[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

This really happened. Photographs were taken of the two men while their radiation became acute. Those photographs are still somewhere in the Department of Energy files.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Photo of the "Demon Core".

[SpaceBar]

Tickling the dragon can be hazardous to one's health.

[Nitro]

It’s a shame...

but he did to himself.

If he didn’t screw up, he would be alive.

[Prodigal Son]

Picture of Daghlian's hand.

[ConservativeMind]

Thanks for posting this.

I had not heard of this fascinating bit of nuclear history.

[Star Traveler]

Been to Trinity... it’s awesome, even though there’s hardly anything there. You’re standing right at the spot where that first atomic bomb blew up... It’s on part of the White Sands Missile Range and is only open two days a year, for a few hours for each of those two days.

I think there’s only been about 50,000 or so people in the U.S. who have visited the site since that time.

[sten]

for all those that laugh at the chinese, russians, and various middle eastern countries... just remember how 'primitive' our setups were that produced hiroshima and the arsenal we have today.

[olrtex]

If any Freepers ever worked at West Fort Hood when it was an atomic storage facility known as as “Site Baker” or “Killeen Base,” it would be great to read any of your recollections of that place that you might be willing to share. Surely your pledges of secrecy are outdated now that the purpose of the site is generally known.

[MrDem]

So am I reading this correctly? A piece of tungsten hitting into a piece of plutonium will cause a critical nuclear reaction?! What’s to keep terrorists from doing this today?

[LibFreeOrDie]

The film “Fat Man and Little Boy” (1989) contains a scene based on these incidents:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G422z8pDn4

[Excellence]

Tickling the dragon's tail. At Los Alamos, Slotin's duties consisted of dangerous criticality testing, first with uranium in Otto Robert Frisch's experiments, and later with plutonium cores. Criticality testing involved bringing masses of fissile materials to near-critical levels in order to establish their critical mass values.[8] Scientists referred to this flirting with the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction as "tickling the dragon's tail," based on a remark by physicist Richard Feynman who compared the experiments to "tickling the tail of a sleeping dragon".[9][10] On July 16, 1945, Slotin assembled the core for Trinity, the first detonated atomic bomb. He became known as the "chief armourer of the United States" for his expertise in assembling nuclear weapons.[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin