Already having received the initial blast of neutron radiation, he disassembled the pile, exposing himself to additional gamma radiation. While slowly backing away before placing the tungsten carbide brick, he accidentally dropped it. While working on the experiment, the neutron counter indicated placing the last brick would cause the assembly to go supercritical. On August 21, 1945, Daghlian was working on a criticality experiment, attempting to build a neutron reflector. Although several months apart, both accidents occurred on a Tuesday and both on the 21st of the month, and ultimately both men died in the same hospital room at the U.S. These experiments, performed at the Omega Site, were commonly referred to as “Tickling the Tail of the Dragon”.
The Dragon Bites Twice: “Tickling the Tail of the Dragon”įirst in August of 1945 and again in May of 1946, two Los Alamos, NM scientists, Harry Daghlian and Louis Slotin, were exposed to lethal doses of radiation while performing experiments to determine critical mass.
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