My Father was working on the security desk at Central Facilities Area, National Reactor Test Site, Idaho, and responded with the fire department into the SL-1 reactor control room and partway into the containment that night in January 1961. I was just 7 years old, but remember the look of terror on Mom's face when Dad called and explained that he'd be late getting home from his shift, and a terse explanation why. Seems a small radioactive particle had lodged itself deep in one of his ear canals, and they wouldn't release him till he was no longer "hot" .He came home. In a grey, 2 door, 58 Chevy wagon with spotlights, antennas, and a revolving red roof light, as well as markings indicating US Atomic Energy Commission ownership and operation. The "love triangle/suicide/murder " theory was one of a few thousand that popped up over the next few days. That one being the most salacious, of course, has stuck around the longest even in the face of the hard investigations findings. What I DO know is that my Dad came home In paper coveralls, his hair cut close to the scalp, his ear bandaged, and he was tired and angry from the grilling he got from the preliminary investigation team that day.
There was a 4th death from the accident at SL-1! The female attendant in one of the ambulances died from radiation exposure due to the activation of the wedding ring of one of the 3 Army men killed in the accident! The accident was hardly "NON NUCLEAR"!
I met one of the firefighters or health physics staff who responded to the incident. He was a civilian working at S5G in 1978 when I went through. He and your father may have known each other.
@alancourtney4000 Good chance. Dad was out there from 53, after he got back from Korea, and retired as Captain in '85. Got to know Adm. Rickover hauling him from the desert to Idaho Falls and back. Also was part of security detail for shipments of material to Hanover, Rocky Flats, Oak Ridge. He told of sitting on radar car on the road, just before the turn into Central. A Sailor in Idaho Falls missed the bus, so he got in his '68 Shelby GT500KR, the one with the 428 Cobra and 4 speed. Dad clocked him at a buck thirty as he was decelerating and starting to downshift. (Dad was an old hot rodder at heart, but his last car was a 34 Ford with a hot Merc) He cited him for something like 10 over, and chewed his ass half heartedly for a minute, then kicked him loose to avoid that article 15 for being late... He was a mite rougher on my sorry ass........
This episode is appreciated. As a USN trained nuclear mechanic, the SL-1 accident was used as a closing safety argument at the conclusion if our classroom training at NNPS. You filled in a lot of gaps for me in the history of the military use of reactors for power generation. Thank you! Now do the reactor plants at Disney World... 😂
The non-nuclear explosion was a steam explosion because they accidentally made the reactor prompt critical when they pulled a control rod too quickly. One of the soldiers killed in the explosion was found impaled in the ceiling. Water expands about 1000 fold when it becomes steam. A steam explosion is when a lot of water simultaneously becomes steam.
@@binguspingus2461 Your point is well taken, but I don't believe the army had any intentions to use the mobile plants in forward areas. Mainly for use in remote locations where a connection to the grid was not feasible or practical. It was and audacious plan, just not a great plan.
During WWII my dad was an officer in the Army Corp of Engineers. After the War he worked as a civilian for the AEC in Oarkridge. He was recalled to activity duty and stationed in Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. He had Top Secret Security Clearance and never talked about what he did. Now I have a clue! Thank you.
@iro6758 : Back then, people still trusted the government, and if they said, "Keep your mouth shut," people kept their mouth shut, not even discussing with family. Now we live in a whistle-blower society.
@samsonoluwatosinomoloyin9469 : What changed? Alot, I think that the population simply had enough of being lied to about basically everything since the end of WW2. In the beginning, I think the government just lied about military and national security things, and people kinda understood about that and played along to be a good citizen... but now the government lies about what feels like everything... even stupid things. The Vietnam War was probably the tipping point though. Also, we don't have the same ideology as they did during WW2, and alot of people seem to only care about themselves these days. The American family unit is also not as strong as it was. ...I'll use my family for example, I'm 51 and can remember when my family was still "very tight", you know, family picnics every weekend, everyone gathers at a particular house for a holiday, if one relatives house needed immediate repair, all the adults would take care of whatever the problem was while us kids played in the yard. Now that our great-grandparents, grandparents, and mother and father are mostly gone now, my generation dispersed across the country and usually only see each other at funerals unless 'something comes up" that is... It's sad but its reality.
@@rogergoodman8665 Wow. I'm not an American citizen. Nevertheless, the points that you have made are valid. I believe that the government of all nations almost never acts in the best interest of their citizens. In my country, nobody trusts the government because we know that they also lie about everything. Because of my personal beliefs, I don't place my faith in any government. Also, the advent of the internet, television, and social media has also exposed some of the lies of various leaders. It was easy to deceive people in the past because there was no advanced technology for spying and dissemination of information. It just shocks me that American citizens (people belonging to the greatest nation on Earth) are being deceived by their government. Concerning family structures, I thought western culture has always been relatively individualistic from the beginning. So, you're talking about the disintegration that is also new to me. I think the size of the North America continent also contributes to it. People move to new cities far from where they grew up, and they might not have access to their families. But why this individualism? Also, what do you think about the current woke culture? I love the USA and want to come there in the future.
Oh, you haven't heard of the atomic tanks the army were looking into? Now, _there's_ a good idea: atomic reactors in vehicles that are going to be shot at by armour-piercing weapons…
That's the actual tech in sci-fi's star ships of all sizes. The time will come when all vehicles are powered by reactors, everything from cars to star cruisers.
The Russians actually built and flew a nuclear powered aircraft and are currently working on a nuclear powered cruise missile. The USAF built and ran a set of four nuclear turbojet engines but the aircraft they were supposed to be fitted to was canceled in 1962.
As a retired military former submarine sailor aboard the ship we shook our heads at the Army failed attempt at nuclear power. Hoping they’d never again try too
In Star Trek lore, dilithium doesnt power the Enterprise, deuterium does, as part of a matter/antimatter reaction. Dilithium moderates that reaction….so it’s less akin to a reactor, more like a control rod.
Things got clarified in The Next Generation, but The Original Series wasn't quite so sure--see "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "The Alternative Factor" as examples.
Normally, I’d be inclined to smack both of you for such a blatant attempt to make everything about Star Trek. Since THG brought it up though then this thread gets a pass. I had absolutely no clue the role Dilithium played until TNG. TOS just raised a whole lot of questions and gave no answers.
The armed forces certainly haven’t stopped with their development and research on all aspects of nuclear power usage. I worked on a triga reactor they use in Bethesda, MD, for the Armed Forces Radiobiological Research Institute. Our advancements always come in fits and starts but research never stops.
There was also a nuclear power plant installed at Pine Gap, Australia to power the satellite reconnaissance ground station there. It was of the same series used by the United States Army as was the one at the South Pole and in Greenland.
As a former sailor on a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, I often joke I served on "the worlds largest water heater" as it is a steam engine. That description is of course a simplification of a nuclear reactor but is essentially what it is. Going into a reactor compartment is sort of underwhelming. It's a giant metal box with lots of pipes and wires coming out of it. It's nothing like you would see on Star Trek.
There is a log entry in the game Encased that describes (paraphrasing here) the (for the setting's era) amazing new energy source in the base as an amazing advance in power generation that took humanity from using the burning of wood, coal and oil to boil water to make steam to spin turbines all the way into the future of using the power of atoms to... boil water.
A very interesting perspective on the history of military nuclear power. Submarines and aircraft carriers seem to be the only financially beneficial application.
Eh....excuse me. Gotta question. Does the location "Argonne National Labratories" sound familiar? How about "EBWR...standing for "Experimental Boiling Water Reactor". On December 29, 1956, at 9pm, full electric power output was achieved. If you want to talk about history that "deserves to be remembered", how about we start there. BTW: The proto-type for the USS Nautilus was developed in 1953 by Argonne on the late Admiral Rickovers' watch. FWIW.
