July 17. Remote, sparsely-populated and the kind of place that a nuclear accident might go unnoticed (or at least under-reported. eh, heh.)….. THAT’S why Arco, Utah became the first community anywhere to be powered by “safe, secure, too clean to meter” nuclear energy today July 17, 1955. It was a first for the world and a first for the spud-growing state whose towns are normally fueled by the clean - burning rage of White Supremacy. But seriously, the juice was supplied by an Atomic reactor called EBR-I or “Experimental Breeder Reactor I.” What could go wrong? Well, I’ll tell you because you’re a Face Book friend. On January 3, 1961 there was another Atomic first! There was a little glitch called a core meltdown. (Oh, you didn’t know?) The good news according to the Director of the Atomic Energy commission was that the radiation was largely confined to the building. Whew! Thank God…..and the bad news? Well, three of the tech boys were manually removing a fuel rod in a "routine" preparation for the reactor start-up when….it went BOOM! Investigators found two of the guys dead. One of them was blown to the ceiling of the containment dome and impaled on a control rod and remained there until his irradiated corpse was taken down six days later. The third man went south of the after- life equator later. The bodies were so heavily smacked with radiation that they had to be entombed in lead caskets. Their hands were removed and buried separately at a radioactive waste dump site. So, thinking of getting away from it all this Summer ? Come to Idaho! Visit Arco and EBR-I, (decommissioned in 1964) and today on the National Register of Historic Landmarks. Book your tour now. Remember, "The early bird gets the horribly damaged thyroid gland." 07.17.13 E.E.F.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 06:23:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015