[Pan_Yan]

The SL-1, or Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, was a United States Army experimental nuclear power reactor which underwent a steam explosion and meltdown on January 3, 1961, killing its three operators. The direct cause was the improper withdrawal of the main control rod, responsible for 80% of neutron moderation in the poorly designed reactor core. The event is the only fatal reactor accident in the United States.

The concrete foundations are still there in the Idaho dessert. I used to drive by it every day.

[B-Chan]

A story every Navy nuke knows.

Rumor around Rickover Hall was that the excursion was deliberate — some sort of revenge. Did anyone ever figure ut just what the hell happened at SL-1?

[Archer24]

I remember hearing of another nuke accident in Georgia. This one was a full sized reactor and the operator went the wrong way with the control rod. Radiation was such that they just abandoned the whole thing. Heard in nuclear weapons school.