Called that because it killed two scientists... 

Pretend I don't want to watch a youtube video, what is the demon core?

25 minutes ago, Bufofrog said:

Pretend I don't want to watch a youtube video, what is the demon core?

A lump of plutonium from the US WW2 nuclear stockpile. It was to be part of the third bomb dropped on Japan but was used for criticaity experiments instead. Failures in handling the reflector material properly caused brief moments of supercriticality, exposing those near it it to around a 1000 rads of radiation. It eventually killed them.

Edited December 11, 20205 yr by StringJunky

27 minutes ago, Bufofrog said:

Pretend I don't want to watch a youtube video, what is the demon core?

Sorry Bufofrog, I did say it killed two scientists, but yes as StringJunky said it was a plutonium nuclear bomb core meant for use in an atomic to be dropped on Japan but it wasn't needed and was used to experiment on neutron reflectors. Hands on experiments stopped after this... 

1 minute ago, Moontanman said:

Sorry Bufofrog, I did say it killed two scientists, but yes as StringJunky said it was a plutonium nuclear bomb core meant for use in an atomic to be dropped on Japan but it wasn't needed and was used to experiment on neutron reflectors. Hands on experiments stopped after this... 

What were they thinking?!  Mind you, the arming keys to the UK nuclear bombs  in the 50's or 60's were kept in a key cupboard in an office on the airbase....

Just now, StringJunky said:

What were they thinking?!  Mind you, the arming keys to the UK nuclear bombs  in the 50's or 60's were kept in a key cupboard in an office on the airbase....

I think it was a macho thing to toy with something so powerful in front of students... 

22 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

It was to be part of the third bomb dropped on Japan

So, it's "demonic" in that it killed about 10,000 times fewer people than it was built for.

 

 

1 hour ago, StringJunky said:

What were they thinking?!  Mind you, the arming keys to the UK nuclear bombs  in the 50's or 60's were kept in a key cupboard in an office on the airbase....

This was earlier, possibly before a thorough understanding of the dangers was developed