This content is from an old project and is not completely intact (yet). Some sources, photos, and links have been lost in the transfer. These notes are posted here in their incomplete form, with ambitions to continuously improve the information provided.

A (Very) Brief Timeline:

1938:
A discovery by nuclear physicists in a laboratory in Berlin, Germany, made the first atomic bomb possible after Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which a heavy nucleus splits spontaneously or on impact with another particle, with a powerful release of energy. Germany began a secret program, called Uranverein, or “uranium club,” just months later.

1942:
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the formation of the Manhattan Project to bring together various scientists and military officials working on nuclear research. the Manhattan Project was the code name for the American-led effort to develop a functional atomic bomb during World War 2. It was started in response to the fear that German scientists had already been working on a weapon using nuclear technology for years. The first nuclear chain reaction is directed and completed by Enrico Ferm.

1945
July 16
In a remote desert location near Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated. Known as the trinity test, it created an enormous mushroom cloud some 40,000 feet high and ushered in the atomic age. Oppenheimer chose the name “Trinity” for the test site, inspired by the poetry of John Donne

August 6
The United States dropped its first atomic bomb from a B-29 bomber plane called the Enola Grey on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. the “little boy” exploded with about 13 kilotons of force, leveling five square miles of the city and killing 80,000 people instantly. Tens of thousands more would later die from radiation exposure. When the Japanese did not immediately surrender, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. The “Fat Man” killed an estimated 40,000 people on impact.

1949
Soviet Union successfully tested their first nuclear device, called RDS-1 or “first lightning” (codenamed “Joe-1” by the United States), at Semipalatinsk.

1950
The Cold War arms race begins. Over the course of the next decade, each world superpower including the United States, Germany, Russia, France, and China, would begin stockpiling nuclear weapons. More advanced thermonuclear and hydrogen bomb projects would begin internationally, and nuclear testing and research became high-profile goals.

1962
S.U. installs nuclear missiles in Cuba, 90 miles away from the United States. President John F. Kennedy enforces a naval blockade around Cuba, and for 13 days, the countries are in a political standoff known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Nuclear war was eventually avoided when the United States agreed to an offer made by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to remove the missiles in exchange for a promise that the U.S. would not invade Cuba.

Nuclear Radiation

Definition:

1. The particles and photons emitted during reactions that involve the nucleus of an atom.
2. Elementary particles emitted by an atomic nucleus, as alpha rays or gamma rays, produced by decay of radioactive substances or by nuclear fission.

Symptoms:

1. Nausea and Vomiting
2. Diarrhea
3. Headache
4. Fever
5. Dizziness and Disorientation
6. Weakness and Fatigue
7. Hair loss
8. Bloody vomit and stools, from internal bleeding
9. Infections
10. Low blood pressure

Louis Slotin: The Criticality Incident

On 21 May 1946, with 7 colleagues watching, Slotin performed an experiment that involved the creation of one of the first steps of a fission reaction by placing two half-spheres of Beryllium (a neutron reflector) around a 3.5-inch-diameter (89 mm) Plutonium core. The experiment used the same 6.2-kilogram (13.7 lb) Plutonium core that had irradiated Harry Daghlian, later called the “demon core” for its role in the two accidents.

Slotin grasped the upper 228.6 mm (9-inch) Beryllium hemisphere with his left hand through a thumb hole at the top while he maintained the separation of the half-spheres using the blade of a screwdriver with his right hand, having removed the shims normally used. Using a screwdriver was not a normal part of the experimental protocol.

At 3:20 p.m., the screwdriver slipped and the upper Beryllium hemisphere fell, causing a “prompt critical” reaction and a burst of hard radiation. At the time, the scientists in the room observed the blue glow of air ionization and felt a heat wave. Slotin experienced a sour taste in his mouth and an intense burning sensation in his left hand. He jerked his left hand upward, lifting the upper Beryllium hemisphere and dropping it to the floor, ending the reaction. He had already been exposed to a lethal dose of neutron radiation.

As the scientists waited for help to arrive, they tried to work out how much radiation they had received. Slotin made a sketch of where everyone had been standing when the slip occurred. He then tried to use a radiation detector on various items that were near the core: a bristle brush, an empty coca-cola bottle, a hammer, a measuring tape.

