Halibut Hangar

Submariners looking for a fast, fun, and fascinating read over the holidays might enjoy Todd Tucker’s new book Atomic America. The short book revisits the 1961 Idaho SL-11, 3 MWt Boiling Water Reactor’s explosive energy excursion from the perspective of a former Ohio-class submarine engineering officer. Tucker, succumbs to the perpetual temptation of telling too much with too little, seemingly straying off course to tell short nuclear side stories about the Nautilus, Rickover, Air Force, and Army—each short side story many books in its own right.

Worldcat

Tucker is a great storyteller and describer of characters—constantly correcting course back to the primary story; the explosive 130 MW-sec SL-1 energy excursion³ that killed three. Moreover, each short side story is interesting and at times infuriately funny.

For example, frustrated by the Air Forces’ continual efforts to thwart the cancellation of the billion dollar "atomic plane"² boondoggle, President Eisenhower joked that soon there’d be a proposal to retrofit the Queen Mary with hundred foot wings and a power plant sufficient to enable her to fly. Aids urged him not to make the joke publicly lest he give them ideas!

One would like to read something from Tucker in the submarine genre—perhaps a joint endeavor with our Navy on the upcoming historic integration of our women into our submarine force, using an Ohio-class platform.

Web:

• Simon and Schuster, Atomic America

Res:

• SL-1 Reactor Accident on January 3, 1961, Interim Report, May 1961
• SL-1 Reactor Accident on January 3, 1961, Interim Report, May 1961 List of Figures
• SL-1 Recovery Operations," January 3 - May 20, 1961
• IDO Report on the Nuclear Incident at the SL-1 Reactor on January 3, 1961 at the National Reactor Testing Station, January 1962
• The Role of Meteorology Following the Nuclear Accident in Southeast Idaho, May 1962
• Final Report of SL-1 Recovery Operation, July 1962
• Final Report of SL-1 Recovery Operation, July 1962 Part 2
• Additional Analysis of the SL-1 Excursion, Final Report of Progress July through October 1962, November 1962

-----notes-----

1.

2. The technical horizon for such a Sisyphean task are only in the minds of science fiction writers and terrorists seeking an efficient method of dispersing radioactive aerosol over wide swaths of the globe.

The Air Force and defense contractor General Dynamics, Convair (since merged with other companies) actually conducted several dozen test flights using the NB-36H—with a critical open system reactor hanging off the airframe!

Chase planes could navigate using the radioactive plume streaming from the super-hot reactor hanging from the NB-36H.

3. The "excursion" created a "water hammer" estimated at 10,000 psi that created 60 mph (≈ 85 feet per second) missiles out of reactor objects like shield plugs.