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Physicist Harry Daghlian is fatally irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
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Harry Daghlian
American physicist (1921–1945)
Haroutune Krikor Daghlian Jr. was an American physicist with the Manhattan Project, which designed and produced the atomic bombs that were used in World War II. He accidentally irradiated himself on August 21, 1945, during a critical mass experiment at the remote Omega Site of…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Criticality accident
Uncontrolled nuclear fission chain reaction
A criticality accident is an accidental uncontrolled nuclear fission chain reaction. It is sometimes referred to as a critical excursion, critical power excursion, divergent chain reaction, or simply critical. Any such event involves the unintended accumulation or arrangement of…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Demon core
1945–1946 sphere of plutonium
The demon core was a sphere of plutonium 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.…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Laboratory near Santa Fe, New Mexico
Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the American southwest. Best known for its central role in helping develop…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)