Three Men Died in America’s Only Fatal Nuclear Reactor Accident. 60 Years Later, Investigators Never Learned Why It Happened

The 1961 Idaho reactor explosion was over in milliseconds, but the disputed cause and troubling design flaws remain unsettled decades later. A Military Reactor Built for Isolated BasesThe Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One was developed through the Army Nuclear Power Program to provide electricity and heat for remote military facilities. The Power Surge Happened Within MillisecondsControl rods regulate a nuclear reactor by absorbing neutrons, the particles that sustain nuclear fission. One of the three men was impaled by the ejected control rod and pinned to the ceiling. Later reactor designs did not give one control rod the same ability to create such a large rise in power.