The True Story of The Demon Core

in 1946 a p-239 plutonium core scheduled for detonation by nuclear bomb was harmlessly melted down and reintegrated into the united states as nuclear stockpile that was the end of a 14-pound metallic sphere that had killed two scientists not 11 months before this is the true story of the demon core the spheres of atomic material that had obliterated the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki would have easily fit in your hand and they were light enough to carry because of the extreme levels of radiation coming from them the cores were carried around in secure containers but curious physicists reported that the cores were disturbingly warm to the touch both the little boy and fat man nuclear bombs used sub-critical masses of uranium and plutonium respectively meaning that no self-sustaining nuclear reaction would be possible with the spheres alone and the nickel plating that covered them would prevent most of the escaping radiation from harming you the real harm comes later the terrible explosions that little boy and fat man are famous for only happen when a nuclear core goes critical using directed conventional explosives to artificially induce a critical mass this meant literally compressing a plutonium or uranium sphere into a much smaller volume with explosions now neutrons emitted from natural radioactivity would be much more likely to go on and impact other atoms before escaping leading to a chain reaction of exponentially more and more atoms releasing tremendous energy at the heart of an atomic blast is a radioactive core filled with atoms poised like rat traps all the bomb itself does is force one of those traps to snap the so-called demon core was the third core of fissionable nuclear material made during the world war ii era it was also supposed to be dropped on japan but after the empire's prompt surrender following the obliteration of nagasaki the corps had no immediate military use instead a physicist working at the los alamos national laboratory in new mexico after the war decided to use the remaining core to figure out just what it takes to make a core like this go critical when otto robert frisch first arrived in the united states he was placed at los alamos to study neutron multiplication in uranium and plutonium these elements naturally radiate neutrons in the process of nuclear decay and as we said if there is enough of the radioactive element close enough together these neutrons can go on to cause the rat trap style reaction as neutrons slam more neutrons free from other atoms however there is another way to force criticality other than just having a giant sphere of plutonium which would be hard to make it turns out that if you use a very thick material to reflect neutrons coming out of the material back upon itself like a mirror would a self-sustaining reaction can occur with substantially less plutonium or uranium even though an explosion might not happen after criticality is reached in all cases a deadly blast of radiation certainly could and that's exactly what happened by 1944 frisch was leading the critical assembly group at los alamos and started a dangerous series of near criticality testing the physicists in the group wanted to use neutron reflective materials around spheres of plutonium and uranium to see just how close they could get to going critical without explosives and without going over the edge commenting on the inherent risk of experiments of this kind legendary physicist richard feynman reportedly said that the experiments were like quote tickling the tail of a sleeping dragon end quote but even with the very real possibility of being roasted alive by the radioactive fire of a failed criticality test the tickling the dragon's tail experiments continued within two years neutron reflection experiments on the demon core would claim the lives of two scientists harry k dogley and junior and lewis slaughten in almost the exact same way [Music] on august 21st 1945 harry k dogley and junior was conducting a criticality experiment with the demon core he was placing tungsten carbide bricks around the mass of plutonium to see how many bricks and in what orientation it would take to reflect enough neutrons to cause the core to go critical that afternoon using a geiger counter like device to measure the radiation coming off of the plutonium he got close enough to criticality that he decided to end the experiment now this result should have been worth just a few graphite streaks in a notebook and maybe a beer at the local bar with the other physicists but doglion was curious later that night he returned alone to his assembly for another test like the test before doglion created an orientation of bricks that his measuring device told him was nearly critical as he was placing one last brick the measuring device indicated that the core would go critical if he continued on the assembly the dragon would wake up so cautiously he began removing the final brick and then he dropped it the moment the brick hit the assembly the demon core instantly went super critical and according to dogley and there was a blast of blue light and a wave of heat doglien reacted quickly though and used his right hand to knock the drop brick all the way to the floor in those fractions of a second harry had received a fatal dose of radiation in fact he had endured what was likely the highest acute dose of radiation of any human in history 25 days later doglion fell into a coma and died from organ failure owing to severe radiation poisoning this photo taken nine days after the accident by medical staff is of the hand that harry had used to stop the demon core he was 24. harry wasn't completely alone and experimenting in the lab that night a security guard private robert j hemerly was also sitting at his desk next to dogly and reading his newspaper hemerly died 33 years after dogley and junior from what is now considered to be radiation caused leukemia he was 29 and the father of two at the time of exposure harry k dogley and junior was the first official fatality from a criticality accident in the first american casualty of the atomic age he had arranged to have his body donated to science after his inevitable end so that scientists could study the effects of radiation exposure on the human body during the 25 days after his fatal mistake doglion's colleague louis slaughten spent many hours at his bedside comforting the 24 year old as radiation poisoning slowly claimed him exactly seven months later in the same hospital lewis slaughten would suffer the exact same fate by 1946 physicist louis slaughten had taken over the critical assembly group from frisch though the criticality experiments were moved from the