demon core
- noun
- Specialized
:
núcleo demoníaco
- The demon core was involved in two fatal accidents at Los Alamos Laboratory.
Examples
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Many safety protocols were developed after incidents with the demon core.
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The demon core was involved in several criticality accidents.
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Physicists studied the demon core extensively to understand nuclear chain reactions.
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Many scientists studied the demon core to understand its dangers.
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The demon core caused the deaths of two scientists during criticality experiments in 1945.
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After the demon core accidents, stricter safety measures were implemented in nuclear research facilities.
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Researchers learned valuable lessons from the criticality incidents involving the demon core in the 1940s.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound combines 'demon' (suggesting dangerous, cursed or harmful) with 'core' (a central part), so a B1 learner who knows both words could infer it refers to a dangerous central object. However the specific technical and historical meaning—a particular plutonium subcritical mass involved in 1940s criticality accidents—is not deducible from the constituents alone and requires world knowledge, making the expression only partially predictable.
Etymology
Demon core comes from a real object at Los Alamos: a small ball of radioactive metal that caused two deaths. Scientists began calling the small central ball a demon because it could suddenly give off deadly radiation if handled the wrong way, and because it was a core the name demon core stuck to mean that very 'dangerous' metal mass.
