Slotin knew he fucked up as soon as it happened too. Apparently, he would always use a screwdriver to hold the thing open and was warned multiple times he was gonna kill himself. He did use himself as a human shield, though (not sure if it was deliberate or just happenstance), and ended up being the only fatality in that incident, iirc.
In fairness, several others in the room died years-to-decades later of leukemias that were arguably attributable to their exposures. That said, the Slotin criticality accident is one of those cases where nuclear disasters end up being both completely horrifying and a lot less deadly than you think they ought to be.
Slotin knew he fucked up as soon as it happened too. Apparently, he would always use a screwdriver to hold the thing open and was warned multiple times he was gonna kill himself. He did use himself as a human shield, though (not sure if it was deliberate or just happenstance), and ended up being the only fatality in that incident, iirc.
In fairness, several others in the room died years-to-decades later of leukemias that were arguably attributable to their exposures. That said, the Slotin criticality accident is one of those cases where nuclear disasters end up being both completely horrifying and a lot less deadly than you think they ought to be.