The Demon Core: The Deadliest Object at Los Alamos

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]In 1945, a 14-lb [music] sphere of plutonium sat on a lab table at Los Alamos. Scientists called it the demon core. Two brilliant researchers [music] would touch the edge of death because of it. Harry Daghlian was working alone one night. He accidentally dropped a brick of tungsten carbide onto the core. A flash of blue light [music] filled the room. He knew instantly what had happened. The core had gone critical.

[00:00:23]Deadly radiation [music] flooded his body. Nine months later, Louis Slotin was demonstrating the same core to colleagues. Using only a screwdriver to keep two metal hemispheres apart, the screwdriver slipped. Another blue flash, another lethal dose. Both men didn't die right away. Their bodies slowly broke down over weeks. Hair falling out, skin peeling off, internal organs shutting down one by [music] one. The same cursed plutonium core killed them both. After the second accident, >> [music] >> they finally melted it down. But the demon core had already claimed its victims. Two of the brightest minds [music] in nuclear science gone because of one small mistake.