A Review of Criticality Accidents A Review of Criticality Accidents

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17. Mayak Production Association, 10 December 1968 Plutonium solutions (aqueous and organic) in a 60 liter vessel; three excursions; one fatality, one serious exposure. The accident occurred in a building where various chemical and metallurgical operations with plutonium were performed. Operations were conducted on four, 6–hour, shifts per day. The accident occurred on the 19:00 to 01:00 (10–11 December) shift. An unfavorable geometry vessel was being used in an improvised and unapproved operation as a temporary vessel for storing plutonium organic solution. Two independent handling operations with this same vessel and same contents less than one hour apart led to two prompt critical excursions, each one resulting in the severe exposure of a worker. A weak excursion occurred between the two energetic ones, when there were no personnel present. A small scale research and development operation had been set up in a basement area to investigate the purification properties of various organic extractants. As originally built, the equipment and piping configuration of this research operation precluded these organics from reaching a set of two 1,000 l tanks used for the collection of very lean aqueous solutions (
0.5 m 0.5 m 0.5 m 0.5 m 3.0 m 1.4 m Sample Well High Level Sensor Total Supply 250 Supply Level Meter Pressure Relief Line, Vacuum 250 Supply Total Supply Tank 2 1.2 m Hoses 2.0 m Low Level Sensor Solution Inlet Neutron Counter Access Port Glass Bottle Tank 1 Glass Bottle Fragments 1.5 m Spilled Solution Stainless Steel Vessel Figure 23. Plan view of the tanks involved in the accident. Access Port Glass Bottle Organic Layer Neutron Counter Stainless Steel Vessel Figure 24. Elevation view of the tanks involved in the accident. Staircase Doors 1.5 m Floor Drain 41
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LA-13638 Approved for public releas
Page 3 and 4: A Review of Criticality Accidents 2
Page 5 and 6: PREFACE This document is the second
Page 7 and 8: Tom Jones was invaluable in generat
Page 9 and 10: C. OBSERVATIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED
Page 11 and 12: FIGURES 1. Chronology of process cr
Page 13 and 14: 51. MSKS and assembly involved in t
Page 15 and 16: A REVIEW OF CRITICALITY ACCIDENTS A
Page 17 and 18: 3 Black Sea Baltic Sea Obninsk Norw
Page 19 and 20: North Atlantic Ocean Irish Sea Wind
Page 21 and 22: 1. Mayak Production Association, 15
Page 23 and 24: time of the accident. However, the
Page 25 and 26: determined by a radiation control p
Page 27 and 28: consequences of this accident, the
Page 29 and 30: Figure 10. Drum in which the 1958 Y
Page 31 and 32: The entire plutonium process area h
Page 35 and 36: During the next shift, radiation sa
Page 37 and 38: 9. Siberian Chemical Combine, 14 Ju
Page 39 and 40: The accident investigation determin
Page 41 and 42: 10. Hanford Works, 7 April 1962 18,
Page 43 and 44: heater and stirrer were turned off
Page 45 and 46: vessel 64-A was added. The dissolut
Page 47 and 48: additional reflection afforded by t
Page 49 and 50: 15. Electrostal Machine Building Pl
Page 53: ased on a radiation survey, that th
Page 57 and 58: The investigation identified severa
Page 59 and 60: 19. Idaho Chemical Processing Plant
Page 61 and 62: 20. Siberian Chemical Combine, 13 D
Page 63 and 64: To Glovebox 6 7 8 6 From Glovebox 6
Page 65 and 66: on a 0.4 m square pitch grid. The b
Page 67 and 68: competing reactivity effects proved
Page 69 and 70: Figure 35. The precipitation vessel
Page 71 and 72: B. PHYSICAL AND NEUTRONIC CHARACTER
Page 73 and 74: Material Fissile Mass: Fissile mass
Page 75 and 76: 235 U Spherical Critical Mass (kg)
Page 77 and 78: Table 10. Accident Fission Energy R
Page 79 and 80: • Accidents in shielded facilitie
Page 81 and 82: • Senior management should be awa
Page 83 and 84: Table 11. Reactor and Critical Expe
Page 85 and 86: 3. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2
Page 87 and 88: 5. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 3
Page 89 and 90: eflector of 236 kg when he noticed
Page 91 and 92: 3. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
Page 93 and 94: At the equatorial plane, the two ha
Page 95 and 96: Figure 48. The Los Alamos Scientifi
Page 97 and 98: Figure 50. Burst rod and several se
Page 99 and 100: On 11 March 1963, the facility chie
Page 101 and 102: 13. Chelyabinsk-70, 5 April 1968 57
Page 103 and 104: 14. Aberdeen Proving Ground, 6 Sept
Page 105 and 106:
completed the construction of the l
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C. MODERATED METAL OR OXIDE SYSTEMS
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63,65,66, 67 4. Chalk River Laborat
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7. Centre dÉtudes Nucleaires de Sa
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a technician prescribing the loadin
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the room to drain the water out of
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In the final experiment, the critic
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3. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
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III. POWER EXCURSIONS AND QUENCHING
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Figure 64. Energy model computation
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References 1. Stratton, W. R. A Rev
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50. Paxton, H. C. “Godiva Wrecked
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92. Stone, R. S., H. P. Sleeper, Jr
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criticality accident: The release o
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prompt criticality: State of a fiss
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1. Mayak Production Association, 15
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5. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
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9. Siberian Chemical Combine (Tomsk
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13. Siberian Chemical Combine, 2 De
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15. Electrostal Machine Building Pl
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19. Idaho Chemical Processing Plant
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21. Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrat
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