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Everyone is a gangster until the room glows blue
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
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You're not entirely wrong, though I don't know anything about a barrel. One of the physicists, Alvin Graves, was right behind Slotin, and thus blocked by Slotin's body from most of the exposure. The rest were significantly further away, with the next closest person, photographer Dwight Smith Young, almost two meters back. Which was, apparently, far enough to keep him safe and allow him to survive into his 80s.
I don't know science as well as I wish, but the distance may be the inverse square law in action.
I think that's at least part of it, if I remember correctly. I think there's also something in the fact that it was passing through air, which may partially absorb radiation...? But I'm not sure about that one.