The truth about the sl1 accident understanding the. Sl1 reactor, national reactor testing station, idaho, usa type of event. The lake sediment material iaea sl 1 was collected and prepared by drs. Underneath the surface are what remains of the sl 1 nuclear reactor, the building that contained it, tons of contaminated soil and rock, and some of the remains of the only people killed by a reactor accident in the united states.
The sl1 reactor was a prototype of a reactor intended for easy assembly at remote facilities such as dew line stations in the arctic. The crew had been performing the routine process of. The top of the reactor building was removed using tools mounted on a crane to minimize radiation exposure. The design of the reactor was such that within 14ms of this the reactor instantly pulsed up to 20gigaw and they were dead or dying. The sl 1, or stationary lowpower reactor number one, was a united states army experimental nuclear power reactor in the united states that underwent a steam explosion and meltdown on january 3, 1961, killing its three operators.
High radiation levels required workers work in short, rotating shifts to complete the work. The sl1 reactor complex was dismantled and buried in unlined trenches next to the site. One of the reactor operators was impaled by a control rod. The day following the accident, a special board was convened by the general manager of the atomic energy commission to investigate and report on the accident.
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