Featured Image Credit: Los Alamos Historical Society photo archives
A scientist’s split-second decision ended up saving seven lives before he was killed by the ‘most dangerous object ever’.
The accident happened back in 1946 when scientist Louis Slotin conducted an experiment at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
One fateful day on May 21, Slotin was carrying out the risky experiment, which was nicknamed ‘tickling the dragon’s tail’, where he placed a plutonium sphere between two beryllium hemispheres to reflect neutrons and bring the core just to the verge of a chain reaction.
In order to keep the halves from touching, he used a screwdriver as a spacer but the screwdriver slipped, causing the hemispheres to close around the core.
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Immediately, a bright blue light flashed in the room and, with his bare hands, Slotin threw the top hemisphere to stop the chain reaction.
Slotin’s actions heroically halted the radiation burst, saving the lives of seven other people in the room.
Security Guard Patrick Cleary recalled: “When the accident occurred, I saw the blue glow and felt a heat wave. I knew something was wrong, but didn’t know exactly what it was … when I saw the blue glow and somebody yelled…”
However, it was ultimately at the cost of his own life and he absorbed a lethal dose of radiation.
Within seconds of the incident, Slotin started to vomit and his condition quickly deteriorated.
The 35 year old was rushed to hospital but despite offers from volunteers willing to donate blood for a transfusion, Slotin’s radiation poisoning was incurable.
The scientist called his parents and they were flown from Winnipeg, Canada, to be by his side at the Army’s expense.
Over the next nine days, Slotin suffered an ‘agonizing sequence of radiation-induced traumas’, which included swollen hands, huge blisters on his arms, severe diarrhea, intestinal paralysis and gangrene.
He also had internal radiation burns throughout his body.
On May 30, the scientist died with his parents by his side and he was buried on June 2 at Shaarey Zedek Cemetery in Winnipeg.
Despite others having been exposed to radiation, all of the others who were in the room when the incident occurred survived, in part due to Slotin’s quick action.
Recalling the incident, Raemer Schreiber, who was present during it, later wrote: “Slotin’s quick reaction at the immediate risk of his own life prevented a more serious development of the experiment which would certainly have resulted in the death of the seven men working with him, as well as serious injury to others in the general vicinity.”