My friend Tim spent 9 years in the Army as an inspector for the nuclear reactors around the country that the Army Engineers oversaw. He often inspected Indian Point and San Onofre plants as his job. He had to live in Virginia and when the program ended in '77 he left the army and worked for General Dynamics on the tomahawk.
The NNPP is stil going strong! I was going through school at NNPTC when we celebrated the 100,000th graduate in 2000. It was a unique and challenging experience that sadly, was too much for some people. It would be interesting see a presentation on it. Maybe a presentation on ADM Hyman G. Rickover too.
I'll admit, I wasn't expecting a THG video to start out with talking about Trek. But, as a die-hard Trekkie, I was delighted. 🖖 Live long and prosper, History Guy!
When I was stationed in Panama in 1972-'73, I had no real, day-to-day job (why is a long story, and not important), so, to keep "busy"? I did a lot of studying old maps, and exploring around the Canal Zone. And, one day while riding my motorcycle down some dirt roads that hadn't seen any traffic for a LONG time, I rounded a turn, and came out in a clearing, quite high up, and overlooking Gatun Lake. And, anchored down below me? I saw that floating nuclear power plant. During my wanderings, I'd heard rumors that it existed - and was somewhere in the Canal Zone; but, either no one knew where it was - or they weren't supposed to say. It's nice to have confirmation - finally - that those "rumors" weren't rumors, and that I saw something special that day...
This is fascinating! Another morsel of history remembered :) The trouble haunted mini-reactor of the fictitious "Sanctum" colony, in season 6 of the science-fiction post-apocalyptic series "The 100", may well have been inspired by, or even copied right from the ANPP!
Very interesting. The accident in Idaho of SL-1 is worth a discussion of its own. It was horrific for those involved. The later interment of the bodies and the clean-up of the reactor site were dramatic and sobering. It is worth reading about.
When I enlisted in the Air Force in 1972, there was a nuclear operator career field. It soon canceled. I eventually became a reactor operator for the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Actually, nuclear bus bar costs are quite a bit lower than just about every other generation. In the range of $11 to $19 per MWH compared to $25 to $45 for coal, oil, natural gas, etc. Hydro comes in near nuclear. I can't speak to the cost of solar or wind since I left the industry before they became a nuisance. In lay terms, just drop the decimal back two places and you get the per kilowatt hour cost, roughly, part of the price used to calculate you electric bill. Depending on your location this can range from $.05 to $.10 per kwh. Remember that your bill also includes the cost to hang, bury, and maintain the power delivery infrastructure.
@@alancourtney4000Photo Voltaic Solar comes in at between $3 and $6 per megawatt hour (hence the rush to build) but availability is an issue. Current thinking is to displace hydroelectric power during the day and use the stored water during the night. Solar power works really well where air conditioner loads are significant. Wind power is on par with hydroelectric but less capable of load swing operations.
Dear History Guy. Here in Portland Oregon we have lewis and clark college and they have plans that the NRC has already OKed for nuke power plants small enough to sit next to your house and strong enough to power 4 square blocks. As for the spent fuel the lewis and clark college also has the OKed plans for a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant that can reprocess nuke plant fuel with minimal waste IE a full size plant the waste would fit in the space of an office desk and the half life is in the hundreds of years not thousands of years.
With the US Navy having more experience in the use of nuclear power than any other branch of the military . . . And little things like the USS Enterprise CVN65 having been decommissioned, there are 8 nuclear reactors to be disposed of. Why couldn't those 8 individual reactors be put to work generating power on shore?
After a certain time, the reactor vessel becomes brittle due to neutron bombardment. They could anneal the entire vessel and reverse the brittleness but I can only.y guess it's too expensive...and highly radioactive...
It isn't just hydrogen embrittlement that is an issue, but the elements in the steel transmute into other, radioactive elements. Nickel and cobalt especially become quite spicy after being neutron bombarded.
@@Rorschach1024Induced radioactivity is why certain elements are avoided in reactor construction. Molybdenum is another (as it transmutes into Technetium by neutron capture). Aluminium doesn’t become radioactive so is preferred.
My understanding is that the explosion was not "non-nuclear" - it was the result of the reactor going "prompt critical", meaning the reaction rate suddenly spiked because the center control rod was accidentally pulled too far out of the reactor. It got stuck when one of the three men tried to pull it up enough to hook it to a mechanism that raised and lowered it during normal operation, which shows how primitive the design was. The steam explosion that resulted from the sudden spike in heat sent the rod through one of the guys, impaling him and leaving his body hanging from the ceiling, which the rod had also gone through. A second guy who was close to the reactor at the time was killed instantly as well. The third guy died of radiation poisoning a few hours later, never having come to after being discovered unconscious by rescue personnel. There were two "criticality" accidents (albeit with just the burst of radiation, not the steam explosion) during the Manhattan project, due to unsafe procedures by scientists working with plutonium cores for atomic bombs. So it's not as if the army didn't know criticality accidents could happen. Continuing to pull on the control rod once it had gotten stuck was perhaps what could be called "operator error", though that calls into question why the reactor was designed in such a way that it was possible to make that mistake. It also begs the question about how well the three men were trained - did the army tell them enough so that they actually understood how a reactor worked in terms of physics? If I were to guess from other deadly accidents in the U.S. military's history, the answer would be "no". Also not surprising is that the army brass covered the mistakes that killed men under their command by blaming the dead, just as the navy brass tried to do with the USS Iowa turret two explosion. It's a classic one in the playbook of all military hierarchies. The navy was fortunate to have a man like Admiral Rickover, who left no details to chance with navy reactors, including who was allowed to operate them, and the training they got (not that the navy brass appreciated him for it). If he had been in charge of this project, I doubt the accident would ever have been allowed to happen. No chance of that though - the army - navy rivalry would have seen to that.
I was a member of the US Navy's Nuclear Power Program back when Admiral Rickover was still running it. After spending 2 years going through the training, I spent 4 years on the USS Bremerton (SSN-698) becoming an EM1(SS). Going through Nuclear Power School, both the Army's nuclear power program and the Air Force's attempt to create a nuclear power aircraft were discussed and more or less derided by us. One of the rumors that circulated was that the SL-1 accident was caused by one of the operators removing control rods too rapidly, which was apparently done manually at that time, causing the reactor to go supercritical, generating a great deal of heat and resulting in a steam explosion in the reactor coolant system. According to the rumor, one of the control rods was ejected from the reactor, nailing the operator to the ceiling of the containment building.
Thank you for a factual and neutral discussion of history. So nice to see this discussion without the ominous music in the background like so many other films.
I visited SEFOR when I was in high school. Some of the knowledge learned from it went into the Arkansas 1 plant in the Russellville/Dardenelle area. The UofA was still using the location for experiments up until a few years back when it was shut down and dismantled.
Sadly the Greenland ice tunnel reactor was abandoned, and is still there, in the now warped ice tunnel. The US Army did not clean it up. Another shameful decision.
Good morning THG, I don't know if you consider this to be too political but I would like you to cover the history and the current changes of the military naming commission project. Even though it's partially a current event, it's history that deserves to be remembered.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel I'll get back to you when I have enough disposable income to be a top Patreon. I'm working on the DC trip... Speaking of the history of Arlington National Cemetery and a certain lady's rose garden will certainly be an interesting conversation. Great video and thanks.
Since it was brought up, I just wanted to say thank you for making your videos apolitical. It's a rare thing these days, and we really do appreciate the efforts you make. @@TheHistoryGuyChannel
I think that you could do a series on how military installations got their original names ie. Naval bases, Marine Corps bases, air bases. Many of these installations have gone through several name changes. I do understand your desire not to get into modern political antics. There are a large number of bases that have come and gone. A look at those bases will give you ample subject matter, you could break it down by categories ie, frontier forts, WWII bases, coastal defense bases, etc.
If I may presume. A subject for you would be the Strontium 90 power cell invented by the late Dr. Ron Brown. A book entitled "The Half-Life of a Nuclear Battery" by Phillip H. Talbert may be of use.
