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INES and the disturbances in nuclear facilities
1960 – 1969
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INES, Who the f... is INES?
The International Scale of Nuclear and Radiological Events (INES) is a tool to educate the public about the safety implications of nuclear and radiological events, but INES has a problem...
We are always looking for up-to-date information. Anyone who can help, please send a message to:
nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
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2019-2010 | 2009-2000 | 1999-1990 | 1989-1980 | 1979-1970 | 1969-1960 | 1959-1950 | 1949-1940 | Before
1969
October 17, 1969 (INES 4) NPP 
Saint Laurent, FRA
More than 50 kilograms of uranium fuel at the Saint-Laurent nuclear plant began to melt after the cooling systems failed. The plant had to be shut down and repaired. The repair of the reactor lasted a year.
(Cost approx. US$541,4 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Saint Laurent (France)
1969: Partial meltdown in reactor A-1
The first accident at reactor A-1 on October 17, 1969 was caused by human error and a technical failure. While loading four fuel chambers, the machine stopped several times, but the employee revoked the stops and continued loading. Due to overheating and an increase in radioactivity, an alarm was triggered and the emergency shutdown was initiated. Some fuel elements that had just been loaded melted. Since the cooling system was still functioning at a quarter of normal levels, there was no major catastrophe. Only small amounts of radioactivity escaped from the building. Cleaning the building took a year, after which the reactor was put back into operation.
The event was classified as an INES level 4 accident...
Wikipedia de
Saint Laurent Nuclear Power Plant
On October 17, 1969, the reactor core was damaged during loading of the graphite reactor A1. The cooling of a fuel element was interrupted, which then melted. 50 kg of uranium escaped. Only the site was contaminated; the population was not informed. In 1969 this level 4 accident on the INES scale was declared an 'incident' by the EdF...
October 12, 1969 (INES 4) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
Release from the chimney of building B204.
(Cost approx. US$2500 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
This incident as well as several other releases of radioactivity are in Wikipedia no longer to be found.
Wikipedia de
Sellafield
The complex was made famous by a catastrophic fire in 1957 and by frequent nuclear incidents, which is one of the reasons why it was renamed Sellafield. Up until the mid-1980s, large quantities of the nuclear waste generated in day-to-day operations were discharged in liquid form via a pipeline into the Irish Sea.
Wikipedia en
Sellafield # Incidents
Radiological releases
Between 1950 and 2000 there were 21 serious off-site incidents or accidents involving radiological releases that warranted classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale, one at Level 5, five at Level 4 and fifteen at Level 3. In addition, there were in intentional releases of plutonium and irradiated uranium oxide particles into the atmosphere known for extended periods in the 1950s and 1960s...
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Sellafield (formerly_Windscale), United Kingdom
There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:
Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites
During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused. As far as the theory...
Youtube
Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium
Reprocessing plants turn a few tons of nuclear waste into many tons of nuclear waste
All uranium and plutonium factories produce radioactive nuclear waste: Uranium processing, enrichment and reprocessing plants, whether in Hanford, La Hague, Sellafield, Mayak, Tokaimura or wherever in the world, all have the same problem: with every processing step More and more extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste is being produced...
May 11, 1969 (INES 5 | NAMS 2,3)
Nuclear factory Rocky Flats, United States
A plutonium fire broke out in the processing department of Building 776, set 10 TBq Radioactivity released and caused high doses of radiation to 41 firefighters.
(Cost approx. US$425,2 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
The following excerpt from the linked WikipediaArticle is no longer available in this wording. The article has been revised, facts have disappeared and everything sounds a little different now; according to the motto: “It was only half as bad!”
Wikipedia de
Rocky Flats
Plutonium spontaneously ignited in a container with 600 t of inflammable material. The fire burned 2 t of the material and released plutonium oxide. Soil samples taken around the facility revealed that the area was contaminated with plutonium. Since the operators of the plant refused to initiate investigations, the samples were taken as part of an unofficial investigation ...
AtomkraftwerkePlag
https://atomkraftwerkeplag.fandom.com/de/wiki/USA
Youtube
Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium
All uranium and plutonium factories produce radioactive nuclear waste: Uranium processing, enrichment and reprocessing plants, whether in Hanford, La Hague, Sellafield, Mayak, Tokaimura or wherever in the world, all have the same problem: with every processing step More and more extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste is being produced...
May 1, 1969 (INES Class.?) NPP Ågesta, Stockholm, SWE
A valve malfunction caused a flood in Agesta's heavy water pressure reactor.
(Cost approx. US$16 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
Wikipedia de
Ågesta nuclear power plant
March 5, 1969 (INES 3) Nuclear factory 
Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
Release of 370 MBq plutonium in the laboratory of building B229.
(Cost approx. US$84,5 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
This incident as well as several other releases of radioactivity are in Wikipedia no longer to be found.
