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In the last week, I have managed to burn one knuckle on each finger, two fingertips, the palm of one hand and the back of the other. My hands, more or less, look like I washed them in napalm. I could, of course, blame all this on the fact that I’ve had to use the deep fryer at work more often than usual the last few days, but even if I didn’t go anywhere near a tub of boiling oil, I’m sure I would have managed to find a way to hurt myself.
You see, I’m a klutz. And that’s why today we’re going to talk about one of my brothers in arms, a fellow klutz. Quite possibly the most infamous klutz in American history.
Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. had spent most of the summer of 1945 working as an assistant in the preparation of a plutonium core for the Trinity nuclear bomb test in Alamogordo, NM. The tests were successful, and in August he was moved to the Los Alamos Omega site, where he assisted with a series of experiments concerning the critical masses of a 13.6 pound sphere of plutonium in various tungsten carbide tamper arrangements. In these experiments, the tungsten bricks were slowly added around the core as neutron reflectors, serving to reduce the mass required for the plutonium to go critical. Eventually, enough bricks would have been added to allow the assembly to go into a controlled critical nuclear reaction, basically becoming a miniature nuclear reactor.
On the morning of August 21, Daghlian constructed a cube of tungsten carbide bricks around the plutonium sphere on a square base measuring 14-7/8 inches per side (photo below is from a re-creation of the experiment). He noted that the assembly was found to be critical when five layers of bricks were completed and two additional bricks were placed in the middle of a sixth layer. That afternoon, he constructed another cube around the plutonium, this time on a 12-3/4 inch square base. Criticality was achieved when five layers of bricks were completed, it was a smaller, more efficient assembly. As he disassembled the materials and returned the plutonium to its vault, Daghlian began planning the next criticality experiment and decided to he would construct the next assembly on a 10-5/8 inch square base. He then went to dinner and a lecture at the site’s theater, during which he decided to return to the lab that evening to continue the tests, rather than the next morning as originally planned.
Daghlian had been working in the government labs for some time at this point, and was no doubt well aware that his decision to perform a potentially hazardous experiment alone and after-hours violated official safety regulations. His mind was made up, though, and he returned to the lab at 9:30 that night. He removed the plutonium from the vault and, using the clicks of a Geiger counter as a guide, completed four-and-a-half layers on the new assembly. As he went to place another brick in the fifth layer, the increasing clicks alerted him that this brick would cause the assembly to go supercritical, meaning an increasing rate of fission, as opposed to the equilibrium fission of the critical state. A supercritical mass, as we’ll see, is not a good thing.
He immediately withdrew the hand holding the brick, but was struck by an ill-timed case of butterfingers. He dropped the brick into the center of the assembly. He instinctively pushed the brick away from the assembly with his right hand, which immediately became enveloped in the blue glow that was now surrounding the plutonium.
At 9:55, Daghlian partially disassembled the experiment and went to the hospital to have someone look at his tingly, glowing blue hand.
Daghlian received a total-body radiation exposure of approximately 480 roentgens (the unit of measurement for ionizing radiation) of soft x-rays and 110 roentgens of gamma rays. Because of the way the accident happened, though, the distribution of radiation wasn’t uniform. His left hand, which dropped the brick, received 5,000 to 15,000 rem (röntgen equivalent in man, the unit of measurement for a radiation dose), and his right hand, which he used to push the brick away, received 20,000 to 40,000 rem. Let’s put that in perspective: most charts explaining exposure levels and their corresponding symptoms describe 5,000 rem as 100% fatal and don’t go any further. Harry was, to say the least, in bad shape.
During the 25 remaining days of his life, Daghlian experienced swelling and numbness in his hand, unrelenting nausea, repeated bouts of retching and vomiting, prolonged episodes of hiccups, hair loss, reddening of both forearms, neck and face and a progressive loss of skin layers. On September 15, 1945, Daghlian went into a coma and died at 4:30 PM.
Los Alamos issued a press release that said Daghlian died from “chemical burns,” rather than radiation poisoning. This little bit of information manipulation transformed Daghlian from America’s first nuclear casualty into an obscure footnote in history (at least until Wikipedia came along). But, like me, he was a bit of a klutz; and for that, we salute him.
Matt Soniak is our newest intern. (Well, he’s tied.) You can learn lots more about him here, or read his own blog here.
Comments (29)
Comment
Great article!
posted by Tricia on 1-30-2008 at 3:41 pm
Man, and I thought I was having a bad day! As someone who has experienced cancer treatment I can only guess at the level of suck-ness his last 25 days were.
I’m a card carrying klutz myself - once almost sawed my own pinky off carving a pumpkin, stepped on a sewing needle at age 6, cracked my chin open three times and my head open once. Not to mention broken fingers and toes. Emergency room staff knew me by name by puberty.
posted by Groovygaia on 1-30-2008 at 3:49 pm
Very interesting. But what’s a nuclear bob test?
posted by beth on 1-30-2008 at 3:58 pm
That’s so cool! I mean, sad for him and all, but stuff like that is so nifty. I don’t really quite grasp the whole nuclear power thing. I sorta know how it works but it still mystifies me a little. What exactly does radiation do to your cells?
