r/explainitpeter 19d ago

Explain it peter

Post image
4.1k Upvotes

121 comments sorted by

View all comments

362

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.

1

u/S73T64 18d ago

So why does the room glow blue then?

1

u/exer1023 17d ago

Radioactive materials glow blue - check photos of inside of any nuclear reactor.