"Give 'em hell Harry!" "The buck stops here." -- small sign kept by H.T. on his desk. I place Harry Truman at as high a place as I do President Coolidge. Both were 'no nonsense' types and, to which ZERO scandal or money foolishness ever attached. Both absolutely had never been corrupted by soul-caustic "... love of money ..." One was a Republican, and 'tother a Democrat, which goes to prove that IT CAN be done. (Meaning a clean-life as lived honorably.)
As soon as I saw the title, I thought 'Idaho - SL1'. BTW, have you considered doing a vid on the 1957 Windscale reactor fire. - It's a fascinating, dramatic and hair-raisingly terrifying tale.
I can recall reading about small and large scale reactors in periodicals as a young kid growing up in the 60's, it was exciting time when almost anything seemed possible. The promise of electrical power produced so cheaply that watt hour meters would be unnecessary, unfortunately it didn't work out that way. Hopefully this new program Project Dilithium, will be more successful.
As the fossil fuel lobby loses power, we are seeing the detransition we should have been seeing over 50 years ago when the report "Restoring the Quality of Our Environment" by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's Science Advisory Committee came out in 1965, and nuclear is set to play an important role as a vastly more efficient and portable power source than the fossil fuels the world relies on so much. And it is thanks to small modular reactors like what is being requested for Project DiLithium that we will see the global energy mix shift.
This is unrelated and is a video request. As Tampa Bay Florida was spared Hurricane Idalia yesterday, could you please research and do a video on '1993 Storm of the Century - the No-Name storm of 1993", which wiped out and flooded residents of NW Florida. Thank you.
I remember watching a sci Fi horror movie made in 1958 where Dr Frankenstein's descendants (Boris Karloff) attempts to purchase a compact nuclear reactor (expensive but commercially available) interesting to look back from the eyes of the past and think Sure that technology will exist by 1970!! Movie is Frankenstein 1970 if interested
A remnant of the Army program a still there on the banks of the Mohawk River in Schenectady, NY. Sitting on the former ALCO, and later GE, grounds, it is now nestled behind the Rivers Resort & Casino, The River House Apartments, and The Courtyard by Marriott - the Walthousen Reactor Critical Facility. I suspect that most, if not all, of the people who live and work there have no idea that that little, nondescript building by the river is. These days it is operated by RPI. I'd link to their page on it - but every time I try the comment gets immediately deleted by UA-cam.
The August 1962 issue of National Geographic has an article about the Camp Century facility, including a cool two-page graphic. I’ve also seen vintage video about it here on UA-cam, but I don’t have the link handy.
Nothing could beat the nuclear reactor built at the Watertown Arsenal in Watertown MA. Just a scant few miles from downtown Boston. Quietly removed in the early 1970's it was only feet from well-traveled roads. Rumor was the green berets had field-packable nuclear weapons at Camp Devens MA.
All the considerations of the time were on cost and operational capabilities, but another thing that would make this of greater interest now - not really considered in the '60s so much - is environmental impact and climate change. This as well as newer technologies (such as the civilian-side "Small Modular Reactor" concept) could help feed interest in such a program, both military and civilian. I could see "Project Dilithium" being a joint project between the military, civilian companies (who could then sell derived technology commercially), the Department of Energy, NREL, and others.
Fortunately, micro-sized nuclear reactors have come a long way in technology since the ANPP reactor designs. New reactors using pebble-bed fuel and molten-salt fuel, the small modular reactor, don't need the complex and expensive cooling systems uranium-fueled reactors need, and as such they could be built at very low cost on a factory production line. And it has the major environmental benefit of not hogging vast swaths of land to generate power like what solar farms or wind power installations require.
Thank you, THG for a great video about a truly forgotten US program. It is a shame that so many people fail to acknowledge the contribution of government programs to the development of civilian systems.
SL-1 site was tragic and horrifying, that said many organization including the military only had the understanding of nuclear weapons at that time and, not application of nuclear energy for the propose of electrical and heat for facilities use. I attended NNPC at Idaho Falls which was really 60 miles from Idaho Falls in the early 80's. Lessons learned from this deadly and horrific accident were discussed in detail. During their shutdown period routine maintenance was to be performed. The accident occurred when one the maintenance crew with drew one control rod from the core. The rod was pulled out quickly and to the top of the vessel. where it went instantly critical and instantly turning all the water in the vessel to steam resulting in a steam explosion one of the crew members was impaled to the top of the building. This did not go unnoticed new safety guidelines were in place such as the reactor will shutdown not be able to attain criticality even with one rod fully ejected from the core. This tragic lesson lead to changes in naval reactors. At the prototypes real and simulated problems were apart of the requirement for qualification. Reactor principles and safety was introduced. If you every drive to Boise through Atomic City during the winter with snow on the ground you will come to a "Y" in the one way to the shutdown NNPC the other way to Atomic City. There you will see a patch on the ground with no snow on it. SL-1 is buried there.
The school that taught these plant operators lives on as the US Army Prime Power School. You mentioned Petty Officer Legg, today Soldiers and Seabees still train together at this school. And yeah this new modular nuclear plant was quite a hot topic when I was there. Hope it manages to get off the drawing board... or exported from the CAD software... whatever.
I graduated PP school in 95. When I was there the reactor buildings were still standing and we took a “tour” of them. The school has since been moved from VA to Ft. Leonard Wood MO. It’s interesting to compare the class photos over the years. Early photos were filled with guys in suits and ties and over time uniformed tickled in until later photos are all uniforms.
@@BoredBob yeah they have a hall of class photos upstairs in the new school house at FLW. My favorite part was seeing these old sailors wearing Fidel Castro beards.
@@andrewgraham2546 LOL Definitely changed over the years. My first PP duty station was Ft Wood. That was 3 years before they insisted on consolidating A Co and moving PP off of Ft Wood and up to Ft Lewis WA and I ended up doing 2 tours at Lewis before I retired with an extended (18 month) tour in Egypt in the middle. The more things change the more they stay the same. Now A Co is in Hawaii and the school is at Ft. Wood. LOL
@@andrewgraham2546 Once I got a handle on balancing and operating them I LOVED the EMDs! I went through school 94-95. Turbines were only at school then as well. EMD's were still out in the wild as peak shaving plants and there were still rotations south of the border. The PLT at Ft. Wood had heavy weights and had acquired a civilian bucket truck somewhere along the way. Not too long after the move to Lewis the BN made us get rid of it (and then a few years later after I got out I heard they got their own version for the BN). The rest of A Co had light weights as I remember it. About a month after I graduated school we deployed to Bright Star 95 with a set of heavy weights and a set of light weights as a single plant. I remember they hadn't even developed a way for us to hook up to the new portable distribution system yet so in PP tradition we figured it out ourselves and tied the plants together through the switch from the old trailer mounted substation and then tied into the new at the time portable distribution system by bolting straight onto the buss (my brain isn't what it used to be but it seems to me like I remember us actually having more than 8 generators there {I want to say 4 HW's and 8 LW's} and somehow we managed to run it all through the two CCVs with an extra 2 remote panels in each CCV {the feeds of which were literally drilled and bolts to the buss in each CCV} and then the CCV's tied together through the substation switch. I remember that when we were installing the plant the the Bright Star commander decided we were asking for too much when it came to the ground prep for the heavy weights and the soil never got compacted properly and we never got RR ties to sit them on which resulted in two of them sinking on the filler neck corner causing a bubble to form in the tanks so the fuel transfer never registered as full and they spewed fuel out the neck. The solution was to pull the floor of the control room up and add spacers so we could partially unscrew the fuel level sending units so that the bubble could escape around the sending unit. Talk about being tossed right into the fire (which we actually had when one of the LW's immolated itself one night). They got to feeling like we viewed ourselves as special and prima donas because of the things we needed and asked for. Right up until they had to transition back to tac gens towards the end of the exercise and went from constant, consistent, reliable power to "how come the power in my tent and the mess hall keeps going out all the time". That was also to origin of the first "World Wide Power By The Hour" sign (we were bored and had some artistic guys at the time). As I was retiring they were in the process of transferring over to the DPDGS generators. There are a lot of things I don't miss about the Army (don't get me wrong I loved being in) but man I sure do miss my PP days.
