3 ms·
Does the Demon Core count as a reactor?
by anabis 11y ago
Does the Demon Core count as a reactor?
- Sanddancer 11y agoNo. It was designed to go above critical only once, albeit with lots of sound and fury. It's also of note that during its intended trip into criticality, it ended up detonating about a half mile from its target. Core was jinxed till the end.
- tyho 11y agoYes it does: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nuclear_reactor https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nuclear_reactor
- rosser 11y agoNo, it doesn't. The definition you're citing says, "Any device in which a controlled chain reaction is maintained", emphasis added. First of all, the Demon Core wasn't a "device", but a shaped lump of plutonium, which briefly — and accidentally — went super-critical. (Yes, twice. And, yes, subsequently deliberately.) A "reactor" is the entire assembly, not just the "hot" stuff. Secondly, it wasn't exactly designed for controlled criticality. EDIT: corrections.
- tyho 11y agoIt was controlled using a screw driver. What makes a device? For me 2 plutonium spheres and a screw driver rotated to adjust the gap counts.
- david-given 11y agoContext: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core tl;dr: prototype warhead core, on which people were doing very risky experiments, which underwent some criticality events by accident, releasing lots of radiation which killed some of them. It was eventually detonated in a weapons test in 1946.