was year 12 physics...

Like our safety officer pointed out, an "incident" requires all the holes in all the cheese slices to align. My take is that the biggest hole is usually somebody taking something for granted.

I remember the Japanese criticality at the time...interesting that their "blue flash" could have been from radiation interacting with their eye fluid.

 

[WyrTwister]

Originally Posted By: john_pifer
complacency killed him. Criticality incident with the same core killed another guy as well, at a later date.

Check out the photos on this page showing the damage to metal support rods just from an intense radiation release:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident



Cranio-Rectamus disease .

 

[Jarlaxle]

Did you dredge up this 5-year-old fossil for any actual REASON?

 

[Garak]

Yes, I brought it up the topic in the GTL Base Oils thread, and then Shannow pointed to this thread, since WyrTwister was interested in some more information. By the way, time flies. I can't believe this was five years ago already.

 

[dave1251]

Oh one of the core studies in the CBRN course is from this and a few other Radiological incidents. If there is a way to foul something up humanity will find a way.

 

[PandaBear]

100 years from now people would look at our generation's reactors and ask us What the heck are we thinking in terms of safety department.

Hope we don't have another incident, but knowing humanity, we'll screw it up again and again, in different forms.