On the History and Horrors of The Demon Core
By N. Monk, Philosopher, Futurist, and Physics Student
*Disclaimer: I am not an advocate of nuclear weapons used in any scenario; the purpose of this article is for educational purposes. No number can be put on the devastation caused from nuclear warfare. The topic of nuclear weapons should always be taken seriously. *
While discussing other physics phenomena in my day-to-day life, the topic of a particular 6.2 kg or 14 lb ball of plutonium came into discussion. Later, after doing further research into this particular ball it became more apparent just how dangerous working with nuclear materials can be.
Many people likely remember only two nuclear bombs in WWII -- Little Boy and Fat Man. Both of which resulted in the deaths of countless innocent people. However, there was in fact a third nuclear bomb that thankfully was never detonated. Even though it was never truly detonated it still resulted in at least two deaths due to an accident, giving it the name “The Demon Core”.
A question remains on some people’s minds, ‘just how dangerous would the third bomb have been?’. If one were to look up the Demon Core, they would find little to no information on such question. However, I argue that the answer to this question should be known, so that future world leaders will better consider never using nuclear weapons. Just from knowing how much plutonium was in the ball I was able to put a rough estimate on the strength of the Demon Core. After getting my calculations checked, I estimated that the Demon Core would have the energy of about 84 TJ or 8.4*10^13 Joules of energy. Which is almost identical to the strength of Fat Man which was about 88 TJ or 8.8*10^13 Joules of energy. For a more understandable interpretation of those numbers: that would be about 21 kilotons of TNT. For reference, if the Demon Core were detonated on a city it would likely result in a similar scale of deaths as Fat Man which caused over 100,000 deaths.
Thankfully, no country saw the third mushroom cloud. However, the Demon Core would still result in a few fatal accidents. The first being on August 21, 1945, when a nuclear physicist, Harry Daghlian was doing research on it. While working with the Demon Core, Daghlian accidently dropped a block of Tungsten Carbide on the mass causing it to go super-critical. Daghlian quickly knocked the brick of Tungsten off of the plutonium mass to stop the reaction, but his fate was already sealed from extreme radiation poisoning, and he died 25 days after the accident. A security guard, Robert Hemmerly sitting about 10 to 12 feet from the Demon Core at the time was exposed to enough radiation that would ultimately result in his death as well.
After the incident some new safety features were put in place to prevent further accidents, but one should keep in mind that the Demon Core was deliberately designed to have a small safety margin, so anyone working with it would already be taking a huge act of bravery exposing themselves to it.
The second incident would occur on May 21, 1946. When a brilliant Winnipeg-born scientist, Louis Slotin was giving a demonstration of the Demon Core to the newcomer Alvin Graves. Slotin had done this demonstration many times before and was known by his colleagues as being a virtuoso at handling the Demon Core. While giving the demonstration Slotin’s hand slipped while handling it, resulting in the Demon Core going super-critical again. Due to Slotin’s quick thinking he stopped the core from continuing to remain in super-criticality which could have resulted in a nuclear explosion. Slotin was also said to have shielded most of the radiation exposure from reaching Graves who was standing behind him. Due to his quick thinking Slotin also saved the lives of six other scientists in the room, but at the cost of his own life. Slotin would die from radiation poisoning nine days later.
After looking through newspaper archives, I found two articles on the incident. One in the Winnipeg Free Press and another in The Winnipeg Tribune. Looking into Slotin, I found that he was born in Winnipeg and got both his bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Manitoba, before going on to work in the Manhattan Project.
Despite the Demon Core never being launched, it still resulted in horrible deaths. From this it should be more apparent just how dangerous working with nuclear materials can be. Due to the nobility and sacrifice of the lives of these scientists researching nuclear effects with The Demon Core, many major contributions were made. Such as nuclear reactors, nuclear energy, advancements in medicine, and even household items like smoke detectors.
Louis Slotin on the left, and Harry Daghlian on the right.