Wikipedia de
Sellafield
The complex was made famous by a catastrophic fire in 1957 and by frequent nuclear incidents, which is one of the reasons why it was renamed Sellafield. Up until the mid-1980s, large quantities of the nuclear waste generated in day-to-day operations were discharged in liquid form via a pipeline into the Irish Sea.
Wikipedia en
Sellafield # Incidents
Radiological releases
Between 1950 and 2000 there were 21 serious off-site incidents or accidents involving radiological releases that warranted classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale, one at Level 5, five at Level 4 and fifteen at Level 3. In addition, there were in intentional releases of plutonium and irradiated uranium oxide particles into the atmosphere known for extended periods in the 1950s and 1960s...
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Sellafield (formerly_Windscale), United Kingdom
There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:
https://atomkraftwerkeplag.fandom.com/de/wiki/Wiederaufarbeitung#Standorte_für_Wiederaufarbeitung
Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites
During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused. As far as the theory...
January 21, 1969 (INES 5 | NAMS 1,6) NPP VAKL Lucens, CHE
It became about 2,1 TBq radioactive radiation released.
(Cost approx. US$26 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
Wikipedia de
Reactor Lucens#The accident of January 21, 1969
On January 21, 1969, operations resumed after an overhaul. During the increase in reactor power, several fuel elements overheated. Fuel element No. 59 heated up so much that it melted and ultimately caused the pressure pipe to burst. 1100 kg of heavy water, melted radioactive material and radioactive gases were thrown into the reactor cavern...
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Lucens, Switzerland 1969
The reactor was called "Experimental Nuclear Power Plant Lucens (VAKL)" and was owned by the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Atomic Technology and operated by Energie de l'Ouest Suisse. In 1966 the reactor became critical and in 1968 electricity was fed into the grid for the first time...
1968
December 10, 1968 (INES 4) Nuclear factory Mayak, USSR
A technician died from radiation exposure after starting a test.
(Costs ?)
Nuclear Power Accidents
Over the years, some 235 radioactive incidents occurred, of which only a few were reported...
Wikipedia de
Mayak Nuclear Plant
December 10, 1968: Criticality accident in container with a plutonium solution
During the improvised transfer of a plutonium solution from a 20 liter container to a 60 liter container, the solution in the target container became critical. After the resulting flash of light and burst of heat, the worker dropped the 20-liter container, the remnants of the plutonium solution inside spilling onto the floor. The building was evacuated and the radiation protection officer prohibited access to the area. However, the shift manager insisted on entering the building and, together with the radiation protection officer, went to the room where the accident occurred. Despite dangerously high gamma radiation levels, the shift manager went in after sending the radiation protection officer away. He probably then tried to divert parts of the plutonium solution into a wastewater tank, but this led to renewed criticality. The shift leader was exposed to an estimated 24 Gray of radiation and died about a month later. The worker received approximately 7 Gray and developed severe acute radiation sickness; both of his legs and one hand had to be amputated.
The nuclear chain
Mayak/Kyshtym, Russia
Nuclear factory
The Russian nuclear industry plant in Mayak contaminated more than 15.000 km2 with highly radioactive waste products through a series of accidents and radioactive leaks. The Kyshtym accident contaminated a large area of the eastern Ural region in 1957. Thousands of people had to be relocated. To this day, the affected region is one of the most contaminated places on earth.
background objects
The Mayak production cooperative was the first and, with an area of more than 200 km2, the largest nuclear industrial plant in the Soviet Union. Between 1945 and 1948, five nuclear reactors were built at this site between Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk to produce plutonium for the Soviet nuclear weapons program. The plant was continuously expanded until 1987, when production was stopped and operations were gradually phased out. From 1949 to 1956, a total of 100 peta becquerels (peta = quadrillion) of radioactive waste were discharged into the tributaries of the Techa - including strontium-90, cesium-137, plutonium and uranium.1 For comparison: the radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean by the Super The Fukushima disaster is estimated to be around 78 PBq. In addition, there were at least eight critical accidents in Mayak by 1968...
AtomkraftwerkePlag
The Mayak plutonium factory
In 1957, the first major accident occurred in the use of atomic energy, which is comparable in its dimensions to the catastrophes in Fukushima and Chernobyl, but only became known to the world public in 1989.
The Mayak nuclear complex, 15 kilometers east of the city of Kyshtym in Chelyabinsk Oblast on the eastern side of the southern Urals, was an important part of Stalin's 1945 plans to rapidly produce weapons-grade plutonium and close the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons deficit. In 1948 the first reactor was switched on, in 1949 the first atomic bomb was detonated and Stalin had caught up with the USA.
There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:
Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites
During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused. As far as the theory...
