In August 2011, Los Alamos techs posed 8 plutonium rods on a work table to take a few photos.
Had these rods rolled into each other there would have been an instant criticality event. (Think "Demon Core")
Worst still, a supervisor who saw the display ordered the techs to safe the rods, ignoring the protocol to evacuate EVERYBODY (b/c even a hand could moderate the neutrons & cause criticality).
It caused a 4-year, billion-dollar shutdown.
...
Smart people + overfamiliarity = stupid things.
@PadreSJ You suck at criticality...neutron-hater!
@PadreSJ with how well the demon core story is known theyd should have know better.
@PadreSJ Shouldnt they have used a bananna for scale?