List of Accidental Prompt Critical Excursions
A number of research reactors and tests have purposely examined the operation of a prompt critical reactor plant. CRAC, KEWB, SPERT-I, Godiva device, and BORAX experiments contributed to this research. However, many accidents have also occurred, primarily during research and processing of nuclear fuel. SL-1 is the notable exception.
The following list of prompt critical power excursions is adapted from a report submitted in 2000 by a team of American and Russian nuclear scientists who studied criticality accidents, published by the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, the location of many of the excursions. A typical power excursion is about 1 x 1017 fissions.
- Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 11 February 1945
- Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, December 1949, 3 or 4 x 1016 fissions
- Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 1 February 1951
- Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 18 April 1952
- Argonne National Laboratory, 2 June 1952
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 26 May 1954
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1 February 1956
- Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 3 July 1956
- Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 12 February 1957
- Mayak Production Association, 2 January 1958
- Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, 16 June 1958 (possible)
- Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 30 December 1958
- SL-1, 3 January 1961, 4 x 1018 fissions or 130 megajoules (36 kWh)
- Idaho Chemical Processing Plant, 25 January 1961
- Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 11 December 1962
- Sarov (Arzamas-16), 11 March 1963
- White Sands Missile Range, 28 May 1965
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 30 January 1968
- Chelyabinsk-70, 5 April 1968
- Aberdeen Proving Ground, 6 September 1968
- Mayak Production Association, 10 December 1968 (2 prompt critical excursions)
- Kurchatov Institute, 15 February 1971
- Idaho Chemical Processing Plant, 17 October 1978 (very nearly prompt critical)
- Sarov (Arzamas-16), 17 June 1997
- JCO Fuel Fabrication Plant, 30 September 1999
Read more about this topic: Prompt Critical
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, accidental, prompt, critical and/or excursions:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“All is possible,
Who so list believe;
Trust therefore first, and after preve,
As men wed ladies by license and leave,
All is possible.”
—Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?–1542)
“Of your philosophy you make no use
If you give place to accidental evils.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“You shall be as a father to my youth,
My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear,
And I will stoop and humble my intents
To your well-practiced wise directions.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The critical spirit never knows when to stop meddling.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The businessman who assumes that his life is everything, and the mystic who asserts that it is nothing, fail, on this side and on that, to hit the truth.... No; truth, being alive ... was only to be found by continuous excursions into either realm, and though proportion is the final secret, to espouse it at the outset is to ensure sterility.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)