Idaho Falls: The Untold Story of America's First Nuclear Accident

by William McKeown

The little-known true story of a mysterious nuclear reactor disaster -- years before Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, or Fukushima

Before the Three Mile Island incident or the Chernobyl disaster, the world's first nuclear reactor meltdown to claim lives happened on U.S. soil. Chronicled here for the first time is the strange tale of SL-1, an experimental military reactor located in Idaho's Lost River Desert that exploded on the night of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550225626
• ISBN13: 9781550225624
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: ECW Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Gripping

A history that has never been taught in school! Well worth the ready

Witty and shocking, this book is a must read

You wouldn't think a book about a nuclear excursion could be witty and snappy, yet scientific -- but this book is. It is also well-researched. I tore through this book in a couple of nights -- I could not put it down. The author was able to mix science with dramatic, true-crime style writing which made the pages fly by. I had never heard of this disaster, and I am surprised more people don't know about it. This book is worth the money, if only to educate yourself about how the government could run a reactor that is falling apart and is controlled by ONE control rod. Hellloooo?? At the end of the book, the choice is yours about what to believe happened -- I liked it that the author left it up to the reader. Good, old-fashioned solid writing with a little bit of "flash" (no pun intended).

America's first nuclear accident

Egon Lampbrect is a personal friend and he encouraged me to read the book. Very interesting how the early nuclear industry was just flying by the seat of their pants into unknown teritory. Being here in eastern Idaho, we all have relatives that have worked at the Site, and we for the most part support the nuclear industry. My father back in the 60's bought a surplus International truck from the site which would have been there at the time. I still have as a suvenior, a pair of ViseGrips marked AEC. I had an uncle that helped develop the chassis for the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki while working at the Navel Ordance Plant in Pocatello. All done in top secret, he told his family many years after the fact. The book is "a must read" for anyone interested in the early nuclear industry.

Worst Case Scenario!

During the 1950's and 1960's the Cold War was in full swing and young people all over the country were being recruited into the nuclear business - most had barely graduated high school. But they were enthusiastic, and they were trusting - just like me. We were ready to do anything for our country. We trained to build the atom bombs, operate the reactors, man the nuclear submarines and clean up the radioactive spills. It was all in a day's work. Of all the nuclear-relate jobs, I think the job of nuclear reactor operator was probably the most difficult, the most complicated and the most dangerous of all. At any time a million things could have gone wrong from a million different causes, so the reactor operators had to be clear headed and constantly on their toes. Everything relied on precision. They couldn't let their hair down for even a second, because the slightest mistake could result in the so-called worst-case scenario. And at precisely 9:01 in the evening of January 3, 1961 that's exactly what happened - reactor SL-1 went critical. By 9:02 people had died. Why did it happen? Shhh! It's a secret. But like one woman who was interviewed said, "...you kind of have to watch out for your government." What did she mean? It's all in the book titled, IDAHO Falls: The Untold Story of America's First Nuclear Accident. Read it. It'll scare you to death. I give this book 1,500 Roentgens!

This book is an eye opener!

The book was well researched and written. It showed another side to the "official" investigation and cleared up a lot of the mystery surrounding the explosion and deaths of the men involved. For those who have not heard of this mishap, it can definitely open the eyes as to what it took to propel us forward into the nuclear age and the limitations of human emotion. Three Mile Island was not our first mishap...obviously, this was, but more tightly controlled media and national security. It happened when I was young (though I lived nearby) and my neighbor had to respond to the site when it occurred. A very interesting and informative book.

riveting: death, sex and uranium

I read half of this while waiting for the train! The author's style is very clear and he's a good storyteller. While some of the chapters were a bit sensationalized, this book is well worth your time and money. "Idaho Falls" is more interesting than 99% of contemporary fiction out there :)