3 ms·
Those are only the confirmed criticality incidents -- there have been "near misses" by just plain idiocy in storing plutonium, including a US nightmare where th
by mikeyouse 4y ago
Those are only the confirmed criticality incidents -- there have been "near misses" by just plain idiocy in storing plutonium, including a US nightmare where they decided to gather a bunch of rods together to take a picture of them all in frame.
https://www.science.org/content/article/near-disaster-federal-nuclear-weapons-laboratory-takes-hidden-toll-america-s-arsenal https://www.science.org/content/article/near-disaster-federa...
- SlickNixon 4y agoI think the main source of confusion is here is that the original author said "weapons", which about half of commentators have taken to mean weapons/warheads and half have taken to mean nuclear material of any variety.
- mikeyouse 4y agoYeah that's a fair point -- it's unlikely for pits to ever achieve accidental criticality given their design and setting. Much less so for plutonium in general which you'd likely have to deal with anywhere you have a bunch of warheads hanging out.