Word: slotin
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...first peacetime victim of nuclear fission died last week. He was Dr. Louis Slotin of Winnipeg, Canada and the atom bomb laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, the cause of his death-exposure to radiation-may become a familiar factor in the atomic...
Apparently Dr. Slotin and seven or more other scientists were working with "subcritical masses" of uranium or plutonium. Kept apart, these masses were lifeless as lead, but if brought together to form a mass above "critical" size, a chain reaction would start. Its violence would depend on the character of the materials. Probably they were midway in activity between mild-mannered natural uranium and furious plutonium...
Perhaps Dr. Slotin was watching the warning instruments more carefully than his fellows; perhaps he saw the bluish glow. At any rate, he realized that the chain reaction had spurted to high intensity. The room was being swept with deadly radiation. He leaped forward, put his body between his colleagues and the radiating mass, scattered its materials. The chain reaction halted immediately...