SL-1: The only fatal nuclear reactor accident in US history

I was a power plant operator on a nuclear submarine. We were shown a classified film that about the SL-1 incident as part of our training. Recalling that film still gives me chills.<p>A lot was learned about reactor safety as result of that disaster.

The SL-1 story is well known in the industry. The Atomic Energy Commission has a video.[1] SL-1 was an experimental reactor at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho, an 8000 square mile AEC reservation. It&#x27;s an isolated area, and the test reactors were many miles apart, just in case.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=qOt7xDKxmCM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=qOt7xDKxmCM</a>

Here&#x27;s another youtube video that goes more extensively into the mechanics of the accident. It&#x27;s pretty remarkable that they were able to work out the position of the control rods, given that they were blasted around the room during the accident, bent, broken and (in some cases) embedded in the ceiling:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=phbaE_0LANc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=phbaE_0LANc</a>

That part of Idaho is interesting to drive through. It&#x27;s near craters of the moon national park. The Idaho Nuclear Laboratory is pretty big. I remember it being nearly 50 miles along one side of the road with all barbed wire fences. It&#x27;s pretty lonely and creepy out there. There was one cliff in Atomic City that was covered with graffiti of large random numbers. It turned out that the numbers were from high school graduating classes but the numbers weren&#x27;t in order so it seemed like some random code.

Fortunately, this reactor was moderated by water, so after the incident, all the water was gone and the nuclear reaction stopped by itself. I don&#x27;t want to imagine what would have happened if the moderator was Graphite instead :&#x2F;

&quot;...killed by the only fatal reactor accident in US history.&quot;<p>Is that really true?<p>&#x27;“Nobody died at Three Mile Island” — unless you count babies.&#x27;<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.counterpunch.org&#x2F;2015&#x2F;03&#x2F;27&#x2F;cancer-and-infant-mortality-at-three-mile-island&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.counterpunch.org&#x2F;2015&#x2F;03&#x2F;27&#x2F;cancer-and-infant-mor...</a>

Does the Demon Core count as a reactor?

I find the term &quot;accident&quot; a somewhat meaningless distinction. Millions of people have gotten cancer (statistically) from the radiation in the atmosphere as a result of nuclear tests. Does it really matter that the tests were intentional or not?

Pretty good book about this incident: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Idaho-Falls-Americas-Nuclear-Accident&#x2F;dp&#x2F;1550225626&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Idaho-Falls-Americas-Nuclear-Accident&#x2F;...</a>

Whoa:<p>&gt; In the split second it took for the rod to travel the remaining 8.3cm, the reactor spiked to 20 GW, 6300 times its safe operating capacity.<p>(Up from that days&#x27; configured power output of 3 MW, happened while operator was lifting a control rod)

For what it&#x27;s worth, I like the original title on the article better.