Windscale Piles for processing in January 1952, and Tom Tuohy retrieved the first sample of British plutonium on 28 March 1952. Enough Windscale plutonium for an atomic bomb was delivered to the weapons division at Aldermaston in August, and Britain's first nuclear device was successfully detonated in the Operation Hurricane test in the Monte Bello Islands in Western Australia on 3 October 1952. Wigner energy, if allowed to accumulate, could escape spontaneously in a powerful rush of heat. On 7 May 1952, Pile No. 2 experienced a mysterious rise in core temperature despite the fact that the pile had been shut down.
What If (story) What If (story) "What If—" is a fantasy short story by Isaac Asimov that was first published in the Summer 1952 issue of "Fantastic" and reprinted in the 1969 collection "Nightfall and Other Stories". The story was inspired by the author's wife, who challenged him to produce a story based on a train trip they were taking to New York. A married couple is traveling on a train from Boston to New York City. They meet a mysterious silent man known only as Mister If, who shows them a small portable television-like device about in size. (Mr. If's first name