Youtube
Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium
All uranium and plutonium factories produce radioactive nuclear waste: uranium processing, enrichment and reprocessing plants, whether in Hanford, La Hague, Sellafield, Mayak, Tokaimura or anywhere in the world, all have the same problem: With every processing step More and more extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste is being produced ...
May 1, 1968 (INES 4 | NAMS 4) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
The chimney of building B230 released 550 over a period of about a month due to a defective filter TBq radioactive radiation.
(Cost approx. US$1900 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
This incident as well as several other releases of radioactivity are in Wikipedia no longer to be found.
Wikipedia de
Sellafield
Since the late 1940's and Windscale/Sellafield's inception, approximately 20 incidents of greater or lesser severity involving the release of radioactivity have been reported. The nuclear waste generated during day-to-day operations is discharged in large quantities in liquid form via a pipeline into the Irish Sea.
Wikipedia en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield
Nuclear power accidents by country#United_Kingdom
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Sellafield (formerly_Windscale), United Kingdom
There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:
Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites
During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused. As far as the theory...
Youtube
Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium
All uranium and plutonium factories produce radioactive nuclear waste: Uranium processing, enrichment and reprocessing plants, whether in Hanford, La Hague, Sellafield, Mayak, Tokaimura or wherever in the world, all have the same problem: with every processing step More and more extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste is being produced...
April 8, 1968 (Broken Arrow) Submarine K-129 sunk 2900 km nw Hawaii, USSR
Atomwaffen A-Z
Nuclear Weapon Accidents - Hawaii, 1968
On April 1.200, 4.900, 11 km northwest of the island of Oahu, Hawaii, at a depth of 1968 meters in the Pacific, a Soviet diesel submarine K-129 (Gulf class) sank under unclear circumstances. Three ballistic missiles (SS-N-5) and possibly two torpedoes with nuclear explosive devices were on board. 80 sailors were killed. In 1974, the CIA, with the participation of naval forces, made a secret attempt to raise the submarine, which resulted in the hull breaking. The effort was called “Project Jennifer.” Apparently the Howard Hughes boat "Glomar Explorer" was used for this.
Wikipedia de
Submarine K-129
The K-129 was a Soviet Project 629 (Golf class) submarine. It was a diesel-electric powered missile submarine. After sinking in 1968, it was partially raised by the United States Navy in the Azorian Project in 1974...
History
In February 1968, the submarine set off from a base on Kamchatka on its third nuclear deterrent patrol in the Pacific. At the beginning of March there were no regular radio messages from the boat to the Soviet Navy, whereupon the Soviet Navy started a search operation, but was unable to find the submarine...
Azorian project
The United States, on the other hand, was able to locate the scene of the accident using the SOSUS underwater listening system. The CIA then began planning how to excavate the wreckage to obtain more information about Soviet nuclear capabilities. Billionaire Howard Hughes stepped in as a cover and had a ship, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, built ostensibly to mine ore undersea. In fact, the US government financed the ship, which was supposed to encircle the wreck at a depth of 5000 meters with a gripper arm and bring it to the surface of the water. In 1974, the Glomar Explorer set course for the accident site and managed to grab the wreckage as planned. However, this broke during lifting so that only part of the bow could be recovered.
Until then, the entire operation remained hidden from the public; it was not until 1975 that the first newspaper and television reports appeared. In March 1975, the New York Times finally uncovered large parts of the Azorian Project in a report by Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh. The CIA itself first released extensive documents about the operation in 2010.
[...] Carrying out the operation
On August 1st, the grab arm was finally closed around the wreckage of K-129 and lifting could begin. The Glomar Explorer then announced via unencrypted radio that the gripper arm used to retrieve the manganese nodules had been damaged and that the naval base on the Midway Islands should be visited to check. This is how the CIA wanted to explain why the civilian ship was calling at a naval base. However, there were problems with lifting the load and the hydraulic pumps partially failed. During the ascent, part of the gripping arm broke off, and with it a large part of the wreck also slid back to the seabed. What was recovered by the Glomar Explorer has not been officially announced. According to media reports, the bow of the boat contained, among other things, two torpedoes with nuclear warheads, but not the nuclear missiles. The bodies of six Soviet sailors were also recovered. They were buried in a sea burial in September 1974.
By August 9, the rest of the wreckage was brought to safety in the boat's hull, shortly after the Soviet tug SB-10, which had moved within a few meters of the Glomar Explorer in the previous days, left the area. During an initial investigation, the crew of the Glomar Explorer discovered that the wreckage was contaminated with plutonium hydroxide...
List of U-boat accidents since 1945
Of the lost ships, at least nine were nuclear-powered, some armed with nuclear missiles or torpedoes...
