It should be noted that reactivity control in military and commercial PWRs is fundamentally different. That said it's hard to understand how the SL1 operator ma

It should be noted that reactivity control in military and commercial PWRs is fundamentally different. That said it's hard to understand how the SL1 operator managed to yank the rod so far out of the core. The procedure was to withdraw each rod 4 inches and attach it to the crdm, which in itself is a little mind blowing to me. The rod was withdrawn 26 inches and prompt criticality was achieved at 23 inches or so. The rod weighed 86 pounds. Even if it was stuck it's hard to imagine yanking something that heavy that far to unstick it.