Everyone and thier mothers knows about Chernobyl and 3-mile island. However, very few people know about the first lethal nuclear accident. Reactor SL-1 in Idaho went critical in the early 60's, killing the three men working on it.
What could have caused such a thing? A question anyone could ask. Was it inexperience with the reactor? No. Was it bad procedure? No. Was it an accident?
Yes, the control rods were pulled out too far and it went critical in a milisecond. The staff member attending the control rods was John Byrnes, who was not the rookie at the scene. This incident has a surprising lack of coverage, especially for the time period.
From what data I could find, this incident would not have been prevented with a safety precation or any guidelines that existed at the time. It was probably a friction error, but who knows.
Research this, it's really interesting. Might even change your views on the issue of nuclear fission reactors. There are other little-known reactor mishaps, like Wolfe Creek... which is scary close to my current location.
What could have caused such a thing? A question anyone could ask. Was it inexperience with the reactor? No. Was it bad procedure? No. Was it an accident?
Yes, the control rods were pulled out too far and it went critical in a milisecond. The staff member attending the control rods was John Byrnes, who was not the rookie at the scene. This incident has a surprising lack of coverage, especially for the time period.
From what data I could find, this incident would not have been prevented with a safety precation or any guidelines that existed at the time. It was probably a friction error, but who knows.
Research this, it's really interesting. Might even change your views on the issue of nuclear fission reactors. There are other little-known reactor mishaps, like Wolfe Creek... which is scary close to my current location.