Spooky Science episode 7: Second demon core incident

[thatligmakidbruv]

“Well, that does it”. The realization that no amount of panic or tears would save him. He just calmly accept his fate in that instant

[norahowland]

When you have to explain the source of inaccuracies in your lab report: “fatal human error and hubris.”

[jayakrishna]

Can we have a reliable setup for the experiment?
Them: a screwdriver should do it. It’s just a nuclear core.

[TheFireflyGuy]

He spent the immediate time after measuring where everyone else was standing so he could reliably tell them they would be ok. He was a nice man.

[RashidMBey]

There is something almost magically eerie about knowing the spectre of death will greet you in a few days because you let a screwdriver slip.

[TheAdoringFan]

Ain’t no way in hell you would catch me propping something called “The Demon Core” with a screwdriver

[shannonrickard]

Using a screwdriver to haphazardly keep a nuclear disaster from happening is only the second craziest OSHA violation I've seen this week

[andyl]

Slotin grabbed the Beryllium dome to keep the core from going super spicy mode & saved those around him. this is the scientist version of jumping on a grenade to save comrades. impressive dude

[Ryukachoo]

He was constantly warned about how dangerous this approach was, But he basically thought he was invincible. I can't remember who, but some famous physicist at the time said he would be dead within a month if he kept doing this experiment so recklessly.... And he was right to within a few days

[fakharhaider]

Fun Fact: When the blue flash happened, everyone except Slottin ran out of the room. He called them all back, threw them a piece of chalk, and told them to mark on the ground where each man stood when the incident happened. This he did to find out how much radiation each man received based on the distance from the core.

[Turtlecuber]

He also walked up to the chalkboard and started to calculate how long his survival and everybody else in the room survival rate would be and that was deadly accurate

[YouTubeOdyssey]

The cool thing is that they learned a lot about radiation sickness, they wrote detailed notes of his final days, and he was able to add to the body of human knowledge right up to the end.

[briandigiovanni]

Imagine a flash of light and you feel fine at the time, but you know for a fact that not only is that the end for you, it will be agonizing. That's truly terrifying.

[claymcgranahan]

“We have a safe way of using this”

“Screwdriver”

[MrHeuvaladao]

He lost the opportunity of saying: "Well... I'm screwed"

[justinwesthoff]

I used to watch your videos on history in jail on the tablets they provided inmates. As an avid history nerd, I've been trying to find your videos since but since this was back in 2018 I'd forgotten your name but I am so glad to have found your videos again 5 years later. Thank you Hank. You have no idea how much you entertained me in the most boring place in the galaxy.

[l.b]

The most annoying part is they had something specifically to prop it open but homie was like “nah bro I got this flat head.”

[sewersquid]

He also had everyone stay in the room afterwards and charted everyones exposure based on how far away they were standing at the moment the screwdriver slipped, approximating roughly how much they could expect their lives to be shortened. This was less than a year after Slotin’s colleague had met a very similar fate experimenting on the same plutonium core.

[Jah_LEASE_yah]

“Well that does it” imagine what that moment of realizing his own death was imminent must have felt like.

[dave_is_in_hell]

Touching an unshielded nuclear reactor with your hands is metal as fuck