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No, the “Demon” core incidents - there were actually two - had nothing to do with a “prank”. It was a field expedient way around established precautions.

Slotin in particular was well known to be complacent, a bit reckless and not a strict adherent to nuclear safety or established procedure, and it killed him.

“Tickling the dragon” was yet another procedure entirely. It was a bit insane but they knew what they were doing.

According to Richard Feynman in his book “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman”, this was indeed something people did as a prank.

I didn’t mention the “Demon” core incidents and I did specify Slotin was demonstrating the process to people and bypassed the safety precautions.

“Tickling The Dragon” was the “prank” I was referring to, but Slotkin was doing the equivalent of “tickling the dragon” by bypassing the safety procedures, even if he wasn’t doing it as a prank.

“Tickling the dragon” was yet another procedure entirely. It was a bit insane but they knew what they were doing.

I myself can be a bit inadvertently unthoughtful or careless in operating potentially deadly equipment (like an automobile, for instance), so I have to realize that and try to compensate for it. That doesn't always work. So this is why in 1962. upon graduating with high grades as a B.S. Ceramic Engineer, I (with careful consideration for self and as the father of four) declined the generous beginning salary with Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL)^{(click here)} (GE, reporting basically to U. S. Navy and Adm. Hyman G. Rickover). whose developing history is now summarized online:

Extract From Wiki:
"In 2006 KAPL achieved full remediation of the S1C Prototype Reactor site located in Windsor, Connecticut. The S1C site remedial action was declared to be complete by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection in October 2006. KAPL had taken over operation of the S1C Prototype in the 1960s after expiration of the Navy's original contract with Combustion Engineering."

and similarly also from the Connecticut Advanced Nuclear Engineering Laboratory (CANEL)^{(click here)} (Pratt & Whitney, reporting to U. S. Air Force)

Image excerpted:

That opportunity I also put aside after traveling to examine these sites, never to be considered again.

Several years later, after working at another company as a research engineer, then having gone back for the PhD, followed by employment in that capacity, another company offered me w very attractive position guaranteeing employment to retirement age, developing materials for a more reliable trigger for the nuclear bomb, which I also forsook, and took an offer on the research staff of a well-known state university.

Looking back now, I think those decisions I made fifty years ago helped me obtaing longevity faith in my Savior and Redeemer and His spiritual urgings.

Be wise, my FRiends; not all attractive propositions are wise and prudent. Sometimes less appealing ones can be far more beneficial in long-lasting and pragmatic results.