Great post :)
posted by Molly W. on 1-30-2008 at 3:59 pm
That makes me feel better, as a klutz. Worst I’ve really done is slice my hand when a Mason jar I was holding shattered.
Still fascinating!
posted by kitsana_d on 1-30-2008 at 5:11 pm
I question the “blue glow”. I don’t think that happens and I used to work as a Health Physicist. It’s been a long time, though and that didn’t really come up a lot, fortunately.
The only “blue glow” I’ve ever seen was from fuel rods at the bottom of a holding pool, and I believe that had to do with the diffraction of the water.
/Like I said, it’s been a long time, though.
posted by Moon on 1-30-2008 at 5:54 pm
A fictionalized version of this incident is dramatized (memorably!) in the movie Fat Man and Little Boy, in which Paul Newman plays General Leslie Groves, the military overseer of the Manhattan Project. The hapless physicist is played by John Cusack.
posted by Bob G on 1-30-2008 at 6:30 pm
A-ha! Someone besides me who actually SAW “Fat Man and Little Boy”!
posted by Brian on 1-30-2008 at 7:53 pm
“What exactly does radiation do to your cells?”
Radiation interacts with tissue in 2 ways: indirect and direct.
Indirect: the radiation interacts with your body, ionizing water and atoms (stripping the electrons from them), and creating free radicals. The free radicals can cause damage to DNA.
Direct: the radiation rips the DNA apart directly.
Once the DNA is damaged it either gets fixed or it doesn’t. It all depends on how much damage was done over what volume. This is where it gets realllly complicated and I can’t explain it in depth here.
These mechanims are the basis for radiation killing people (Mr. Daghlian), or for radiation therapy for killing cancer cells.
I work as Medical Physicist in the field of radiation therapy, so if you want any other questions feel free to ask …
p.s.-no, he would not have been glowing either. I believe the phenomenon of Cherenkov Radiation explains the glow from the fuel rods. Not exactly sure how though.
posted by chris on 1-30-2008 at 8:55 pm
… I should expand a little on my post.
Once DNA is damaged, and not repaired, cells don’t work right anymore. Once this happens, all bets are off: the cells could die and if enough do the tissue/organ breaks down and dies; the cells could be damaged in such a way that they don’t die, but continue to multiply in an out-of-control way, essentially becoming “cancerous”.
Mr. Daghlian got so much radiation, so quickly, over a large enough volume that his body couldn’t repair all the damage done. Nasty nasty way to go ….
posted by chris on 1-30-2008 at 9:11 pm
Thanks Chris!
I feel like I should apologize slightly for my comment… I didn’t want to be insensitive, saying that radiation effects are cool regarding radiation for cancer treatment or for people who get poisoned… but part of me thinks it’s totally neat at the same time. Does that make me a bad person? Or just a slight morbid science nerd? :)
posted by Molly W. on 1-30-2008 at 9:48 pm
Moon - I don’t really buy the blue glow myself, but Daghlian himself claimed it happened, so I figured I’d let the man have his input.
Chris - Thanks for your technical knowledge.
posted by Matt on 1-30-2008 at 9:58 pm
Perhaps an adrenaline rush, and panic, caused Daghlian to imagine seeing a blue glow. I thought they would amputate his “ultra zapped” right hand, but apparently doing that would not have improved his chance of survival.
posted by Tdave on 1-31-2008 at 2:21 am
Molly W. and Matt: you’re welcome.
nah, Molly, you aren’t a bad person. ;^) I think the stuff is cool too, which does make us morbid science nerds.
to place his radiation dose in perspective, when somebody gets radiation for cancer treatment they get ~5000 rem but spread out over weeks and localized.
he got at LEAST that much all at once. scary!
posted by chris on 1-31-2008 at 8:21 am
chris, CERENKOV RADIATION, thank you!
It is amazing how much you forget in 27 years. This was my job for 5 years! Sheesh.
I still have the Herman Cember book, “Intro to Health Physics” and “Radiation Sickness in Man”, by some sick, sick Russians. Maybe I should spend some time with those books. Ha!
posted by Moon on 1-31-2008 at 9:10 am
The blue glow observed is a result of air ionization and is commonly observed in criticality accidents.
Here’s a wiki which gets into it a little:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident
posted by Sid Morrison on 1-31-2008 at 9:19 am
Adding to the physics comments by Chris and others:
Radiation exposure is a bit like getting hit by a shotgun blast, except that the shot doesn’t stay in your body. The x-rays and gamma rays are like the shot. The gamma rays are higher energy than the x-rays. Some of the rays (shot) goes straight through the body. (That’s how diagnostic x-rays work. The denser parts of the body block more x-rays, so fewer x-rays go through in that area, and so fewer reach the film in that area on the other side. Chris can give a much more complete explanation.)
After the rays either hit atoms in the body or pass through, that’s it. If they hit an atom, they do damage, but then they are gone. There is common misunderstanding that the radiation (rays) remains in the body and that each radiation exposure increases amount of radiation build-up in the body. After the radiation hits or misses, that’s it.
