The reactor was more reactive than planned due to problems with the aluminum-boron alloy burnable poison strips. Apparently, these strips had begun to rapidly deteriorate, causing some of the poison material to be lost from the core area.The SL-1 accident was initiated by the rapid withdrawal of the central control rod. Starting from a fully…

Some of the sources that we interviewed suggested that there may have been unstated reasons for not releasing the report. While the term “cover-up” was not used, the phrase “let sleeping dogs lie” was used more than once. One common link in the training of most nukes is the viewing of a grainy, black and…