The Radioactive Ball That Killed Two Scientists Nine Months Apart

[00:00:00]Two men died the same death, nine months apart, in the same room, with the same device. The demon core was a sphere of plutonium the size of a softball built for a third atomic bomb that was never dropped on Japan. It sat in a Los Alamos laboratory with nowhere to go.

[00:00:15]Scientists began experimenting on it.

[00:00:17]They would bring reflective material close to the core, nudging it toward a chain reaction, then pull back just in time. They called it tickling the dragon's [music] tail. In August 1945, physicist Harry Daghlian slipped. The core went super critical for a fraction of a second. He was dead in 25 days.

[00:00:35]>> [music] >> Louis Slotin was in the room. He watched it happen. He knew exactly what the flash of blue light meant. Nine months later, Slotin's screwdriver slipped during the same experiment. Same blue light. Same burning wave of radiation through his body. Seven colleagues watched him die over nine days. He had seen the dragon kill someone, and he still believed he was fast enough. That is the most terrifying thing about this story. Not the radiation, the certainty.