Complete Guide to the 1961 SL-1 Fatal Nuclear Power Plant Accident: Accident and Recovery Operations Reports, Official Findings, Timeline of Events, Technical Details, Safety Implications

Four official federal government reports provide the full details of the tragic SL-1 prototype nuclear power plant accident of January 3, 1961, the first and only immediately fatal American reactor accident. Three servicemen were killed in the incident at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

Major documents in this ebook compilation include the SL-1 Reactor Accident Interim Report, the IDO (Idaho Operations) Report on the Nuclear Incident at the SL-1 Reactor, SL-1 Recovery Operations, and the Final Report of SL-1 Recovery Operation. Other document excerpts provide background information on the reactor and the accident, and NASA'S assessment of the accident and its applicability to spaceflight safety.

The SL-1 power plant (originally designated ALPR), prototype for a remote arctic installation, was designed, constructed and initially operated by Argonne National Laboratory. It is located at the National Reactor Testing Station near Idaho Falls, Idaho. Combustion Engineering was selected as operating contractor for this plant on the basis of their response to an Atomic Energy Commission invitation issued in June, 1958 and assumed operating responsibility on February 5, 1959. After nearly two years of operation a nuclear excursion occurred on the night of January 3, 1961, when a military crew of three men were assembling the reactor control rod drive mechanisms. The resulting blast killed the three crew members, produced extensive damage inside the reactor vessel and secondary damage to the reactor room by ejected missiles.

The mechanical and material evidence, combined with the nuclear and chemical evidence, forced investigators to believe that the central control rod had been withdrawn very rapidly. They built a mock-up of the reactor vessel with identically sheathed and weighted control rods. In King Arthur fashion, men of lesser, similar, and greater strength as the crew tried to lift the rod. Most managed with little difficulty.