Demon core

The demon core was a sphere of plutonium–gallium alloy that was involved in two fatal radiation accidents when scientists tested it as a fissile core of an early atomic bomb. It was manufactured in 1945 by the Manhattan Project, the U.S. nuclear weapon development effort during World War II. It was a subcritical mass that weighed 6.2 kilograms (14 lb) and was 89 millimeters (3.5 in) in diameter. The core was prepared for shipment to the Pacific Theater as part of the third nuclear weapon intended to be dropped on Japan, but when Japan surrendered, the core was retained for testing and potential later use in the case of another conflict. The two criticality accidents occurred at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico on August 21, 1945, and May 21, 1946. In both cases, an experiment was intended to demonstrate how close the core was to criticality, using a neutron-reflective tamper (layer of dense material surrounding the fissile material). In both accidents, the core was accidentally put into a critical configuration. Physicists Harry Daghlian (in the first accident) and Louis Slotin (in the second accident) both suffered acute radiation syndrome and died shortly afterward. Others present in the laboratory were also exposed to radiation during the accidents. The core was melted down during the summer of 1946, and the material was recycled for use in other cores.