What Is 'The Demon Core' And Why Is It Called That? - Science ABC

Home » What Is The Demon Core » What Is 'The Demon Core' And Why Is It Called That? - Science ABC

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‘The Demon Core’ was a 6.2 kg subcritical mass of plutonium core built during the 1940s to be used in nuclear weapons. The core resulted in the death of two scientists, which earned it the strange and sinister nickname.

In the 1940s, during the Second World War, the United States of America developed three radioactive plutonium cores to be used in their nuclear bombs. Among these, the first was used in the Trinity Nuclear Test, the world’s first nuclear explosion. The second core was the heart of the ‘Fat Man’ nuclear bomb dropped over the city of Nagasaki, Japan.

The third was supposed to be used in another bomb, which was to be dropped over the city of Tokyo. However, Japan surrendered following the detonations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the war came to an end.

Thus, the third bomb had no immediate use, and its core, named ‘Rufus’ was sent to the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico for research. Here, it received the nickname ‘The Demon Core’. So, how did ‘Rufus’ become ‘The Demon Core’? Let’s find out!

Implosion Nuclear weapon
Plutonium core used in the Atomic Bomb (Photo Credit : Ausis/Wikimedia commons)

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