January 21, 1968 (Broken Arrow) Thule Airport, Greenland, USA
The nuclear chain
Thule, Greenland
Nuclear aircraft crash
The crash of a US Air Force B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons over Greenland contaminated large areas of land and the surrounding waters with radioactive plutonium. Residents and rescue and decontamination crews were exposed to high doses of radiation.
background objects
On January 21, 1968, a U.S. B-52 bomber from New York began a patrol flight around Greenland, armed with four hydrogen bombs. In the 1960s, as part of Operation Chrome Dome, up to twelve nuclear-armed US bombers were in the air around the clock every day in order to be able to strike back in the event of a first nuclear strike by the Soviet Union. However, on that day, six hours after takeoff, a fire began to burn in the cabin of the plane. The crew was forced to evacuate the aircraft using an ejector seat and the aircraft crashed onto the Greenland ice, approximately 13 km south of the US Thule Air Force Base. One crew member died in the crash, the other six survived. By a stroke of luck, there was no atomic chain reaction when the hydrogen bombs crashed. However, the non-nuclear explosive exploded and led to the widespread contamination of around 7,68 km² of the surrounding area with around ten terabecquerels of radioactive plutonium (tera = trillion) as well as uranium, americium and tritium...
Wikipedia de
B-52 crash near Thule Air Base in 1968
The crash of a B-52 near Thule Air Base occurred on January 21, 1968...
Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base)
History
In 1951, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began construction of a 10.000-foot (around 3 km) runway and base under the code name ROBIN (later BLUE JAY) for the United States Air Force. This was put into operation on March 1, 1951[2] on the basis of the Thulesag 2 agreement between the United States and Denmark. During the Cold War, the base initially served the Strategic Air Command as a base for B-36 and B-47 long-range bombers before these were replaced by B-1950 bomber units in the 1960s and 52s.
[...] From Thule in the late 1950s, work began on the construction of Camp Century, 240 kilometers away, a US base located under the ice cap, which was used as a prelude to Project Iceworm to station US nuclear missiles on Greenland should serve...
Wikipedia en
Broken Arrow incidents
The U.S. Department of Defense has officially recognized at least 32 Broken Arrow incidents between 1950 and 1980.
Examples of these events are:
1950 British Columbia B-36 crash
1956 B-47 disappearance
1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident
1958 Tybee Island mid-air collision
1961 Yuba City B-52 crash
1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash
1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash
1964 Bunker Hill AFB runway accident
1965 Philippine Sea A-4 incident
1966 Palomares B-52 crash
1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash
1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion, Arkansas
Unofficially, the Defense Atomic Support Agency (now known as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)) has detailed hundreds of "Broken Arrow" incidents.
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Wayback Machine en
The OOPS List
A 1973 Sandia Laboratories report, citing a then-classified army compilation, stated that between 1950 and 1968, a total of 1.250 U.S. nuclear weapons were involved in accidents or incidents of varying severity, including 272 (22 percent) in circumstances involving impacts which, in several instances, caused the detonation of the weapon's conventional high explosives...
1967
1967 (INES Class.?) research reactor Würenlingen, CHE
Wikipedia de
Research Reactor_Diorite
The small research reactor "Diorit" produced a melted fuel element, the reactor hall was contaminated. Later a waste water batch was made, which corresponded to 40 times the normal value. (Source: ASK, today's Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate ENSI)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Switzerland
May 2, 1967 (INES 4) NPP Chapelcross, UK
A fuel rod caught fire causing a partial meltdown at the Chaplecross Magnox Nuclear Power Plant, shutdown and 2 year repair time.
(Cost approx. US$89 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
Wikipedia de
Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station
In May 1967 there was a partial core meltdown in Block 2. The cause was a test fuel rod in which a graphite particle blocked the cooling system. The core was renewed and returned to service in 1969.
In 2001 there was an incident when refueling reactor 3...
Wikipedia en
Nuclear power accidents by country#United_Kingdom
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Chapelcross (UK)
Partial meltdown, Lockerbie plane crash and other incidents
On May 2, 1967, a partial meltdown occurred in Chapelcross-2. The trigger was a fuel rod that broke and caught fire. The incident was kept secret for several years, the reactor remained shut down for two years ...
1966
October 5, 1966 (INES 4) NPP Enrico Fermi 1, USA
Fermi-1, the prototype fast breeder reactor, suffered a partial fuel meltdown.
(Cost approx. US$23 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
Wikipedia de
Enrico Fermi 1
On October 5, 1966, there was a meltdown in some parts of the reactor core. This accident was caused by a fragment that got into the cooling circuit. Two of the 105 fuel elements melted. The reactor was shut down on November 29, 1972...
Wikipedia en
Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station#Fermi_1
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Enrico Fermi 1
...The construction of the fast breeder reactor near Monroe in the state of Michigan, south of Detroit on Lake Erie, began in 1956 and the reactor went into operation in 1963.