When I was an active duty USACE officer in the mid 1970s, at Ft. Belvoir, I worked with a LTC who had commanded the Sturgis. Years later, I was talking to an Officer from Prime Power and he'd never heard of it. Good Luck, Rick
This is a part of why we focused on the uranium fuel cycle and ignored thorium. Dual use sounded better than parallel development of a potentially much superior civilian power source*. That could be a video of it's own. *Just ask Israel vis a vis Dimona.
🙋🏽♂️ 2 Questions.... 1. What happened to General Groves after the Manhattan Project? Why did he not go on to lead these later Army programs? 2. FDR chose Truman as VP? I don't recall exactly why the change?
Just another example of recycling old ideas while considering current technologies, this capability will no doubt go through a lengthy process which includes things such as risk analysis, threat assessment, analysis of alternatives, cost benefit analysis, etc. The facts and assumptions used during this particular capability development process would be an interesting read. We’ve learned a lot in this nuclear age…or have we?
We have learned a tremendous amount about running nuclear reactors for power systems since the 1950s and 1960s. materials and controls have evolved over the decades. We can do this with new versions of old technology molten salt reactors are one area that is being pursued in 2023. We do not have to be locked into water-based reactor technology and the inherent requirements for high-pressure operation.
I think I asked 2 years ago for you to do a video on SL-1 I suppose the video could not be very long it's still an interesting subject. I'm glad to see that in some way it showed up on your channel. The deaths of the 3 personnel was truly a sad and terrible passing.
Wonderful video. As to what is to come, please explore the history and future of thorium based molten salt reactors. It should be the future of energy. Love your show.
A working molten salt thorium reactor was developed and run safely in the 60s for the mentioned abandoned "nuclear powered bomber," and now have the potential for a second generation, walk away safe thorium reactors that can provide enough safe clean energy for a person's energy needs for one hundred dollars a year. it can also be used as a nuclear fuel to reduce heavily radioactive waste from being unsafe for thousands of years to only 300 years.
Saying the SL-1 accident was caused by operator error is really not the whole story. Sticking control rods, and a terrible control rod layout, relying on one 'core' rod, played a massive role in this accident.
Regarding Dilithium as used on the Enterprise (lol), it is my understanding that it's purpose is to modulate the energy from the matter/antimatter reactor to create a "warp shell", using an input signal from the field generator, much as a transistor modulates higher power using a small input signal. Don't quote me on this. Just a personal theory. LOL!!
Please Lance, try not to use the word person in the place of man in your script. The word man is already genderless. It sounds ridiculous to say a three person crew etc. etc. thanks
So interesting that the nuclear reactor that could be transported by a truck already existed decades ago and we have good footage of it lol Is like the flying aircraft carrier This kind of thought makes me excited to see what the future holds
I think more on the SL-1 accident would have been appropriate. As to small modular nuclear reactors, there are several companies that have developed them. I personally have invested in Nuscale (stock symbol SMR) but there are others, including Terrapower which Bill Gates is heavily invested in. Both GE/Hitachi and Westinghouse are working in the space as are Fuji, Terrestrial power, Gen4, HTR, and others. These are mostly Generation IV reactors that essentially breed thier own fuel, so they burn up a larger percentage of the fuel before neutron absorbing elements build up in the fuel load so much that the reaction becomes impossible. The French who get more than 70% of their domestic power from standardized modular Gen III plants take "spent" fuel, reprocessing it to remove those neutron absorbing elements, then put it in new fuel assemblies to be put back into the reactor. The Canadians took a somewhat different approach, developing the CANDU reactor that was specially designed to use reprocessed fuel. This was the original, intended, fuel cycle before the nutjobs decided everything nuclear was evil incarnate.
Not entirely correct - it was the economists who came to the conclusion that running a advanced nuclear fuel cycle was more expensive than using only low-enriched uranium. Low enriched uranium which was found to be readily available on the markets (not enough nuclear plants built to force the owner's to turn to the reprocessed fuel cycle.) The doubts about having a lot of plutonium around was another one.
Hey History Guy,🤓I have a question for you. December ABBA is going to be here in concert. Does that sound interesting enough to get you to come to Las Vegas 🤔 for some fun?
The Baltimore District of the Army Corps of Engineers oversaw the dismantling of the Sturgis and their team is well into the process of doing the same to the Forts Belvoir and Greely reactors. I breathed a sigh of relief when Sturgis' reactor was gone, and she began her slow voyage from Galveston to the scrappers in Brownsville, TX in 2018.
My Father was working on the security desk at Central Facilities Area, National Reactor Test Site, Idaho, and responded with the fire department into the SL-1 reactor control room and partway into the containment that night in January 1961. I was just 7 years old, but remember the look of terror on Mom's face when Dad called and explained that he'd be late getting home from his shift, and a terse explanation why. Seems a small radioactive particle had lodged itself deep in one of his ear canals, and they wouldn't release him till he was no longer "hot" .He came home. In a grey, 2 door, 58 Chevy wagon with spotlights, antennas, and a revolving red roof light, as well as markings indicating US Atomic Energy Commission ownership and operation. The "love triangle/suicide/murder " theory was one of a few thousand that popped up over the next few days. That one being the most salacious, of course, has stuck around the longest even in the face of the hard investigations findings. What I DO know is that my Dad came home In paper coveralls, his hair cut close to the scalp, his ear bandaged, and he was tired and angry from the grilling he got from the preliminary investigation team that day.
Wow. Your dad was cool. Glad your here.
There was a 4th death from the accident at SL-1!
The female attendant in one of the ambulances died from radiation exposure due to the activation of the wedding ring of one of the 3 Army men killed in the accident!
The accident was hardly
"NON NUCLEAR"!
I met one of the firefighters or health physics staff who responded to the incident. He was a civilian working at S5G in 1978 when I went through. He and your father may have known each other.
@@flintcoat2596the EXPLOSION was non-nuclear… otherwise there would be a giant hole in Idaho where the facility was
@alancourtney4000 Good chance. Dad was out there from 53, after he got back from Korea, and retired as Captain in '85. Got to know Adm. Rickover hauling him from the desert to Idaho Falls and back. Also was part of security detail for shipments of material to Hanover, Rocky Flats, Oak Ridge. He told of sitting on radar car on the road, just before the turn into Central. A Sailor in Idaho Falls missed the bus, so he got in his '68 Shelby GT500KR, the one with the 428 Cobra and 4 speed. Dad clocked him at a buck thirty as he was decelerating and starting to downshift. (Dad was an old hot rodder at heart, but his last car was a 34 Ford with a hot Merc) He cited him for something like 10 over, and chewed his ass half heartedly for a minute, then kicked him loose to avoid that article 15 for being late... He was a mite rougher on my sorry ass........
This episode is appreciated. As a USN trained nuclear mechanic, the SL-1 accident was used as a closing safety argument at the conclusion if our classroom training at NNPS. You filled in a lot of gaps for me in the history of the military use of reactors for power generation. Thank you!
Now do the reactor plants at Disney World... 😂
I might do a full episode on the SL-1 accident in the future.
The non-nuclear explosion was a steam explosion because they accidentally made the reactor prompt critical when they pulled a control rod too quickly. One of the soldiers killed in the explosion was found impaled in the ceiling. Water expands about 1000 fold when it becomes steam. A steam explosion is when a lot of water simultaneously becomes steam.
I feel like having a reactor on base is a good idea until artillery comes in…
@@binguspingus2461 You bury the reactor underground, duh.