It proved difficult to get an accurate reading, because the detector itself had been heavily contaminated. Slotin instructed one of his colleagues to lay radioactivity-detecting film badges around the area, which required the scientist to go dangerously close to the still overheated core. The errand resulted in no useful data, and was mentioned in a later report as evidence that, after an exposure of this magnitude, humans “are in no condition for rational behavior.”

Despite intensive medical care and offers from numerous volunteers to donate blood for transfusions, Slotin’s condition rapidly deteriorated. Slotin called his parents and they were flown at Army expense from Winnipeg to be with him. They arrived on the fourth day after the incident, and by the fifth day Slotin’s condition started to rapidly deteriorate.

Over the next four days, Slotin suffered an “agonizing sequence of radiation-induced traumas”, including severe diarrhea, reduced urine output, swollen hands, erythema, massive blisters on his hands and forearms, intestinal paralysis, and gangrene. He had internal radiation burns throughout his body, which one medical expert described as a “three-dimensional sunburn.”

By the seventh day, he was experiencing periods of mental confusion. His lips turned blue and he was put in an oxygen tent. He ultimately experienced a total disintegration of bodily functions and slipped into a coma. Slotin died at 11 a.m. on 30 May, in the presence of his parents. He was buried on 2 June 1946.

Alex Wellerstein, The New Yorker

Slotin: A Tribute

May God receive you, great-souled scientist
While you were with us, even strangers knew
The breadth and lofty stature of your mind
‘Twas only in the crucible of death
We saw at last your noble heart revealed

Thomas P. Ashlock, Los Alamos Times

Possible Sources of High-Dose Radiation

• An accident at a nuclear industrial facility
• An attack on a nuclear industrial facility
• Detonation of a small radioactive device
• Detonation of a conventional explosive device
• Detonation of a standard nuclear weapon

After Exposure

1. If warned of an imminent attack, immediately get inside the nearest building and move away from windows. This will help provide protection from the blast, heat, and radiation of the detonation.
2. If you are outdoors when a detonation occurs take cover from the blast behind anything that might offer protection. Lie face down to protect exposed skin from the heat and flying debris. If you are in a vehicle, stop safely, and duck down within the vehicle.
3. After the shock wave passes, get inside the nearest, best shelter location for protection from potential fallout. You will have 10 minutes or more to find an adequate shelter.
4. Stay tuned for updated instructions from emergency response officials. If advised to evacuate, listen for information about routes, shelters, and procedures.
5. Remove your outer layer of contaminated clothing to remove fallout and radiation.
6. Take a shower or wash with soap and water to remove fallout from any skin or hair that was not covered. if you cannot wash or shower, use a clean wet cloth to wipe you body.
7. Clean any pets that were outside after the fallout arrived. gently brush your pet’s coat to remove any fallout particles and wash your pet with soap and water, if available.
8. It is safe to eat or drink packaged food items or items that were inside a building. do not consume food or liquids that were outdoors uncovered and may be contaminated.
9. If you are sick or injured, listen for instructions on how and where to get medical attention when authorities tell you it is safe to exit.

(In)Famous Explosions

HALIFAX EXPLOSION
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Date: 6 December 1917

A large amount of energy was suddenly released, vaporizing super-heated cooling water and rupturing the reactor core in a highly destructive steam explosion. This was immediately followed by an open-air reactor core fire that released considerable airborne radioactive contamination for about nine days that precipitated onto parts of the USSR and Western Europe, before being finally contained on 4 May 1986.

The struggle to safeguard against hazards immediately after the accident, together with later decontamination efforts of the surroundings, ultimately involved more than 500,000 liquidators and cost an estimated 18 billion Soviet Rubles. That is roughly $68 billion USD in 2019.

FUKUSHIMA
Location: Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
Date: 11 March 2011

This accident was started by the Tohoku earthquake. On detecting the earthquake, the active reactors automatically shut down their fission reactions. Because of reactor trips and grid problems, the electricity supply failed, and the reactors’ emergency generators automatically started. Critically, they were powering the pumps that circulated coolant through the reactors’ cores to remove decay heat, which continued after fission had ceased.

The earthquake generated a 14-meter-high tsunami that arrived 46 minutes later, sweeping over the plant’s seawall and flooding the lower grounds around reactor buildings 1-4 with water, which filled the basements and knocked out the emergency generators.

Further Reading

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/atomic-bomb-history

https://ehistory.osu.edu/articles/story-atomic-bomb

Atomic Bomb