[...] Construction costs had tripled the original estimate to $135 million, and teething problems in operation led to financial losses. In 1966, the year it went into operation, the reactor produced only $300.000 worth of electricity and tiny amounts of fuel. After an accident on October 5, 1966, it was repaired for four years, but even after that it never reached full performance.
[...] The reactor is in safe confinement; the closure is scheduled to take place in 2032...
July 2, 1966 - France's 1st atomic bomb test on the Muroroa Atoll 
Spiegel
http://www.spiegel.de/einestages/mururoa-wie-frankreich-atombomben-auf-dem-atoll-testete-a-1100371.html
Wikipedia de
List_of_nuclear-weapon-tests
Atomwaffen A - Z
nuclear weapons states.html
May 07, 1966 (INES 4) RIAR Research Institute, Melekess, near Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky), USSR
An accident occurred in the research reactor VK-50: A technician and the shift manager were exposed to a high dose of radiation.
(Costs ?)
Nuclear Power Accidents
AtomkraftwerkePlag
VK-50 Melekess (Russia)
On May 7, 1966, an accident occurred in the VK-50 research reactor: a chain reaction of fast neutrons resulted in a power excursion. The operator and the shift manager were exposed to a high dose of radiation...
Wikipedia de
LAUGH
At the Atomic Reactor Research Institute Melekess, a power excursion using fast neutrons occurred in an experimental boiling water reactor (VK reactor). The operator and the shift manager received high doses of radiation...
With the VK-50 in Melekess, the boiling water reactor concept of the USA was also briefly adopted in the 1960s, which, however, came to an abrupt end after two years with a serious accident...
List_of_nuclear_facilities_in_Russia#History
Wikipedia en
Nuclear power accidents by country#Russia
January 17, 1966 (Broken Arrow) Palomares, Spain, USA
The nuclear chain
Palomares, Spain
Nuclear aircraft crash
In January 1966, four hydrogen bombs exploded near the Spanish city of Palomares after a U.S. Air Force B-52 collided with another aircraft in mid-air. The non-nuclear explosives of two bombs detonated and spread radioactive fallout over a large area. Even 40 years after the accident, radioactively contaminated soil can be found near the crash site.
background objects
On January 17, 1966, a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber collided with the tanker aircraft while refueling in mid-air. The accident occurred about 9.500 m above the small Spanish fishing village of Palomares. At that time, the B-52 had four hydrogen bombs on board, which were released after the collision and crashed along with the aircraft. The parachutes did not work on two of the bombs. They struck the eastern and western edges of the city, causing some of the weapons' non-nuclear explosives to detonate. It is only thanks to a coincidence that a chain reaction did not occur in the nuclear warheads. However, the explosion spread radioactive material, primarily uranium and plutonium, across the Palomares fields. Strong winds blew the radioactive cloud containing plutonium dust over long distances, causing widespread contamination of the surrounding area. The third hydrogen bomb was found quickly and relatively intact by recovery teams, while the fourth bomb was only recovered from the seabed 80 days later. After the Palomares accident, Spain banned overflights with nuclear weapons in its airspace. The regular patrol flights with nuclear weapons were reduced, but only completely stopped after the Thule accident in 1968...
Wikipedia de
Palomares nuclear accident
The Palomares nuclear accident involving nuclear weapons from the US Air Force's Strategic Air Command occurred on January 17, 1966 near Palomares, a small town on the southeast coast of Spain between Almería and Cartagena. A US bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs and a tanker plane collided in the air. None of the hydrogen bombs exploded, but the plutonium-filled detonators of two of the bombs exploded, scattering several kilos of highly radioactive plutonium-239 across the landscape...
Wikipedia en
Broken Arrow incidents
The U.S. Department of Defense has officially recognized at least 32 Broken Arrow incidents between 1950 and 1980.
Examples of these events are:
1950 British Columbia B-36 crash
1956 B-47 disappearance
1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident
1958 Tybee Island mid-air collision
1961 Yuba City B-52 crash
1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash
1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash
1964 Bunker Hill AFB runway accident
1965 Philippine Sea A-4 incident
1966 Palomares B-52 crash
1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash
1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion, Arkansas
Unofficially, the Defense Atomic Support Agency (now known as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)) has detailed hundreds of "Broken Arrow" incidents.
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Wayback Machine en
The OOPS List
A 1973 Sandia Laboratories report, citing a then-secret Army compilation, said that between 1950 and 1968, a total of 1.250 U.S. nuclear weapons were involved in accidents or incidents of varying severity, including 272 (22 percent) , in which circumstances occurred that, in some cases, triggered the detonation of the weapon's conventional explosive...
1965
On March 2, 1965, the USA bombed North Vietnam for the first time, and from March 8, regular US combat troops land in Vietnam.
