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Check this out, Steve. The site of this accident is now a 5 acre blacktop surface. One of the dudes was reportedly pinned to the roof of the containment building by the control rod.
SL-1 EXCURSION
Idaho Falls, Idaho, Jan. 3, 1961
A nuclear excursion occurred within the reactor vessel, resulting in extensive damage of the reactor core and room, and in high radiation levels (approximately 500-1,000 rem/hr) within the reactor room.
At the time of the accident, a three-man crew was on the top of the reactor assembling the control rod drive mechanisms and housing. The nuclear excursion, which resulted in an explosion, was caused by manual withdrawal, by one or more, of the maintenance crew, of the central control rod blade from the core considerably beyond the limit specified in the maintenance procedures.
Two members of the crew were killed instantly by the force of the explosion, and the third man died within two hours following the incident as a result of an injury to the head. Of the several hundred people engaged in recovery operations, 22 persons received radiation exposures in the range of three to 27 rem gamma radiation total-body exposure. The maximum whole-body beta radiation was 120 rem.
Some gaseous fission products, including radioactive iodine, escaped to the atmosphere outside the building and were carried downwind in a narrow plume. Particulate fission material was largely confined to the reactor building, with slight radioactivity in the immediate vicinity of the building.
The total property loss was $4,350,000. (See TlD-5360, Suppl. 4, p. 8; 1962 Nuclear Safety. Vol. 3, #3, p. 64.)
The Green Bay Packers
12-Time National Football League Champions: 1929, 1930, 1931, 1936, 1939, 1944, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, & 1996
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