Such a brilliant man killed by an act of stupidity. What was he thinking, using a flathead screwdriver to keep the core halves separated?
Truly
My dad hired many brilliant theoretical physicists, scientists and engineers for very tough, advanced technical project. He always told me “Son, these people are brilliant, but they don’t know which end of the hammer to pick up.”
His brother, a PhD Mechanical Engineer, machined plutonium cores at Los Alamos National Lab in the early 50s. He was 98 or 99 years old when I was talking to him about his work there. I asked him about some machining tolerances and he stopped talking, went quiet for almost a minute, and finally said “I can’t tell you that. It’s classified.”
He was a hoser, eh?
“What was he thinking, using a flathead screwdriver to keep the core halves separated?”
It was a stupid act but it had a purpose.
He could vary the reactivity within limits by rotating the blade.
Quicker and easier than varying the shims originally used.
He was know for taking risky shortcuts.
He was a smart guy, but he became complacent. See this a lot, factory or industrial settings, and the military. There’s the prescribed “book way” and people working long hours sometimes take short cuts. Managers will look the other way. “Everybody does it”. Etc.
There were actually TWO different deadly incidents with the “demon core” halves, Louis, and some other guy a couple years later. By all accounts radiation poisoning is not a good way to go.
He was thinking "I got away with it last time ... it can't happen to me."
One who believes he has never (or never will) succumb to such thinking exhibits great hubris.