4 ms·
It should not have been possible for that photo to have been taken anytime or anywhere since 1946, even during Manhattan with war deadlines it should not have b
by hilbert42 3y ago
It should not have been possible for that photo to have been taken anytime or anywhere since 1946, even during Manhattan with war deadlines it should not have been possible. That it was and as late as 2011 is of grave concern. Frankly, I find it very difficult to fathom.
Years ago when I approached my first reading of the full accounts of Slotin and Daghlian I did so as with any other info, since then I have forced myself to reread them several times as a reminder—as both the accounts and photos are grim. They ought to be part of compulsory safety training for anyone vaguely associated with the nuclear game.
Perhaps, as part of that training there should be more acting out roles with dummy materials similar to military exercises where adjudicators tag one as dead for making a 'lethal' mistake and can play no further role in the exercise. This may seem trite but it's not, being forced to play dead on the battlefield whilst the exercise continues because of one's incompetence is both formative and embarrassing (I speak from experience).
Moreover, like military training, the exercises should be practiced until one's actions are automatic.
That said, such training ought to be a second-line defense—as fastneutron rightly points out—as such work environments ought to be engineered to force compliance.
- nerdponx 3y agoIs the problem that plutonium doesn't look particularly scary on its own? It's just a chunk of gray metal. It's not fuming, it's not warm (I assume), it's not glowing, it's not particularly ugly, it's not a bright color. Very few people have experienced radiation poisoning and have a visceral understanding of the horror involved. None of our self-preservation instincts understand the danger.
- hilbert42 3y agoYour question implies I've firsthand experience working with the stuff but that isn't so. It's true I've worked in the nuclear industry and keeping the stuff safe and out of harm's way was in my job description but I wasn't alone, many hundreds of us were (and are) involved in doing so. Luckily there were people between me and those who worked with the stuff and I'm very happy about that. Still, you're right it's a silvery gray metal much like many others that oxidizes quickly in air to give it that dullish look. If you were to pick it up you'd notice it's very dense. It's marginally heavier than gold by about 0.5g/cc^3 at about 19.8g/cc^3. That it looks so boring could easily generate complacency when handling it. Edit: the 238 isotope is much more radioactive than 239, so much so it'd be hot to touch. But you'd be mad to do so.
- HPsquared 3y agoIt's probably a bit like handling electric wiring. It doesn't look dangerous, until you short the terminals together or touch a high voltage contact.
- hilbert42 3y agoA pretty good analogy.
- SoftTalker 3y agoOr watch some YouTube videos about arc-flash.
- cyberax 3y agoWeapons grade plutonium is slightly warm to touch.