SL-1
November 29, 1961: The reactor vessel being removed from the reactor building, which acted substantially like the containment building used in modern nuclear facilities. The 60-ton Manitowoc Model 3900 crane had a 5.25-inch (13.3 cm) steel shield with a 9-inch (23 cm) thick lead glass window to protect the operator. | |
| Date | January 3, 1961 |
|---|---|
| Location | National Reactor Testing Station, west of Idaho Falls, Idaho, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 43°31′06″N 112°49′25″W / 43.5182°N 112.8237°W |
| Outcome | INES Level 4 (accident with local consequences) |
| Deaths | 3 |
SL-1 Location in the United States SL-1 Location in Idaho | |
Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, also known as SL-1, initially the Argonne Low Power Reactor (ALPR), was a United States Army experimental nuclear reactor at the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS) in Idaho about forty miles (65 km) west of Idaho Falls, now the Idaho National Laboratory. It operated from 1958 to 1961, when an accidental explosion killed three plant operators, leading to changes in reactor design. This is the only U.S. reactor accident to have caused immediate deaths.
Part of the Army Nuclear Power Program, SL-1 was a prototype for reactors intended to provide electrical power and heat for small, remote military facilities, such as radar sites near the Arctic Circle, and those in the DEW Line. The design power was 3 MW (thermal), but some 4.7 MW tests had been performed in the months before the accident. Useful power output was 200 kW electrical and 400 kW for space heating.
On January 3, 1961, at 9:01 pm MST, an operator fully withdrew the central control rod, a component designed to absorb neutrons in the reactor's core. This caused the reactor to go from shut down to prompt critical. Within four milliseconds, the core power level reached nearly 20 GW.
The intense heat from the nuclear reaction expanded the water inside the core, producing extreme water hammer and causing water, steam, reactor components, debris, and fuel to vent from the top of the reactor. As the water struck the top of the reactor vessel, it propelled the vessel to the ceiling of the reactor room. A supervisor who had been on top of the reactor lid was impaled by an expelled control rod shield plug and pinned to the ceiling. Other materials struck the two other operators, mortally injuring them as well.
The accident released about 1,100 curies (41 TBq) of fission products into the atmosphere, including the isotopes of xenon, isotopes of krypton, strontium-91, and yttrium-91 detected in the tiny town of Atomic City, Idaho. It also released about 80 curies (3.0 TBq) of iodine-131. This was not considered significant, due to the reactor's location in the remote high desert of Eastern Idaho.
A memorial plaque for the three men was erected in 2022 at the Experimental Breeder Reactor site.