@@binguspingus2461 Your point is well taken, but I don't believe the army had any intentions to use the mobile plants in forward areas. Mainly for use in remote locations where a connection to the grid was not feasible or practical. It was and audacious plan, just not a great plan.
During WWII my dad was an officer in the Army Corp of Engineers. After the War he worked as a civilian for the AEC in Oarkridge. He was recalled to activity duty and stationed in Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. He had Top Secret Security Clearance and never talked about what he did. Now I have a clue! Thank you.
It's a bit surreal that, in a society built on checks and balances/freedom, you have to learn about your own Father's career from UA-cam lol
@iro6758 : Back then, people still trusted the government, and if they said, "Keep your mouth shut," people kept their mouth shut, not even discussing with family. Now we live in a whistle-blower society.
@@rogergoodman8665what changed?
@samsonoluwatosinomoloyin9469 : What changed? Alot, I think that the population simply had enough of being lied to about basically everything since the end of WW2. In the beginning, I think the government just lied about military and national security things, and people kinda understood about that and played along to be a good citizen... but now the government lies about what feels like everything... even stupid things.
The Vietnam War was probably the tipping point though. Also, we don't have the same ideology as they did during WW2, and alot of people seem to only care about themselves these days. The American family unit is also not as strong as it was. ...I'll use my family for example, I'm 51 and can remember when my family was still "very tight", you know, family picnics every weekend, everyone gathers at a particular house for a holiday, if one relatives house needed immediate repair, all the adults would take care of whatever the problem was while us kids played in the yard. Now that our great-grandparents, grandparents, and mother and father are mostly gone now, my generation dispersed across the country and usually only see each other at funerals unless 'something comes up" that is... It's sad but its reality.
@@rogergoodman8665 Wow. I'm not an American citizen. Nevertheless, the points that you have made are valid. I believe that the government of all nations almost never acts in the best interest of their citizens. In my country, nobody trusts the government because we know that they also lie about everything. Because of my personal beliefs, I don't place my faith in any government. Also, the advent of the internet, television, and social media has also exposed some of the lies of various leaders. It was easy to deceive people in the past because there was no advanced technology for spying and dissemination of information. It just shocks me that American citizens (people belonging to the greatest nation on Earth) are being deceived by their government.
Concerning family structures, I thought western culture has always been relatively individualistic from the beginning. So, you're talking about the disintegration that is also new to me. I think the size of the North America continent also contributes to it. People move to new cities far from where they grew up, and they might not have access to their families. But why this individualism? Also, what do you think about the current woke culture? I love the USA and want to come there in the future.
No matter what the Army tried to build it had make more sense than the USAF's plans for a flying reactor.
Oh, you haven't heard of the atomic tanks the army were looking into? Now, _there's_ a good idea: atomic reactors in vehicles that are going to be shot at by armour-piercing weapons…
That's the actual tech in sci-fi's star ships of all sizes. The time will come when all vehicles are powered by reactors, everything from cars to star cruisers.
The Russians actually built and flew a nuclear powered aircraft and are currently working on a nuclear powered cruise missile.
The USAF built and ran a set of four nuclear turbojet engines but the aircraft they were supposed to be fitted to was canceled in 1962.
As a retired military former submarine sailor aboard the ship we shook our heads at the Army failed attempt at nuclear power. Hoping they’d never again try too
Sounds incredible to us, but it seems they were up to any challenge in those early days.
In Star Trek lore, dilithium doesnt power the Enterprise, deuterium does, as part of a matter/antimatter reaction. Dilithium moderates that reaction….so it’s less akin to a reactor, more like a control rod.
Things got clarified in The Next Generation, but The Original Series wasn't quite so sure--see "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "The Alternative Factor" as examples.
Normally, I’d be inclined to smack both of you for such a blatant attempt to make everything about Star Trek. Since THG brought it up though then this thread gets a pass.
I had absolutely no clue the role Dilithium played until TNG. TOS just raised a whole lot of questions and gave no answers.
That’s the kind of nerdy pedantics I’d expect from here!
@@gregcampwriter TNG is called Star Trek. Everything else is called garbage.
Unless you're the Elaan of Troyius ... cry baby cry ...
The armed forces certainly haven’t stopped with their development and research on all aspects of nuclear power usage. I worked on a triga reactor they use in Bethesda, MD, for the Armed Forces Radiobiological Research Institute. Our advancements always come in fits and starts but research never stops.
There was also a nuclear power plant installed at Pine Gap, Australia to power the satellite reconnaissance ground station there. It was of the same series used by the United States Army as was the one at the South Pole and in Greenland.
As a former sailor on a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, I often joke I served on "the worlds largest water heater" as it is a steam engine. That description is of course a simplification of a nuclear reactor but is essentially what it is. Going into a reactor compartment is sort of underwhelming. It's a giant metal box with lots of pipes and wires coming out of it. It's nothing like you would see on Star Trek.
There is a log entry in the game Encased that describes (paraphrasing here) the (for the setting's era) amazing new energy source in the base as an amazing advance in power generation that took humanity from using the burning of wood, coal and oil to boil water to make steam to spin turbines all the way into the future of using the power of atoms to... boil water.
Well, if it glowed and made noises like a warp reactor, you'd probably be running. :)
@@MM22966 LOL! Yeah, that'd probably be a bad sign.
An incredibly fascinating Topic, the video is another gem as always! Thank you for all your hard work!
I HIGHLY recommend visiting EBR1 in Idaho, where you can also see the reactors intended for nuclear powered bombers. Truly a sight to behold.
I will be conducting tours there Sunday.
Those machines are insane. I remember hearing about the outrageous shielding arrangements proposed for ground operations.
Thank you history guy for this report. I always learn so much from watching your videos.
A very interesting perspective on the history of military nuclear power. Submarines and aircraft carriers seem to be the only financially beneficial application.
Eh....excuse me. Gotta question. Does the location "Argonne National Labratories" sound familiar? How about "EBWR...standing for "Experimental Boiling Water Reactor". On December 29, 1956, at 9pm, full electric power output was achieved. If you want to talk about history that "deserves to be remembered", how about we start there. BTW: The proto-type for the USS Nautilus was developed in 1953 by Argonne on the late Admiral Rickovers' watch. FWIW.
My cousin worked on something nuclear in Idaho for Bechtel. He never told me what his work was. We buried him in 1999. Good night.
Time to take our seats, class. Lance is starting to speak! Warm greetings from Connecticut!
My friend Tim spent 9 years in the Army as an inspector for the nuclear reactors around the country that the Army Engineers oversaw. He often inspected Indian Point and San Onofre plants as his job. He had to live in Virginia and when the program ended in '77 he left the army and worked for General Dynamics on the tomahawk.
The NNPP is stil going strong! I was going through school at NNPTC when we celebrated the 100,000th graduate in 2000. It was a unique and challenging experience that sadly, was too much for some people. It would be interesting see a presentation on it. Maybe a presentation on ADM Hyman G. Rickover too.
I'll admit, I wasn't expecting a THG video to start out with talking about Trek. But, as a die-hard Trekkie, I was delighted. 🖖 Live long and prosper, History Guy!
Look up how much fuel the Army consumes a day. Then consider the logistics of that. You'll start understanding why Army continues seek nuclear power.
When I was stationed in Panama in 1972-'73, I had no real, day-to-day job (why is a long story, and not important), so, to keep "busy"? I did a lot of studying old maps, and exploring around the Canal Zone. And, one day while riding my motorcycle down some dirt roads that hadn't seen any traffic for a LONG time, I rounded a turn, and came out in a clearing, quite high up, and overlooking Gatun Lake. And, anchored down below me? I saw that floating nuclear power plant. During my wanderings, I'd heard rumors that it existed - and was somewhere in the Canal Zone; but, either no one knew where it was - or they weren't supposed to say. It's nice to have confirmation - finally - that those "rumors" weren't rumors, and that I saw something special that day...
