Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "A Brief History of: The Sarov Criticality (Documentary)" video.

It has to be said that the upper shell falling on the lower one during assembly was not completely unpredictable, and the presence of a supervisor and the proper filling of papers would not have prevented it. A proper safety procedure would have been to keep the lower shell protected until all the pieces were properly assembled or, better, to add the fissile core only when ALL the other pieces were already in place.
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The upper shell falling on the lower one during assembly was not completely unpredictable, and the presence of a supervisor and the proper filling of papers would not have prevented it. A proper safety procedure would have been: 1) to build the upper shell holder so that it was physically impossible for the shell to fall trough it (not difficult, since the shell was round. Any manhole is built this way); 2) to keep the lower shell protected until all the pieces were properly assembled; 3) to add the fissile core only when ALL the other pieces were already in place;
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Even better to add the fissile material only when all the other pieces were already in place.
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Even not remotely. It would have been enough to add the fissile material, even manually, only when all the other pieces of the apparatus were already in place and the lower shell was lowered to the maximum.
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@LinasVepstas It never reached enough temperature, because the shells were not completely closed. Ironically, the technichan obtained a stable reaction.
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It would have been enough to add the fissile material core only when ALL the other components were already in place. In any reactor the fissile material is the LAST thing that's added.
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The upper shell falling on the lower one during assembly was not completely unpredictable. The biggest problem here was the fissile material being already in place during the assembly of the other parts. In any reactor, the fissile material is the LAST thing to be added. Remove it, and, for how bad you can screw it during the assembly, you remove any chance of a criticality incident.
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