Louis Slotin

Lore & Background

Louis Slotin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Yiddish-speaking Jewish refugees from Russia. He earned a B.Sc. in geology and an M.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Manitoba, then a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from King's College London in 1936. Afterward, he worked at the University of Chicago as a research associate, helping to build a cyclotron and collaborating on radiocarbon production.

In 1942, Slotin joined the Manhattan Project, performing dangerous criticality testing with uranium and plutonium cores. He assembled the core for the Trinity test. After World War II, he continued at Los Alamos, training a replacement and planning to return to teaching.

On 21 May 1946, Slotin accidentally triggered a supercritical chain reaction while handling a plutonium core with a screwdriver, ignoring safety protocols. He died nine days later. The same plutonium core had killed Harry Daghlian the previous year.

Reader's Guide

Louis Slotin's significance lies in his role in the Manhattan Project and his death from a criticality accident, which highlighted the dangers of nuclear experimentation. The accident, involving the same 'demon core' that killed Harry Daghlian, led to increased safety protocols. Slotin was hailed as a hero for reacting quickly to save colleagues, but some physicists noted his reckless disregard for safety procedures. His story has been dramatized in various accounts, serving as a cautionary tale about the perils of nuclear research. The incident underscored the need for strict adherence to protocols in handling fissile materials, influencing future safety standards at Los Alamos and beyond.

Did You Know?

• He was an amateur boxer, winning the college's bantamweight championship.
• Slotin repaired an instrument under water inside a reactor while it was operating, receiving an estimated dose of at least 100 roentgen.
• The same plutonium core that killed Slotin had previously killed Harry Daghlian.