Phrase guide

Christy pit

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

An early design of pit (core of an implosion-type nuclear weapon), used in the detonation over Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The principal insight behind the Christy pit was that a solid, subcritical core of plutonium could be compressed to criticality.
  • 2017, Demon core, entry in Benjamin C. Garrett, Historical Dictionary of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare, Bowman & Littlefield, 2nd Edition, page 90, Nickname given to the Christy pit because of its association with two fatalities during hands-on Dragon Experiments; it replaced “Rufus,” an earlier nickname. The Christy pit, a solid sphere of plutonium-239, was initially fabricated as two hemispheres of an alloy of plutonium and gallium.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Named after Canadian-American physicist Robert F. Christy, who worked on the Manhattan Project to produce the first nuclear weapons.