Louis Slotin had been exposed to almost 1,000 rads of radiation, far more than a lethal dose. The chain reaction was stopped when Slotin knocked the spheres apart, but deadly gamma and neutron radiation had flashed into the room in a blue blaze caused by the instantaneous ionization of the lab’s air particles. The halves of the sphere touched and the plutonium went supercritical. Then, in that fatal moment, the screwdriver slipped. In his right hand was a screwdriver, which was being used to keep the two spheres from touching. With his left thumb wedged into a cavity in the top element, Slotin had moved the top half of the sphere closer to the stationary lower portion, a micro-inch at a time. Five other colleagues were close by as Slotin, a Canadian physicist from Winnipeg who had been part of the team that created the atomic bomb, performed the action that would bring into close proximity the two halves of a beryllium-coated sphere and convert the plutonium to a critical state. Allan Kline, a 26-year-old graduate of the University of Chicago, who had been called over to observe the procedure. Graves, who was to replace him at the Omega Site. Slotin had been instructing a colleague, Alvin C. on Tuesday,, at the secret Omega Site Laboratory in Pajarito Canyon, Los Alamos, New Mexico. In that moment, as the Geiger counter clicked wildly, scientist Louis Slotin knew that he had received a lethal dose of gama and neutron radiation from the core of the plutonium bomb he was testing. A sudden blue glow momentarily enveloped the room before evaporating. Canada's History Youth Committee Members.The John Bragg Award for Atlantic Canada.
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