Why you don't mess with a nuclear weapon core

[MartG]

Interesting article about an accident with the core of a nuclear weapon

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/demon-core-...

[MartG]

Movie recreation of the incident

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ0P7R9CfCY

[MartG]

maffski said:

Except if they'd just lifted one part up to the other rather than lowering it down it would have been fail safe.

Very good point !

[MartG]

Mr Pointy said:

The thing is that it wouldn't have taken more than ten minutes to jury rig something that could have done the task safely - for instance with a screw operated type of arrangement so the lowering of the reflector could be done slowly & safely with no chance of dropping it. They must have had access to all sorts of machine tools & materials so there isn't much excuse for bodging it using a screwdriver.

Exactly - they could have bodged something from a car jack or similar

[MartG]

Halmyre said:

MartG said:

Mr Pointy said:

The thing is that it wouldn't have taken more than ten minutes to jury rig something that could have done the task safely - for instance with a screw operated type of arrangement so the lowering of the reflector could be done slowly & safely with no chance of dropping it. They must have had access to all sorts of machine tools & materials so there isn't much excuse for bodging it using a screwdriver.

Exactly - they could have bodged something from a car jack or similar

You might want some sort of quick-release mechanism so that you can pull the hemispheres apart at a considerably faster rate than you can bring them together.

Like a bit of string tied to the jack so you can remotely pull it away ?