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January 20, 1965 (INES 4 | NAMS 3,7) Nuclear factory LLNL, Livermore, USA
About 259 TBq were released from the chimney of the tritium plant in 1965. This accident was kept secret for years, during which time the population grew and built houses on contaminated soil.
(Cost approx. US$6,1 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
Watching out for the ecology of Livermore
Livermore Eco Watchdogs (This domain will no longer be available in 2023.)
Historical Doses To The Public from Routine and Accidental Releases of Tritium
During its fifty-three years of operation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Livermore site was home to an estimated 29.300 TBq tritium released into the atmosphere; about 75% of it was accidentally released as gaseous tritium in 1965 and 1970. Routine emissions contributed just over 3.700 TBq gaseous tritium and approximately 2.800 TBq tritiated water vapor to the total dose at...
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
The second highest dose resulted from the Released 222 TBq in 1970.
USE OF TRITIUM AT LIVERMORE LABORATORY:
Tritium and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Two of the three largest tritium accidents I have ever seen documented occurred here at the Livermore Lab headquarters. In 1965 and 1970, the Livermore Lab released approximately 650.000 Curies (23.700 TBq) Tritium released into the air from the chimneys of the tritium plant (Building 331).
Note: One curie corresponds to 37 billion radioactive decay processes per second, in becquerels 37 GBq.
After the 1965 accident, not much data is available on wind patterns, precipitation, etc., but after the 1970 accident, Livermore Lab scientists found elevated tritium levels that they linked to the 1970 accident, as far south as Fresno, in southeast about 200 miles away.
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Wikipedia de
Unfortunately there are in Wikipedia de no information about the accidents from 1965 and 1970.
Lawrence_Livermore_National_Laboratory
Wikipedia en
Also in the English Wikipedia there is only the usual court reporting.
Lawrence_Livermore_National_Laboratory#Public_protests
Public protests
The Livermore Action Group organized numerous mass protests against the production of nuclear weapons by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1981 to 1984. On June 22, 1982, more than 1.300 anti-nuclear weapons activists were arrested during a non-violent demonstration. More recently, there have been annual protests against nuclear weapons research in Lawrence Livermore. In August 2003, 1.000 people protested against "new generation nuclear warheads" at Livermore Labs. 2007 people were arrested during the 64 protests. In March 2008, more than 80 people were arrested while protesting outside the gates.
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
1964
1964 to 1979 (INES 4) NPP Beloyarsk, USSR
Wikipedia de
Beloyarsk nuclear power plant
From 1964 to 1979 there was a series of destruction of fuel channels in reactor 1 of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant. In each of these accidents, the personnel were exposed to significant radiation exposure...
Wikipedia en
Nuclear power accidents by country#Russia
AtomkraftwerkePlag
https://atomkraftwerkeplag.fandom.com/de/wiki/Beloyarsk_(Russland)
July 24, 1964 (INES 4) Nuclear factory UNC Charlestown, RI, USA
Wikipedia de
List of Accidents in Nuclear Facilities#1960s_Years
At a United Nuclear Corporation nuclear fuel fabrication facility in Charlestown, 38-year-old worker Robert Peabody caused an accident involving a liquid uranium solution. As a result, Peabody was exposed to a lethal dose of radiation of around 88 sieverts. (INES: 4)
Wikipedia en
United Nuclear Corporation, Wood River Junction
On July 24, 1964, a fatal criticality accident occurred at the United Nuclear Corporation's Wood River Junction nuclear facility. This plant was designed for the recovery of highly enriched uranium from waste from fuel element production. Technician Robert Peabody worked with a tank containing radioactive uranium-235 in a sodium carbonate solution stirred with a stirrer. Intending to add a bottle of trichloroethane to remove organics, he accidentally added a bottle of uranium solution to the tank, resulting in a criticality excursion (runaway chain reaction) which is accompanied by a flash of light and the squirting out of about 20% of the tank's contents (approx 10 liters from 40 to 50 liters including the contents of the bottle).
This criticality exposed the 37-year-old Peabody to a lethal radiation dose of "more than 700 rem," equivalent to 7 Sv. He died 49 hours after the incident...
Translation with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Apr. 1, 1964 - China's Nuclear Weapons Test Site Loop Nor
Wikipedia de
Lop Nor Nuclear Weapons Test Site
The Chinese nuclear weapons test site Lop Nor was built on April 1, 1960 in Xinjiang near Qinggir north of the Lop Nor desert in the Kuruk Tagh mountains as the largest nuclear weapons test site in the world with an area of 100.000 km². There, between 1964 and 1996, a total of 45 above-ground (last on October 16, 1980) and underground nuclear tests for plutonium bombs and from 1967 also for hydrogen bombs were carried out.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_Kernwaffentests
Atomwaffen A - Z
https://www.atomwaffena-z.info/heute/atomwaffenstaaten.htm
1963
Did I miss something? Was there one of the military known over 2050 nuclear weapons tests or even a previously little-known incident, possibly from the civilian or medical sector?
nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
1962
May 1, 1962 - French atomic bomb test "Beryl" in In Ecker Algeria
Nuclear test Béryl - In 1961 and 1962, France conducted 13 underground nuclear tests in the Hoggar Mountains, the second test "Béryl" on May 01, 1962 broke through and was carried out above ground ...
