Comments on: Bitten by the Nuclear Dragon

By: RealEstateGuy

RealEstateGuy — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:10:04 +0000

[quote] said: “The same kind of thing happened with Chernobyl. Lake of safety protocol and an “Experienced” operator who took short cuts caused that tragedy.”[/quote]

Meant to say “Lack”.. sorry it’s late.

By: RealEstateGuy

RealEstateGuy — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:08:22 +0000

The same kind of thing happened with Chernobyl. Lake of safety protocol and an “Experienced” operator who took short cuts caused that tragedy.

By: Since804

Since804 — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:24:05 +0000

No consequential development of superpowers?

By: Alchemist

Alchemist — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:50:03 +0000

I too work in a lab (with lasers and nasty chemicals) and I agree with Radiation (above) that those wondering why he used a screwdriver are jumping to conclusions. There are times, particularly when handling dangerous stuff, that the operator wants to be in as much direct control of the situation as possible. I *never* use a funnel when filling filling a container with acid, for example. You start to lose respect and get sloppy. Using a screwdriver would provide instant feed back about the position, rate of movement, slipping, etc of the hemisphere. As for the spacers, if the spacers were there to prevent the hemispheres from contacting, and the experiment was to bring the hemispheres into contact…well that’s like trying using the laser safety glasses when trying to align the beam.

By: Radiatidon

Radiatidon — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:35:31 +0000

foxy said: "How is a hand-held screwdriver less fallible than a simple mechanical device?

Might as well test napalm by standing in a vat of it and flicking matches…"

Without knowing the man or equipment he used, it is foolish to judge him as either innocent or guilty depending on your viewpoint. Having worked in various lab-based and on-site based situations, I can testify that sometimes the safety equipment is more dangerous in use that without. During a visual alignment of a HE/NE laser setup, the safety failed and “zapped” my eye. Thankfully this was a low-power experiment and all I suffered was temporary blindness for a few hours. Normally I used a simple cardboard and clay block during alignment, but the powers-that-be made me use the safety system instead. They said it looked more professional than my "Mickey Mouse Contraption". During another experiment with a high-power CO2 laser, the safety override failed when I was “in-target”. Thankfully the focusing unit was not calibrated at that time and all I received was a three-second burn across my chest before I leaped out-of-beam. I did suffer a second-degree burn from this. Since the targeting system required the main laser to operate, the laser had to be fully powered up. Normally I used a penlight with focusing array to pre-setup and calibrate the laser. Once again the powers-that-be told me to quit being a ninny and use the pre-setup built into the laser. While doing some high work at a Nuclear Facility, we were required to “tie-off” our safety belt rope to the scaffolding. There were no safety guide wires to tie-off at the work location. I argued that was more dangerous than not having the men tied-off. I lost. A man lost his grip and fell; of course his weight also took the scaffolding off balance. Due to his required tie-off, instead of a single man getting hurt, four others joined him in the hospital. All five had been on the scaffolding with the accident occurred. Three were hurt more severely when the metal scaffolding fell on top of them. So once again it all depends on the circumstances.

By: rev.felix

rev.felix — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:53:50 +0000

No, they were only $450 because he returned the spacers for store credit.

By: Ironclaw

Ironclaw — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:12:59 +0000

And these were the $500 special government screwdrivers too!

By: foxy

foxy — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 11:15:00 +0000

How is a hand-held screwdriver less fallible than a simple mechanical device?

Might as well test napalm by standing in a vat of it and flicking matches...

By: revhouse1

revhouse1 — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 16:35:43 +0000

As a firefighter I can assure you that (at least for that profession) most quote unquote brave/heroic actions are the result of 1) reflex action and 2) stupidity that somehow works out alright. Brave/heroic actions do not come from rational thought, you don't think it through you just do it -- and a lot of it has as much to do (if not more) with self preservation than it does the preservation of neighbor.

Concerning Dr. Slotin's use of a screwdriver... well it was his preferred method and the exact reasons why are lost. It doesn't seem like a sound method to me yet, what these people were doing is not really what I'd consider sound thinking anyway. Then again, many people would consider running (well we don't run we crawl) into a burning building not the actions of a sound thinking either.

tom

By: ForShame

ForShame — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 21:59:07 +0000

I watched “Fat Man and Little Boy” in eighth grade science class. I thought the experiment in the movie was meant to be Daghlian, but they deffinitely made an error with the two hemispheres rather than the brick of tungsten carbide. Anyway, as far as I know Slotin and Daghlian worked closely together on tests like this. Slotin really should have known better than to do the experiment this way.