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07-03-1961
First fatal nuclear accident in the U.S.
In 1961, three men were killed in the first fatal nuclear accident in the U.S. when an experimental reactor exploded. The Stationary Low-Power Plant No.1 (SL-1), was part of the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS), near Idaho Falls, Idaho. An 80-lb control rod was lifted by hand beyond its safe position, causing a core meltdown and explosion of the reactor. Four days were spent to devise a safe method to recover one of the corpses. All three bodies were extremely radioactivity, causing problems for their burial. Clean-up took 18 months. Investigators were never able to determine why this “abnormal act” occurred. Two decades later, a documentary speculated one of the men had marital problems and sabotaged the reactor.« Proving the Principle: A History of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, 1949-1999, by Susan M. Stacy. - book suggestion.
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