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Atomic bomb tests France
Algeria and French Polynesia
Up until 2001, the French government still denied that there were any radiation victims as a result of its 210 nuclear tests in Algeria and Polynesia.
In the Algerian Sahara, shortly after one of the tests, French recruits are said to have been deliberately led to the site of the explosion in order to "explore the physical and psychological effects of nuclear weapons on people." Many of the nuclear test veterans today suffer from cancer and other radiation diseases...
Atomwaffen A-Z
The nuclear weapon states
Overview of nuclear arsenals worldwide...
Wikipedia de
French atomic bomb tests
In the vicinity of In Ekker, France operated an experimental center for the military ("Center d'expérimentations militaires des oasis, CEMO"). 7 nuclear weapons tests were carried out there between November 1961, 16 and February 1966, 13. On the second test (Beryl) on May 1, 1962, the tunnel's closure did not hold. Radioactive gases, dust and lava were emitted. The observers of the test were contaminated (including French ministers present)...
1961
October 30, 1961 - Hydrogen Bomb Test, USSR - "AN602" Novaya Zemlya
Atomwaffen A - Z
The detonation of the Tsar Bomb (or Tsar Bomb)
[...] The test was carried out at a time of increased voltage. On September 1, 1961, a three-year testing moratorium ended. In the following 16 months, the United States and Russia conducted more above-ground testing than in the previous 16 years.
However, this bomb was unusable militarily due to its heavy weight and was designed as a pure demonstration of power during the Cold War...
Wikipedia de
AN602
The AN602 was a hydrogen bomb detonated on October 30, 1961 in the north of the Soviet Union. It created the largest explosion ever caused by man...
Construction
That of a team around the later dissident Andrei Sakharov The bomb constructed weighed 27 tons, was eight meters long and two meters in diameter. It was constructed in three stages and was designed for an explosive force of 100 MT. Half of the explosive power was omitted for the test in order to reduce the radioactive contamination by 97 percent...
explosive power
According to Soviet information, the explosive power of the Tsar bomb was 50 MT, making it around 4000 times as powerful as the Hiroshima Little Boy bomb and around three to four times as powerful as Castle Bravo, the most powerful nuclear weapons test in the USA...
The amount of the chemical explosive TNT, which would release energy comparable to the Tsar bomb, would have a diameter of 400 meters as a sphere.
execution of the test
The bomb was detonated on October 30, 1961 at 11:32 a.m. Moscow time over the Sukhoy Nos Zone C test site at approximately 73,8° N latitude and 54,6° E longitude in Mityushika Bay on the island of Novaya Zemlya. It was dropped from a modified Tupolev Tu-95W bomber at an altitude of 10.500 meters and decelerated by a parachute to give the aircraft sufficient time to leave the test area...
effects
The explosion took place at an altitude of around 4.000 m...
List of nuclear weapons tests
June 19, 1961 (INES 3 | NAMS 4) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
A leak in an evaporator released large quantities of liquid containing plutonium (540 TBq) released into the cooling water. Although it was the eleventh largest release of radioactivity in the world, we have no further information.
(Cost approx. US$800 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
The nuclear chain
Sellafield/Windscale, UK
The largest civil and military nuclear facility in Europe is in Sellafield. While plutonium was produced here in the past for the British nuclear weapons program, the site now serves as a reprocessing facility for nuclear waste. The major fire of 1957 and numerous radioactive leaks contaminated the environment and exposed the population to increased radiation levels...
This incident as well as several other releases of radioactivity are in Wikipedia de can no longer be found.
Wikipedia de
Sellafield
The complex was made famous by a catastrophic fire in 1957 and by frequent nuclear incidents, which is one of the reasons why it was renamed Sellafield. Up until the mid-1980s, large quantities of the nuclear waste generated in day-to-day operations were discharged in liquid form via a pipeline into the Irish Sea.
Wikipedia en
Sellafield # Incidents
Radiological releases
Between 1950 and 2000 there were 21 serious off-site incidents or accidents involving radiological releases that warranted classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale, one at Level 5, five at Level 4 and fifteen at Level 3. In addition, there were in intentional releases of plutonium and irradiated uranium oxide particles into the atmosphere known for extended periods in the 1950s and 1960s...
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AtomkraftwerkePlag
Sellafield (formerly_Windscale), United Kingdom
There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:
Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites
During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused. As far as the theory...
