The Demon Core: Deadly Plutonium That Killed 2 Scientists

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]In 1945, a 14-lb sphere of plutonium sat in a Los Alamos laboratory. Scientists [music] called it the demon core. It would kill two men in the most horrific way imaginable.

[00:00:11]>> [music] >> Harry Daghlian was working alone late one night. He was building a neutron reflector around [music] the core when his hand slipped. A tungsten brick crashed down onto the plutonium sphere.

[00:00:21]The room filled with blue [music] light.

[00:00:23]The core had gone critical. Daghlian frantically knocked the brick away with his bare hands, but it was too late. He absorbed a lethal dose of [music] radiation. He died 25 days later in agony. Eight months later, physicist [music] Louis Slotin was demonstrating the same deadly experiment to colleagues. He used only a screwdriver to keep two pieces of plutonium apart.

[00:00:44]The screwdriver slipped. Again, [music] the blue flash. Again, the core went critical. Slotin quickly separated the pieces, saving his colleagues, but he'd signed his own death [music] warrant.

[00:00:54]Nine days later, he was dead. The same plutonium core was later dropped on Nagasaki. Two accidents. Two deaths. One cursed piece of metal.