omega site at los alamos to the palajito laboratory the dangerous nature of the experiments did not change in addition to feynman's continued warnings physicist enrico fermi said that quote keep doing that experiment that way and you'll be dead within a year but lewis slaughten wasn't worried and the experiments continued on may 21 1946 slaughten was conducting another criticality experiment with the demon core this time though instead of using tungsten bricks slotten was testing the critical point of the core by placing it inside two half spheres made of beryllium and lowering those halves until there was just a sliver of space before the sphere was complete if the core was completely enclosed the reflection of neutrons would be total and the dragon would wake again the local expert among experts slaughten was reportedly brash in his experimental protocols in his signature pair of blue jeans and cowboy boots slotten would perform the criticality tests without the fail-safe spacers that would sit on the half spheres and keep it from ever completely closing instead he would put his bare hand on the top half sphere and attempt to lower it using only the blade of a flathead screwdriver that way he could get much closer to criticality and slotten had successfully completed this experiment dozens of times the afternoon of the accident lewis slaughten was conducting the same screwdriver experiment as seven other colleagues recorded and watched it was just like the test before but for whatever reason this time the screwdriver slipped the moment the spheres touched the demon core went prompt critical the reflected neutrons coming from the plutonium inside the sphere instantly initiated supercriticality like the doglian accident there was a flash of blue light and a wave of the dragon's heat before slotten could flip the top half sphere off of the assembly naturally the seven other scientists in the room ran out as fast as they could as the accident occurred but slotten shouted them all to get back and toss them a stick of chalk he told them each to mark down precisely where they were standing by establishing their positions relative to the demon core slotten would be able to calculate just how much radiation each person had just absorbed and how much their lives had just been shortened according to physicist ramer schreiber who was present in the room with slotten that day slaughten's first words immediately after the incident were quote well that does it lewis slaughten died of severe radiation poisoning nine days later at the age of 35. he died in the same hospital as harry dogly and junior on another tuesday the 21st as a result of the same accident with the same hunk of radioactive material they even were cared for by the same nurse the demonstration that day was supposed to be the final demonstration with the core before it was used in a test detonation and it was in those few moments lewis slaughten had been exposed to over 1 000 rads of radiation from the neutrons and gamma rays blasting out of the demon core this is possibly the highest dose of radiation any human has ever taken as a comparison one thousand meters from ground zero in hiroshima the neutron radiation was measured as less than half of what slotten had absorbed in those fractions of a second since 1945 over 60 criticality accidents have been recorded leading to at least 21 deaths in facilities and labs all around the world the flash of blue light that so often accompanies these incidents is an indication of the invisible radiation being released as high energy particles crash through the air like these particles exiting a cyclotron they excite the air molecules the only way for these molecules to return to a lower energy state is to release some radiation of their own photons of light but while gases can absorb and re-emit the energy imparted to it by nuclear material human bodies cannot instead particles and gamma rays flying out of the nuclear cores rip electrons from the molecules that make you up and smash your cellular machinery beyond repair when enough molecular damage is done radiation sickness can manifest itself as everything from vomiting and diarrhea to blisters inflammation impair cognition widespread organ failure confusion nausea high fever dizziness five weeks later on july 1 1946 a different nuclear core was destroyed in a 23 kiloton air deployed nuclear weapon over bikini atoll it was supposed to be the end of the demon core instead the demon core was melted down and redistributed throughout the rest of the united states stockpile effectively getting a brand new half-life until next time yeah story time with kyle's a little serious huh thank you so much the very nerdy staff at the facility for the direct and substantial support in the creation of this here video today especially i want to recognize research assistant roy don houghton who's definitely not a pokemon and visiting scholar max concurrent maximum at the same time is what your parents should have named you if you want to join the facility if you want to get a lab coat get on the staff you want to talk to me in our discord give me episode ideas get episodes early join our magic the gathering league dnd nights all this great nerdy stuff you can join at patreon.com kyle hill right now and if you support the facility just enough get your name on ra here each and every week as you can see there's literally hundreds and hundreds of you so i don't know how i'm going to pass the yeah yeah it's not fun these accidents and their stories as i've been saying for weeks you know my thoughts on nuclear weapons they're terrible terribly destructive i don't think we should ever use them i don't think we should even have them if you want to know more of my thoughts you can go to the end of history video back on the channel and look i could lighten the mood here with some hey spun kyle science guy factoid but i'm not going to okay i could tell you that according to a recent study platypuses are fluorescent but i want you to i wouldn't say that i want you to sit here and think about it i wouldn't say anything ridiculous like that about platypus thanks for watching

Channel: Kyle Hill

Views: 5,492,988

Rating: 4.95397 out of 5

Keywords: because science, engineering, kyle hill, learning, math, physics, science, stem, the facility, demon core, los alamos, the demon core, nuclear, manhattan project, louis slotin, harry daghlian, fat man and little boy, documentary, nuclear bomb, atomic bomb, nuclear weapons, los alamos national laboratory, atom bomb, true scary stories

Id: aFlromB6SnU

Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/magentrypoogas]

Well,.. that does it

[u/EDI-Thor]

Great video!

[u/TechnoL33T]

Surprised pikachu