Idaho Falls' nuclear history

By Samantha Wright

Published May 23, 2022 at 4:07 PM MDT

1 of 4 — Sl-1-ineel61-9.jpg

January 4, 1961: Health Physicists check Highway 20 for contamination on the morning after the SL-1 accident.

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

2 of 4 — SL-1.jpeg

The SL-1 reactor site before its explosion.

Argonne National Laboratory-West

ARA-06, SL-1 Burial Ground monument with burial ground cap and fence enclosure in background.

3 of 4 — sl1-burial.jpg

Burial Grounds of SL-1 reactor.

John R. Giles, EPA

4 of 4 — Sl-1-ineel81-3966.jpg

1981: This is a retrospective look at the destruction found inside the SL-1 reactor core (In Idaho falls, ID)after it was damaged by a nuclear prompt-critical excursion on January 3, 1961 which killed three men. The extensive damage reminds people of the vast energies released when a nuclear reactor is designed and operated improperly.

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, INEEL

So here's a question:what was the deadliest nuclear accident in U.S. history? If you said Three Mile Island, you’d be wrong.

Back in 1961, a nuclear reactor in Idaho Falls known as SL-1 melted down and killed three people. It also exposed thousands of people in eastern Idaho to radioactive gas.

A new season of theWild Thing podcastfocuses on this little known Idaho event, the science behind nuclear energy and what the future of nuclear energy looks like.

Podcaster Laura Krantz joins Idaho Matters to talk more about this story.

Idaho Falls' nuclear history

You make stories like this possible.