January 3, 1961 (INES 4 | NAMS 2,9) SL-1, NRTS Idaho Falls, USA
In this accident in what was essentially the first Small Modular Reactor (SMR), killed 3 people and released TBq radioactive radiation wurden released
(Cost approx. US$26 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
Wikipedia de
Idaho National Laboratory
The accident can be found in the Wikipedia article in this paragraph:
The Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One (SL-1) was a particularly low-power reactor intended to supply electrical energy and heat to remote United States Army stations such as radar stations in the Arctic. In an accident on January 3, 1961, three people, the reactor's operating personnel, were killed. Radioactive iodine escaped from the reactor building and contaminated the surrounding area with 50-100 times the natural contamination; even 80 km away in the direction of the wind, the radiation level was twice the normal...
List of accidents in nuclear facilities #1960s
At the National Reactor Testing Station Idaho, the experimental SL-1 reactor suffered a critical steam explosion and heavy release of radioactive material incident, killing the three operating crew members. With the exception of iodine-131, the spread of the radiation was limited to an area of 12.000 m². Within a radius of 30 km around the reactor, the contamination of vegetation by iodine-131 was about 100 times the natural radiation intensity. Even 80 km away, the load on the vegetation was twice as high...
... The rescue team could not find either a fire or the victims at first, but they found radiation levels of about 10 mSv/h inside the reactor building. When appropriate protective equipment arrived, a team entered the reactor building and found one dead and another member of the three-man crew still alive. According to a US Atomic Energy Commission report, 22 rescuers received an equivalent dose in the range of 30 to 270 mSv. The reactor was dismantled and the 12 ton reactor core and pressure vessel were buried a few months later...
Wikipedia en
Nuclear power accidents by country#United_States
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1960
April 3, 1960 (INES 4) Research reactor WTR-2 reactor, Waltz Mill, USA
WTR-2 reactor meltdown accident at Westinghouse's Waltz Mill site.
(Cost approx. US$38 million)
Nuclear Power Accidents
This incident as well as several other releases of radioactivity are in Wikipedia de can no longer be found.
Wikipedia en
Westinghouse_TR-2#1960_accident
On Sunday evening, April 3, 1960, the reactor experienced a partial meltdown. A fuel element melted and released the radioactive gaseous fission products krypton and xenon. The overheating and subsequent damage to the fuel assembly is said to have been caused by a local lack of sufficient coolant flow. The accident was rated 4 on the international nuclear event scale, meaning an accident with local consequences.
The AEC's first notification of the accident came through a telephone call from Westinghouse to the AEC New York Operations Office. In a subsequent letter report, Westinghouse stated: "High activity in the primary coolant and high radiation levels at the site led to the shutdown of the WTR and the evacuation of the site at approximately 20:50 p.m. on April 3, 1960. There is evidence that the high levels caused by a fuel element failure."...
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February 13, 1960 - 1st French atomic bomb test in Reggan, Algeria
FAZ - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
France deliberately had soldiers irradiated
The emerging nuclear power France sent soldiers to radioactive areas in Algeria for a series of nuclear tests in the early XNUMXs and cared little about their health. The reveal excerpts from a secret report.
Around 50 km southwest of Reggane or 20 km south of Hamoudia there was a French nuclear weapons test site (CSEM - Center Sahara des Expérimentations Militaires) until 1965. There, on February 13, 1960, France carried out its first nuclear test with a 70 kT atomic bomb, which was about 4 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb. On April 1, 1960, December 27, 1960 and April 25, 1961, three further above-ground atomic bomb tests with less than 5 kT each were carried out on this site ...
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Atomic bomb tests France
Algeria and French Polynesia
Up until 2001, the French government still denied that there were any radiation victims as a result of its 210 nuclear tests in Algeria and Polynesia.
In the Algerian Sahara, shortly after one of the tests, French recruits were deliberately led to the site of the explosion in order to "explore the physical and mental effects of the nuclear weapon on people." Many of the nuclear test veterans now suffer from cancer and other radiation sicknesses...
Around 150.000 people worked for the test program, many of whom were exposed to unprotected radiation, developed cancer and died ...
Atomwaffen A-Z
The nuclear weapon states
Overview of nuclear arsenals worldwide...
Wikipedia de
French atomic bomb tests
On February 13, 1960, France tested its first atomic bomb (with a yield of 70 kt TNT equivalent) near Reggane. It was the most powerful bomb ever detonated in a first test. For comparison: the first US test (Trinity) had a power of 20 kt, the first USSR test (RDS-1) was 22 kt, the first British test (Hurricane) was 25 kt. The Hiroshima bomb (Little Boy) was 13 kt, the Nagasaki bomb (Fat Man) was 22 kt. The other three surface bombs at Reggane were less than 5 kt each...
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