LogFAQs > #953046738

Most people don't remember the worst nuclear accident to occur in the US, the steam explosion and meltdown of the SL-1 reactor in Idaho. One of the maintenance technicians yanked the main control rod 20 inches out of the shut-down reactor, causing the core to go prompt critical. In 4 milliseconds the fuel and the water around it vaporized, causing a water hammer that launched the reactor vessel 9 feet into the air. The shield plugs were blown out, impaling one of the techs and nailing him to the ceiling. The super-heated steam killed another technician and severely injured a third man, who died a few hours later from a head injury. All three men were killed by physical trauma, but had they survived the radiation would have killed them anyway. Their bodies were buried in lead-line caskets sealed with concrete and placed in metal vaults. Some of their body parts were so radioactive they had to be buried in the desert as radioactive waste.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWi_w2H1saE

Though not designed to withstand an explosion, the building housing the reactor managed to contain nearly all the radiation. The reactor building was demolished and was buried nearby along with the reactor vessel, minus the recovered fuel, and other contaminated debris. The burial site was capped with rip rap in 2003.



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Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum,
Minutus carborata descendum pantorum.