How did this experiement not 'explode' enough to stop the prompt criticallity? Twice the plutonium core was 'accidently' put into a prompt criticallity condition, but both times the scientist had to change the configuration themselves by hand to stop the chain reaction. The description of both events states the fission rate increased out of control exponentially but there was no fizzle/bang that blew the components apart. The core is described to be close to being critical by itself (shape and mass) and at -5 cents. Just after the criticallity events I would think the short-life radionuclides would be so high that no one could get near it for weeks. How did the fission reaction change the -5 cents safety margin, did it increase or decrease the value to required a re-design of the implosion system to use in the future weapon test?
And, what are the two spheres to right of the test stand, and if those two spheres were a two parts of another core were they not blasted by nuetrons and subject to additional fission reactions?
"Critical" only means it can maintain a chain reaction. "Supercritical" means a highly efficient brief burn.
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Anonymous06/11/26(Thu)19:19:07
would be fun if the core would shit out so much radiation that it would blow off the cap every time one tried to close it retard scientists just playing the magnetic cap and making the core glow funny
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Anonymous06/11/26(Thu)19:38:01
>>16998367(OP) it's easy to notice some mass getting out of hand because of the heat--just like nuclear power has control rods to modulate all that you can then also map the exponential nature of it to figure out how much more mass is needed for a real explosion >Just after the criticallity events I would think the short-life radionuclides would be so high that no one could get near it for weeks. no, because it's exponential so not that much stuff actually gets generated when it's merely heating up
>>16998367(OP) afaik the halfspheres got pushed away from each other by the expantion of the metal due to the heat and that ended criticality allready before the doomed guy hit them apart. Anyway, make sure to invest a few of you billions in your reseach project into a decent setup. We wont work like that in the shop, why would you do science like that.