Power On Self Test: Tickling the dragon's tail

I remember reading a story about Louis Slotin's accident when I was a kid. The photo is just like the scene I had in my mind. Except I always imagined him wearing a white lab coat.

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#4 posted by Joel Johnson

, April 29, 2008 6:51 AM

I stand somewhat corrected! Either way: what the fuck were these guys thinking?

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#5 posted by Jake0748 , April 29, 2008 7:09 AM

Cool post Joel, but why are you working? I thought you were on vacation. :)

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#6 posted by dolface , April 29, 2008 7:49 AM

@Jake0748, I think read that story too, it was in a collection of stories (something having to do with courage) about people who did crazy/brave stuff that saved other people from a) dying or b) having to do something unpleasant.

Wish I could remember what the book was called...

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#7 posted by Chris Brewer , April 29, 2008 12:28 PM

Fat Man and Little Boy had a 'recreation' of the accident (if I recall the film correctly, it seems like it was a combination of the two accidents described in the Wikipedia link). It was John Cusak's character, Michael Merriman, who slipped and he physically removed the hemisphere.

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#8 posted by Gainclone , April 29, 2008 12:59 PM

lol,

china syndrome

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#9 posted by Tom , April 29, 2008 2:47 PM

The linked article is slightly misleading, as it says the core gave off a powerful burst of ionizing radiation (mostly gamma rays) which is certainly true. But IIRC the gammas weren't what killed people, it was the neutrons, which are not normally considered ionizing. They do produce ionizing radiation, but via secondary effects after spallation or neutron capture.

These incidents are amongst the very few cases where we have data on acute neutron radiation poisoning with dose estimates that are more reliable than the data from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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#10 posted by morehumanthanhuman , April 29, 2008 4:22 PM

6.2 kilograms of pure evil.

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#11 posted by Haroun , April 29, 2008 6:42 PM

The New Yorker had an article about 10 years ago about the second accident & the usefulness of the injuries sustained by the men present in studying what happens when you expose someone to high levels of radiation.
As far as what were they thinking, it was probably much the same as any of the folks over at Instructables, just with much more dangerous stuff. These ideas & this stuff was all so new & so rare & expensive, not to mention just plain interesting from a physics point of view, they were experimenting/playing with it.
Evil, in a sense, perhaps even more fascinating, in another sense.

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#12 posted by Jake0748 , April 29, 2008 7:18 PM

@6 Dolface - Yes, I remember reading the story in Jr. High English class. And it was in a book of short stories. For some reason the images in the story stuck with me, and I also would like to know the name of the book or the story at least.

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#13 posted by Anonymous , April 30, 2008 9:21 AM

So close to his crotch, too! OUCH!

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#14 posted by woolie , May 2, 2008 10:05 AM

sigh, I knew exactly what this was the moment I saw the image. I need to get outside more.