this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
275 points (96.3% liked)
NonCredibleDefense
4233 readers
109 users here now
Militaria shitposting central! Post memes, tasteless jokes, and sexual cravings for military equipment and/or nuclear self-destruction!
Rules:
- Posts must abide by lemmy.world terms and conditions
- No spam or soliciting for money.
- No racism or other bigotry allowed.
- Obviously nothing illegal.
If you see these please report them.
Related communities:
For the other, slightly less political NCD, !noncredibledefense@sh.itjust.works
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Can someone explain this to me?
To add to what rogue said…
The small ball in the center is plutonium. The outer shells both hemispheres are lead. The lead reflects neutrons back in.
Opened up radiation poors out. Fully closed… it goes critical and gives off a shot load more. When doing experiments/lab tests, they would occasionally cover it up with spacers… or a screwdriver blade….
The screwdriver was more common because it was “convenient”- but more than a few times the hemisphere slipped off and flashed the research with lethal radiation.
This, is why it’s nicknamed a “demon core”- it’s killed more than a few people working with it
It's a plutonium sphere, was used for testing shapes to determine criticality(sustained nuclear chain reaction) in the Manhattan project.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core