I read a bit on radiation and criticality, so I have some familiarity with that. I was reading about the details of the criticality accident. From what I understand, he was trying to place a neutron reflector on top of the demon core, and kept it apart only with a screwdriver wedged between the two reflector halves. The screwdriver slipped, the reflector made contact with the core, and radiation was released.
My question is, was it the physical contact of the reflector that caused the radiation to be released? How? From what I understand, reflectors speed up fission kind of how a potato cooks faster when wrapped in foil. Is it really all that it takes to cause nuclear fission, and not some elaborate bomb or reactor mechanism?
In: Physics
> was it the physical contact of the reflector that caused the radiation to be released? How?
Not the physical contact per se, but the proximity to the core.
> reflectors speed up fission kind of how a potato cooks faster when wrapped in foil.
Sort of? The neutron reflectors increase the amount of neutrons passing through the radioactive material which increases the amount of interactions, meaning the radioactive activity increases.
> Is it really all that it takes to cause nuclear fission
Yes. The elaborate setups are to do it in a specific, controlled way. But just cramming enough radioactive material together will result in a runaway chain reaction.
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