this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
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[–] SkidFace@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nononono whyyyy is it emitting plutonium, the plutonium would be emitting radioactive particles D:

Also, it likely wouldn’t glow blue since there are no reflectors, so it wouldn’t reach criticality.

I love this one regardless :)

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Weapons grade spheres of plutonium need reflectors because they are just below critical mass, and the reflector pushes it slightly into criticality. There's nothing stopping you from making it a critical mass in the first place. Accidents have occurred with liquids at power plants where enough of it was pooled together to achieve criticality without a neutron reflector.