This is fascinating! Another morsel of history remembered :)
The trouble haunted mini-reactor of the fictitious "Sanctum" colony, in season 6 of the science-fiction post-apocalyptic series "The 100", may well have been inspired by, or even copied right from the ANPP!
Very interesting. The accident in Idaho of SL-1 is worth a discussion of its own. It was horrific for those involved. The later interment of the bodies and the clean-up of the reactor site were dramatic and sobering. It is worth reading about.
When I enlisted in the Air Force in 1972, there was a nuclear operator career field. It soon canceled.
I eventually became a reactor operator for the Tennessee Valley Authority.
"Too cheap to meter !" was the promise. Uh, nope, quite the opposite.
Actually, nuclear bus bar costs are quite a bit lower than just about every other generation. In the range of $11 to $19 per MWH compared to $25 to $45 for coal, oil, natural gas, etc. Hydro comes in near nuclear. I can't speak to the cost of solar or wind since I left the industry before they became a nuisance. In lay terms, just drop the decimal back two places and you get the per kilowatt hour cost, roughly, part of the price used to calculate you electric bill. Depending on your location this can range from $.05 to $.10 per kwh. Remember that your bill also includes the cost to hang, bury, and maintain the power delivery infrastructure.
This was the very first of nuclear power stations. Things have much improved since then.
@@alancourtney4000Photo Voltaic Solar comes in at between $3 and $6 per megawatt hour (hence the rush to build) but availability is an issue. Current thinking is to displace hydroelectric power during the day and use the stored water during the night.
Solar power works really well where air conditioner loads are significant.
Wind power is on par with hydroelectric but less capable of load swing operations.
Dear History Guy. Here in Portland Oregon we have lewis and clark college and they have plans that the NRC has already OKed for nuke power plants small enough to sit next to your house and strong enough to power 4 square blocks. As for the spent fuel the lewis and clark college also has the OKed plans for a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant that can reprocess nuke plant fuel with minimal waste IE a full size plant the waste would fit in the space of an office desk and the half life is in the hundreds of years not thousands of years.
With the US Navy having more experience in the use of nuclear power than any other branch of the military . . . And little things like the USS Enterprise CVN65 having been decommissioned, there are 8 nuclear reactors to be disposed of. Why couldn't those 8 individual reactors be put to work generating power on shore?
After a certain time, the reactor vessel becomes brittle due to neutron bombardment. They could anneal the entire vessel and reverse the brittleness but I can only.y guess it's too expensive...and highly radioactive...
It isn't just hydrogen embrittlement that is an issue, but the elements in the steel transmute into other, radioactive elements. Nickel and cobalt especially become quite spicy after being neutron bombarded.
@@goldensilver793 I know several people who are radioactive. They exist in Seattle.
@@allen480 rotfl
@@Rorschach1024Induced radioactivity is why certain elements are avoided in reactor construction. Molybdenum is another (as it transmutes into Technetium by neutron capture).
Aluminium doesn’t become radioactive so is preferred.
My understanding is that the explosion was not "non-nuclear" - it was the result of the reactor going "prompt critical", meaning the reaction rate suddenly spiked because the center control rod was accidentally pulled too far out of the reactor. It got stuck when one of the three men tried to pull it up enough to hook it to a mechanism that raised and lowered it during normal operation, which shows how primitive the design was.
The steam explosion that resulted from the sudden spike in heat sent the rod through one of the guys, impaling him and leaving his body hanging from the ceiling, which the rod had also gone through. A second guy who was close to the reactor at the time was killed instantly as well. The third guy died of radiation poisoning a few hours later, never having come to after being discovered unconscious by rescue personnel.
There were two "criticality" accidents (albeit with just the burst of radiation, not the steam explosion) during the Manhattan project, due to unsafe procedures by scientists working with plutonium cores for atomic bombs. So it's not as if the army didn't know criticality accidents could happen.
Continuing to pull on the control rod once it had gotten stuck was perhaps what could be called "operator error", though that calls into question why the reactor was designed in such a way that it was possible to make that mistake. It also begs the question about how well the three men were trained - did the army tell them enough so that they actually understood how a reactor worked in terms of physics? If I were to guess from other deadly accidents in the U.S. military's history, the answer would be "no".
Also not surprising is that the army brass covered the mistakes that killed men under their command by blaming the dead, just as the navy brass tried to do with the USS Iowa turret two explosion. It's a classic one in the playbook of all military hierarchies.
The navy was fortunate to have a man like Admiral Rickover, who left no details to chance with navy reactors, including who was allowed to operate them, and the training they got (not that the navy brass appreciated him for it). If he had been in charge of this project, I doubt the accident would ever have been allowed to happen. No chance of that though - the army - navy rivalry would have seen to that.
I was a member of the US Navy's Nuclear Power Program back when Admiral Rickover was still running it. After spending 2 years going through the training, I spent 4 years on the USS Bremerton (SSN-698) becoming an EM1(SS). Going through Nuclear Power School, both the Army's nuclear power program and the Air Force's attempt to create a nuclear power aircraft were discussed and more or less derided by us.
One of the rumors that circulated was that the SL-1 accident was caused by one of the operators removing control rods too rapidly, which was apparently done manually at that time, causing the reactor to go supercritical, generating a great deal of heat and resulting in a steam explosion in the reactor coolant system. According to the rumor, one of the control rods was ejected from the reactor, nailing the operator to the ceiling of the containment building.
That was more than rumor. Yes he was impaled and pinned.
Thank you for a factual and neutral discussion of history. So nice to see this discussion without the ominous music in the background like so many other films.
I love how one of the "remote" places that had a reactor was in WY, likening it to Antarctica and Alaska.
My dad worked on the USS Sturgiss in Gatún Lake in the Canal Zone.
I visited SEFOR when I was in high school. Some of the knowledge learned from it went into the Arkansas 1 plant in the Russellville/Dardenelle area. The UofA was still using the location for experiments up until a few years back when it was shut down and dismantled.
imagining the motorpool mondays for my nuclear reactor truck
i still think your theme song is reminiscent of eddy money - i like it!
nuclear disposal is a misnomer. Most is still in storage until a disposal site can be agreed upon and completed.
Sadly the Greenland ice tunnel reactor was abandoned, and is still there, in the now warped ice tunnel. The US Army did not clean it up.
Another shameful decision.
The reactor was removed. But some 47,000 gallons of radioactive waste was not, on the assumption that it would remain buried in the ice.
Good morning THG, I don't know if you consider this to be too political but I would like you to cover the history and the current changes of the military naming commission project.
Even though it's partially a current event, it's history that deserves to be remembered.
I think it might be too political at the moment, but how posts get their names is usually an interesting story.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel I'll get back to you when I have enough disposable income to be a top Patreon.
I'm working on the DC trip... Speaking of the history of Arlington National Cemetery and a certain lady's rose garden will certainly be an interesting conversation.
Great video and thanks.
Since it was brought up, I just wanted to say thank you for making your videos apolitical. It's a rare thing these days, and we really do appreciate the efforts you make. @@TheHistoryGuyChannel
I think that you could do a series on how military installations got their original names ie. Naval bases, Marine Corps bases, air bases.
Many of these installations have gone through several name changes. I do understand your desire not to get into modern political antics.
There are a large number of bases that have come and gone. A look at those bases will give you ample subject matter, you could break it down by categories ie, frontier forts, WWII bases, coastal defense bases, etc.
i lived at fort belvoir and fort fort greely
My dad was in the Corp of Engineers and an instructor for the SM-1 and worked the Surgis in the Panama Canal during the 70’s.
Back in the Saddle Again Naturally!
I like the USS Enterprise up on the shelf. 🖖
If I may presume. A subject for you would be the Strontium 90 power cell invented by the late Dr. Ron Brown. A book entitled "The Half-Life of a Nuclear Battery" by Phillip H. Talbert may be of use.
"Give 'em hell Harry!"
