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Speaking of criticality accidents... apparently Feynman had to convince a army colonel that the team doing the 235U enrichment at Oak Ridge need to be informed

by pdkl95 10y ago

Speaking of criticality accidents... apparently Feynman had to convince a army colonel that the team doing the 235U enrichment at Oak Ridge need to be informed about the physics of what they were working with. Had he been unsuccessful, a much larger criticality "excursion" would have happened. In the setup/practice runs of the enrichment facility they were using big carboys to move uranium nitrate solution. Nobody told them that water (as a moderator) would significantly amplify the chain reaction! According to Feynman, "...the plant would never work, it would have blown up - I swear it would've."[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTRVlUT665U#t=2106 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTRVlUT665U#t=2106

cnvogel 10y ago
And indeed, many of the criticality accidents listed on the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident happened while handling fissile material in solution. There is a very interesting book on criticality accidents, which includes photographs and sketches on laboratory layout etc.: McLaughlin, T.P., Monahan, S.P., Pruvost, N.L., Frolov, V.V., Ryazanov, B.G. and Sviridov, V.I., 2000. A review of criticality accidents 2000 revision (No. LA-13638). Los Alamos National Lab., NM (US). https://www.orau.org/ptp/Library/accidents/la-13638.pdf https://www.orau.org/ptp/Library/accidents/la-13638.pdf
- pinewurst 10y ago
  Thanks for that great reference! Another worthwhile read is "Nuclear Accidents" by James Mahaffey.
Already__Taken 10y ago
There's also a story (I barely remember so sorry for the detail) I thought you were going to say, the workers knew this stuff was dangerous in volume so they kept amounts in separate rooms. Unfortunately this was up against the same wall dividing the rooms. I don't think it was an accident it just underlines the importance of understanding.

by pdkl95 10y ago

cnvogel 10y ago

And indeed, many of the criticality accidents listed on the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident happened while handling fissile material in solution. There is a very interesting book on criticality accidents, which includes photographs and sketches on laboratory layout etc.: McLaughlin, T.P., Monahan, S.P., Pruvost, N.L., Frolov, V.V., Ryazanov, B.G. and Sviridov, V.I., 2000. A review of criticality accidents 2000 revision (No. LA-13638). Los Alamos National Lab., NM (US). https://www.orau.org/ptp/Library/accidents/la-13638.pdf https://www.orau.org/ptp/Library/accidents/la-13638.pdf

pinewurst 10y ago
Thanks for that great reference! Another worthwhile read is "Nuclear Accidents" by James Mahaffey.

Already__Taken 10y ago

There's also a story (I barely remember so sorry for the detail) I thought you were going to say, the workers knew this stuff was dangerous in volume so they kept amounts in separate rooms. Unfortunately this was up against the same wall dividing the rooms. I don't think it was an accident it just underlines the importance of understanding.