<story><title>Declassified photos from Tinian Island as the B-29 “Enola Gay” was being loaded</title><url>https://archive.today/94EKG</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dirktheman</author><text>It always amazes me how seemingly careless they were with these nuclear devices back then. To know that such a devestating bomb was handled by a sultry, shirtless youngster, in a shed on a small island in the Pacific...&lt;p&gt;It reminds me of the Slotin Incident (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.damninteresting.com/bitten-by-the-nuclear-dragon/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.damninteresting.com&amp;#x2F;bitten-by-the-nuclear-dragon&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;) where dr. Louis Slotin accidently slipped the screwdriver he used to separate two plutonium&amp;#x2F;uranium hemispheres:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Immediately, all eight scientists in the room felt a wave of heat accompanied by a blue glow as the plutonium sphere vomited an invisible burst of gamma and neutron radiation into the room. As the lab&amp;#x27;s Geiger counter clicked hysterically, Louis used his bare hand to push the upper plutonium hemisphere off and onto the floor, which terminated the supercritical reaction moments after it began.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Big oopsie.&lt;p&gt;However gruesome the goal of these bombs, the rate of advancement in such a short timespan is nothing short of amazing. From the very first successful test (Trinity) to bombing Hiroshima: just 21 days. They were great days for science, but a shame to mankind that it had to come this far.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>shangxiao</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Immediately, all eight scientists in the room felt a wave of heat accompanied by a blue glow as the plutonium sphere vomited an invisible burst of gamma and neutron radiation into the room. As the lab&amp;#x27;s Geiger counter clicked hysterically, Louis used his bare hand to push the upper plutonium hemisphere off and onto the floor, which terminated the supercritical reaction moments after it began.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nit pick: What you have described is the incorrect version in the movie &amp;quot;Fat Man and Little Boy&amp;quot;.  It was a knee-jerk reaction that stopped the supercritical reaction, and it was the beryllium outer sphere which was dropped, not the plutonium core.&lt;p&gt;Slotin was holding the top half of the beryllium sphere with his thumb which he immediately lifted up due to the intense heat.</text></comment>
<story><title>Declassified photos from Tinian Island as the B-29 “Enola Gay” was being loaded</title><url>https://archive.today/94EKG</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dirktheman</author><text>It always amazes me how seemingly careless they were with these nuclear devices back then. To know that such a devestating bomb was handled by a sultry, shirtless youngster, in a shed on a small island in the Pacific...&lt;p&gt;It reminds me of the Slotin Incident (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.damninteresting.com/bitten-by-the-nuclear-dragon/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.damninteresting.com&amp;#x2F;bitten-by-the-nuclear-dragon&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;) where dr. Louis Slotin accidently slipped the screwdriver he used to separate two plutonium&amp;#x2F;uranium hemispheres:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Immediately, all eight scientists in the room felt a wave of heat accompanied by a blue glow as the plutonium sphere vomited an invisible burst of gamma and neutron radiation into the room. As the lab&amp;#x27;s Geiger counter clicked hysterically, Louis used his bare hand to push the upper plutonium hemisphere off and onto the floor, which terminated the supercritical reaction moments after it began.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Big oopsie.&lt;p&gt;However gruesome the goal of these bombs, the rate of advancement in such a short timespan is nothing short of amazing. From the very first successful test (Trinity) to bombing Hiroshima: just 21 days. They were great days for science, but a shame to mankind that it had to come this far.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jnsaff2</author><text>You should read Command and Control which is about the history of nuclear accidents and management in the US. Carelessness didn&amp;#x27;t go away for a long time, especially in the upper management.&lt;p&gt;Very well written and interesting book.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.com/Command-Control-Eric-Schlosser-ebook/dp/B00CDBZ6NA/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;Command-Control-Eric-Schlosser-ebook&amp;#x2F;d...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>