"The buck stops here." -- small sign kept by H.T. on his desk.
I place Harry Truman at as high a place as I do President Coolidge.
Both were 'no nonsense' types and, to which ZERO scandal or
money foolishness ever attached. Both absolutely had never been
corrupted by soul-caustic "... love of money ..."
One was a Republican, and 'tother a Democrat, which goes to prove
that IT CAN be done. (Meaning a clean-life as lived honorably.)
Dear History Guy, thank you for a trip down memory lane. I was a sailor who went through nuclear power training at Ft Belvoir 1972-1973.
There's a nuclear power plant there?
I was at Ft. Belvoir 1972-1973 when in training and as an instructor for tactical generators.
I would have called it, Army-geddon. 😁
BAHAHAHAAH! 😂
As soon as I saw the title, I thought 'Idaho - SL1'.
BTW, have you considered doing a vid on the 1957 Windscale reactor fire. - It's a fascinating, dramatic and hair-raisingly terrifying tale.
I can recall reading about small and large scale reactors in periodicals as a young kid growing up in the 60's, it was exciting time when almost anything seemed possible. The promise of electrical power produced so cheaply that watt hour meters would be unnecessary, unfortunately it didn't work out that way. Hopefully this new program Project Dilithium, will be more successful.
As the fossil fuel lobby loses power, we are seeing the detransition we should have been seeing over 50 years ago when the report "Restoring the Quality of Our Environment" by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's Science Advisory Committee came out in 1965, and nuclear is set to play an important role as a vastly more efficient and portable power source than the fossil fuels the world relies on so much. And it is thanks to small modular reactors like what is being requested for Project DiLithium that we will see the global energy mix shift.
This is unrelated and is a video request. As Tampa Bay Florida was spared Hurricane Idalia yesterday, could you please research and do a video on '1993 Storm of the Century - the No-Name storm of 1993", which wiped out and flooded residents of NW Florida. Thank you.
I remember watching a sci Fi horror movie made in 1958 where Dr Frankenstein's descendants (Boris Karloff) attempts to purchase a compact nuclear reactor (expensive but commercially available) interesting to look back from the eyes of the past and think Sure that technology will exist by 1970!! Movie is Frankenstein 1970 if interested
A remnant of the Army program a still there on the banks of the Mohawk River in Schenectady, NY. Sitting on the former ALCO, and later GE, grounds, it is now nestled behind the Rivers Resort & Casino, The River House Apartments, and The Courtyard by Marriott - the Walthousen Reactor Critical Facility. I suspect that most, if not all, of the people who live and work there have no idea that that little, nondescript building by the river is.
These days it is operated by RPI. I'd link to their page on it - but every time I try the comment gets immediately deleted by UA-cam.
The August 1962 issue of National Geographic has an article about the Camp Century facility, including a cool two-page graphic. I’ve also seen vintage video about it here on UA-cam, but I don’t have the link handy.
Get Up Were Up
And Up Were To Put Me Down Further..
Furniture Maintenance Calling Back..
Nothing could beat the nuclear reactor built at the Watertown Arsenal in Watertown MA. Just a scant few miles from downtown Boston. Quietly removed in the early 1970's it was only feet from well-traveled roads. Rumor was the green berets had field-packable nuclear weapons at Camp Devens MA.
All the considerations of the time were on cost and operational capabilities, but another thing that would make this of greater interest now - not really considered in the '60s so much - is environmental impact and climate change. This as well as newer technologies (such as the civilian-side "Small Modular Reactor" concept) could help feed interest in such a program, both military and civilian. I could see "Project Dilithium" being a joint project between the military, civilian companies (who could then sell derived technology commercially), the Department of Energy, NREL, and others.
Here's an odd one for you. Over your right shoulder, top shelf is what looks like a fairy, TInkerbell perhaps. Where did you get it?
_Looking for the comment from fellow trekkies explaining dilithium crystals..._ 😸
Fortunately, micro-sized nuclear reactors have come a long way in technology since the ANPP reactor designs. New reactors using pebble-bed fuel and molten-salt fuel, the small modular reactor, don't need the complex and expensive cooling systems uranium-fueled reactors need, and as such they could be built at very low cost on a factory production line. And it has the major environmental benefit of not hogging vast swaths of land to generate power like what solar farms or wind power installations require.
It's like the History Guy recently found and binge watched Curious Droid. I approve!
Thank you, THG for a great video about a truly forgotten US program. It is a shame that so many people fail to acknowledge the contribution of government programs to the development of civilian systems.
SL-1 site was tragic and horrifying, that said many organization including the military only had the understanding of nuclear weapons at that time and, not application of nuclear energy for the propose of electrical and heat for facilities use. I attended NNPC at Idaho Falls which was really 60 miles from Idaho Falls in the early 80's. Lessons learned from this deadly and horrific accident were discussed in detail. During their shutdown period routine maintenance was to be performed. The accident occurred when one the maintenance crew with drew one control rod from the core. The rod was pulled out quickly and to the top of the vessel. where it went instantly critical and instantly turning all the water in the vessel to steam resulting in a steam explosion one of the crew members was impaled to the top of the building. This did not go unnoticed new safety guidelines were in place such as the reactor will shutdown not be able to attain criticality even with one rod fully ejected from the core. This tragic lesson lead to changes in naval reactors. At the prototypes real and simulated problems were apart of the requirement for qualification. Reactor principles and safety was introduced. If you every drive to Boise through Atomic City during the winter with snow on the ground you will come to a "Y" in the one way to the shutdown NNPC the other way to Atomic City. There you will see a patch on the ground with no snow on it. SL-1 is buried there.
The school that taught these plant operators lives on as the US Army Prime Power School. You mentioned Petty Officer Legg, today Soldiers and Seabees still train together at this school. And yeah this new modular nuclear plant was quite a hot topic when I was there. Hope it manages to get off the drawing board... or exported from the CAD software... whatever.
I graduated PP school in 95. When I was there the reactor buildings were still standing and we took a “tour” of them. The school has since been moved from VA to Ft. Leonard Wood MO. It’s interesting to compare the class photos over the years. Early photos were filled with guys in suits and ties and over time uniformed tickled in until later photos are all uniforms.
@@BoredBob yeah they have a hall of class photos upstairs in the new school house at FLW. My favorite part was seeing these old sailors wearing Fidel Castro beards.
@@andrewgraham2546 LOL Definitely changed over the years. My first PP duty station was Ft Wood. That was 3 years before they insisted on consolidating A Co and moving PP off of Ft Wood and up to Ft Lewis WA and I ended up doing 2 tours at Lewis before I retired with an extended (18 month) tour in Egypt in the middle. The more things change the more they stay the same. Now A Co is in Hawaii and the school is at Ft. Wood. LOL
@@BoredBob Hey the EMDs are still going strong. It's all diesel now though, turbine plants are just part of the academics.
