5 ms·
What if two people walk down the hall doing the same thing in different directions? ... Oh I forgot my slide rule ... !#FLASH#! ... what was that!? Oh shit. Ha
by tomxor 4y ago
What if two people walk down the hall doing the same thing in different directions? ... Oh I forgot my slide rule ... !#FLASH#! ... what was that!? Oh shit.
Half joking. Is the material and spatial separation of a lab coat enough to prevent a reaction between two lumps of plutonium of sufficient combined critical mass? It might be since it's so bad at penetrating anything solid, but I don't know.
- eximius 4y agoConsidering the original demon cores were held apart by a screw driver, the answer is technically yes. It's still a horrifyingly unsafe thing to do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core#/media/File:Tickling_the_Dragons_Tail.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core#/media/File:Ticklin...
- kennethrc 4y agoThe Hollywood version of events: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ0P7R9CfCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ0P7R9CfCY
- earlyam 4y agoFurther reading: 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...
- closewith 4y agoTechnically, it was the neutron reflecting sphere was was held apart by a screwdriver.
- bombcar 4y agoRemember the demon core thing happened more than once, too.
- raverbashing 4y agoGood thinking. One of the things modern "computing practices" taught us is the myriad of ways things can go wrong, they were probably a bit more naive at that time It's Murphy's law squared
- slackdog 4y ago> It might be since it's so bad at penetrating anything solid This isn't the case! Plutonium 239 is relatively safe, merely an alpha emitter which is what you're talking about. But that isn't where the danger comes from. The danger comes from the Plutonium 240, which is present as a contaminant in all plutonium weapons cores. Plutonium 240 spontaneously undergoes fission, releasing neutron radiation which is very penetrating. If you bring two halves of a core together, neutrons from the spontaneous fusion of Pu-240 can cause a chain reaction; this is the reason gun-type bombs don't work with Plutonium cores; they give off too much neutron radiation and would react prematurely if you tried to build a Plutonium bomb like that.
- tomxor 4y agoAh, so purely a matter of separation in the case of a lab coat.
- pengaru 4y ago> Is the material and spatial separation of a lab coat enough to prevent a reaction between two lumps of plutonium of sufficient combined critical mass? Inverse-square law [0][1] applies... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law [1] https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Inverse_square_law https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Inverse_square_law
- atoav 4y agoThis would be something out of an Gary Larson comic.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bagels 4y agoWhat if he trips over something? It's unnecessarily risky, just like the guy who killed himself while showing off separating cores with a screwdriver.