What cumulative radiation exposure measures is the probability that radiation had caused dangerous damage in your body. (From here on, I’ll use damage to mean dangerous damage.) It’s statistical. Except in extreme cases like Daghlian’s, it is not obvious if the radiation has caused damage in the body. There could be enough damage to the DNA to cause cancer but it could take years for that cancer to be detected.
So instead, people like Chris use statistics. The more radiation a person receives, the greater the chances that damage has occurred in that person’s body. Similarly, the more times that a person is exposed to radiation, the greater the chances of damage. As a person receives more radiation, whether through frequent low-level exposure or less frequent large-level exposure, the chances of damage increase. Regulatory limits on total exposure for persons who work with radiation are based on when those chances of damage become too high.
This is why the dental assistant leaves the room when you get dental x-rays. The radiation dose that you receive from the x-rays on one visit is low, but imagine how many times that the dental assistant repeats the process each day, five days a week, for years. If the assistant were to stay in the room, the amount of total radiation exposure from the few stray x-rays each time would be enormous and very dangerous. That’s why you don’t need to worry when the dental assistant (or any other health professional) leaves the room.
That’s also why medically necessary x-rays are a good idea. The x-rays can reveal a health problem that is much worse than the tiny increased chance of radiation damage. It’s between you and your health professionals to decide what medically necessary is. Generally, if my dentist or doctor says that an x-ray is optional, I say no, but if they think it is necessary, I say yes.
I have a friend with scoliosis (abnormal spinal curvature) whose doctors performed frequent spinal x-rays many years ago when she was younger. My friend had thyroid cancer (thankfully in complete remission) a years back, and the likely culprit was all those x-rays. At the time, I guess that doctor didn’t realize the danger of frequent x-rays. So x-rays are not completely benign, but the dangers of infrequent, low-level, medically-necessary x-rays are much less than the dangers of forgoing them.
Remember with radiation its:
1) time (how long and how many occasions)
2) level (how much)
3) distance.
Time and level multiply. More time at higher levels is worse. Further than the source is better. If you double your distance from the source, you cut your exposure by 75%.
-wdb
posted by Darian on 1-31-2008 at 9:52 am
So happy I am not the only klutz willing to admit it! Even my own mother calls me a klutz more than she calls me by my first name.
posted by gussie on 1-31-2008 at 9:57 am
well said, Darian! Good analogies too.
thanks!
posted by chris on 1-31-2008 at 10:58 am
you’re welcome, Moon.
posted by chris on 1-31-2008 at 11:01 am
Wow and here I thought I was a klutz. I have busted my chin open twice, fallen down the stairs twice, almost broke my nose in a pool, ran into a brick wall and is always tripping on air and my feet. There of course is many more klutzy episodes but these were the funniest.
posted by Stefanie on 1-31-2008 at 11:28 am
That same plutonium core was involved in 2 accidental supercritical events that resulted in fatalities. As a result it earned the nick name “Demon Core”. Just search wikipedia for demon core if you want more details.
posted by MikeC on 1-31-2008 at 12:31 pm
I have to admit I have seen Fat man and Little Boy many times. I had a demented crush on Dwight Schultz. I am so glad to get that off my chest.
posted by Shannon on 1-31-2008 at 12:51 pm
I believe that the event in Fat Man and Little Boy was based on this accident (time frame) and that of Louis Slotin. Slotin’s accident was closer to what was protrayed in the movie, but it happened after the war. Slotin was the second man killed by the Demon Core mentioned by MikeC.
posted by loomis on 1-31-2008 at 4:27 pm
I believe this story as well as many others was also accounted in the book “Plutonium Files”.
posted by GeologyJoe on 2-1-2008 at 11:06 am
You might also want to remember that he was probably working himself to the bone for the war effort and thus was exhausted.
posted by Tom Ritchford on 2-1-2008 at 2:40 pm
23. Shannon - at least you were a woman.
posted by Bill on 2-1-2008 at 6:01 pm
Actually radiation can accumulate in the body. Gamma and X-rays don’t do this, alpha particles don’t tend to and I don’t think beta particles do it much, but if a beta particle hits a nucleus it could turn a proton into a neutron or otherwise destabilize the nucleus and form an unstable isotope of a different element.
Likewise, neutrons that are absorbed by tissues will alter the isotopic distribution. In general these modifications to the nuclei make them less stable, so over time the tissue itself emits further radiation.
Also when a nuclear accident has generated sufficient heat there will be some nasty isotopes released as gases, some of which accumulate in tissues if inhaled.
This accumulation of radiation is one reason why many of the tools used in nuclear reactors and waste dumps cannot simply be washed or scoured clean. They become low grade nuclear waste themselves and must be disposed of with that in mind.
Darian is right in asserting that in this case, the overwhelming amount of cellular damage would have been done by gamma and x-rays.
posted by Spacebat on 2-1-2008 at 6:33 pm
Nice post! I feel so simphaty to Daghlian…What I learn hear is don’t work too hard. Exhaustion can effect our awareness and accident happen when we less aware.
posted by Jerome on 2-7-2008 at 9:38 am