@@andrewgraham2546 Once I got a handle on balancing and operating them I LOVED the EMDs! I went through school 94-95. Turbines were only at school then as well. EMD's were still out in the wild as peak shaving plants and there were still rotations south of the border. The PLT at Ft. Wood had heavy weights and had acquired a civilian bucket truck somewhere along the way. Not too long after the move to Lewis the BN made us get rid of it (and then a few years later after I got out I heard they got their own version for the BN). The rest of A Co had light weights as I remember it. About a month after I graduated school we deployed to Bright Star 95 with a set of heavy weights and a set of light weights as a single plant. I remember they hadn't even developed a way for us to hook up to the new portable distribution system yet so in PP tradition we figured it out ourselves and tied the plants together through the switch from the old trailer mounted substation and then tied into the new at the time portable distribution system by bolting straight onto the buss (my brain isn't what it used to be but it seems to me like I remember us actually having more than 8 generators there {I want to say 4 HW's and 8 LW's} and somehow we managed to run it all through the two CCVs with an extra 2 remote panels in each CCV {the feeds of which were literally drilled and bolts to the buss in each CCV} and then the CCV's tied together through the substation switch. I remember that when we were installing the plant the the Bright Star commander decided we were asking for too much when it came to the ground prep for the heavy weights and the soil never got compacted properly and we never got RR ties to sit them on which resulted in two of them sinking on the filler neck corner causing a bubble to form in the tanks so the fuel transfer never registered as full and they spewed fuel out the neck. The solution was to pull the floor of the control room up and add spacers so we could partially unscrew the fuel level sending units so that the bubble could escape around the sending unit. Talk about being tossed right into the fire (which we actually had when one of the LW's immolated itself one night). They got to feeling like we viewed ourselves as special and prima donas because of the things we needed and asked for. Right up until they had to transition back to tac gens towards the end of the exercise and went from constant, consistent, reliable power to "how come the power in my tent and the mess hall keeps going out all the time". That was also to origin of the first "World Wide Power By The Hour" sign (we were bored and had some artistic guys at the time). As I was retiring they were in the process of transferring over to the DPDGS generators. There are a lot of things I don't miss about the Army (don't get me wrong I loved being in) but man I sure do miss my PP days.
When I was an active duty USACE officer in the mid 1970s, at Ft. Belvoir, I worked with a LTC who had commanded the Sturgis. Years later, I was talking to an Officer from Prime Power and he'd never heard of it. Good Luck, Rick
This is a part of why we focused on the uranium fuel cycle and ignored thorium. Dual use sounded better than parallel development of a potentially much superior civilian power source*. That could be a video of it's own.
*Just ask Israel vis a vis Dimona.
🙋🏽♂️ 2 Questions.... 1. What happened to General Groves after the Manhattan Project? Why did he not go on to lead these later Army programs? 2. FDR chose Truman as VP? I don't recall exactly why the change?
Imagine the nightmare of your command post reactor taking fire. Even without a nuclear explosion, everybody would have to flee the area.
Just another example of recycling old ideas while considering current technologies, this capability will no doubt go through a lengthy process which includes things such as risk analysis, threat assessment, analysis of alternatives, cost benefit analysis, etc.
The facts and assumptions used during this particular capability development process would be an interesting read. We’ve learned a lot in this nuclear age…or have we?
An atomic powered bomber- is anybody else thinking of Tom Swift Junior and the queen of the skies? 😁
We have learned a tremendous amount about running nuclear reactors for power systems since the 1950s and 1960s. materials and controls have evolved over the decades. We can do this with new versions of old technology molten salt reactors are one area that is being pursued in 2023. We do not have to be locked into water-based reactor technology and the inherent requirements for high-pressure operation.
Portable = Potential Nuclear Disaster ANYWHERE it goes 🤦♂
I think I asked 2 years ago for you to do a video on SL-1 I suppose the video could not be very long it's still an interesting subject. I'm glad to see that in some way it showed up on your channel. The deaths of the 3 personnel was truly a sad and terrible passing.
☢ ☠ 🤬.....Thank THG🎀❣👍
Let’s hope Project Dilithium proceeds, as China and other competitors are already rolling out small-scale nuclear while researching more.
Wonderful video. As to what is to come, please explore the history and future of thorium based molten salt reactors. It should be the future of energy. Love your show.
Correction: 1:44 largest non nuclear air dropped/aerial bomb used in the history of warfare. There have been larger ground-based bombs used.
If is the biggest little word in the English language.
If we can make it work and make it physically responsible then yes.
A working molten salt thorium reactor was developed and run safely in the 60s for the mentioned abandoned "nuclear powered bomber," and now have the potential for a second generation, walk away safe thorium reactors that can provide enough safe clean energy for a person's energy needs for one hundred dollars a year. it can also be used as a nuclear fuel to reduce heavily radioactive waste from being unsafe for thousands of years to only 300 years.
Saying the SL-1 accident was caused by operator error is really not the whole story. Sticking control rods, and a terrible control rod layout, relying on one 'core' rod, played a massive role in this accident.
I'm surprised you didn't comment on the Soviet equivalent program.
If those technicians were graduate engineers from the University of Idaho, the accident was inevitable.
Regarding Dilithium as used on the Enterprise (lol), it is my understanding that it's purpose is to modulate the energy from the matter/antimatter reactor to create a "warp shell", using an input signal from the field generator, much as a transistor modulates higher power using a small input signal. Don't quote me on this. Just a personal theory. LOL!!
The final stages of the Fort Belvour reactor decommissioning is well underway and will likely close that chapter in 2024.
I feel like a modern micro reactor design would be far safer with a much higher efficiency than ones designed and built in the 60's.
Please Lance, try not to use the word person in the place of man in your script. The word man is already genderless. It sounds ridiculous to say a three person crew etc. etc. thanks
So interesting that the nuclear reactor that could be transported by a truck already existed decades ago and we have good footage of it lol
Is like the flying aircraft carrier
This kind of thought makes me excited to see what the future holds
this stinks of NPR, except it's good. a real mindfuck
You know a country is fucked up when they want a mobile nuclear powerplant to power their AC in the desert
No mention of Arco Idaho, the first nuclear lit city in 1955?
Another good episode. I can't see this one on Rumble. It says try again later.
Leave it to the army to entrust nuclear power to a bunch of enlisted twenty somethings.
Small reactors make sense for a few niche applications, but bigger is almost invariably more practical.
Micro reactors exist. Nuclear submarines are using micro reactors. Larger size can power a remote station or in space.
Visit the Star Trek museum in Ticonderoga New York
There are a lot of investments only governments will make, that private enterprises never will.
I have heard them talk about Dilithium on Star Trek.
I think more on the SL-1 accident would have been appropriate.
As to small modular nuclear reactors, there are several companies that have developed them. I personally have invested in Nuscale (stock symbol SMR) but there are others, including Terrapower which Bill Gates is heavily invested in. Both GE/Hitachi and Westinghouse are working in the space as are Fuji, Terrestrial power, Gen4, HTR, and others. These are mostly Generation IV reactors that essentially breed thier own fuel, so they burn up a larger percentage of the fuel before neutron absorbing elements build up in the fuel load so much that the reaction becomes impossible. The French who get more than 70% of their domestic power from standardized modular Gen III plants take "spent" fuel, reprocessing it to remove those neutron absorbing elements, then put it in new fuel assemblies to be put back into the reactor. The Canadians took a somewhat different approach, developing the CANDU reactor that was specially designed to use reprocessed fuel. This was the original, intended, fuel cycle before the nutjobs decided everything nuclear was evil incarnate.
Not entirely correct - it was the economists who came to the conclusion that running a advanced nuclear fuel cycle was more expensive than using only low-enriched uranium.
Low enriched uranium which was found to be readily available on the markets (not enough nuclear plants built to force the owner's to turn to the reprocessed fuel cycle.)
The doubts about having a lot of plutonium around was another one.
Hey History Guy,🤓I have a question for you. December ABBA is going to be here in concert. Does that sound interesting enough to get you to come to Las Vegas 🤔 for some fun?
I'd go just to see Agnetha!! Still beautiful...
@@RetiredSailor60 I like Frida 👍 Who is a Countess!
Great now dancing queen is going to be stuck in my head for a week
@@belialofeden It's in mine too!! Lol 😆
@@belialofeden All I've got to say is You can Dance . You can Jive having the time of your life. Ohh !
$1 million dollars says this dude used to work for NPR
The Baltimore District of the Army Corps of Engineers oversaw the dismantling of the Sturgis and their team is well into the process of doing the same to the Forts Belvoir and Greely reactors. I breathed a sigh of relief when Sturgis' reactor was gone, and she began her slow voyage from Galveston to the scrappers in Brownsville, TX in 2018.
Less of a hazard than a bunch of EVs on a car carrier.
Aside from US Navy ships and subs: the last US land based nuclear power plant was in McMurdo, Antarctica.
Hint, talking about US military nuclear power plants.