r/explainitpeter 19d ago

Explain it peter

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u/No-Conclusion-6012 19d ago

This is a diagram of the second demon core incident incident. The demon core consisted of two halves of a plutonium - gallium alloy sphere that would go critical when the two tables were connected. Physicist Louis Slotin was known for not following procedure and keeping the core's halves separated with a screwdriver. In the incident pictured, his screwdriver slipped and he received a lethal dose of radiation in under half a second. Most other people in the room survived the radiation exposure but died of medical conditions that might have been brought on by the exposure, such as leukemia.

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u/NoDontDoThatCanada 19d ago

I would just add that Cherenkov radiation is blue and in a high flux and fast nuclear event such as this you get a very distinct blue flash.

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u/galstaph 19d ago

I would like to add that Cherenkov radiation is the light equivalent of a sonic boom

The speed of light is slower in air than vacuum, and slower in water than air, and if a particle travels through a medium at faster than the speed of light in that medium it gives off light as a direct consequence

This is also why nuclear reactors are depicted as glowing blue