
Map of the nuclear world	The uranium story
INES, NAMS and the disturbances	Radioactive low radiation?!
Uranium transports through Europe	The ABC deployment concept

INES and the disturbances in nuclear facilities

1950 – 1959

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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

2019-2010 | 2009-2000 | 1999-1990 | 1989-1980 | 1979-1970 | 1969-1960 | 1959-1950 | 1949-1940 | Before

1959

July 26, 1959 (INES-6) SNL, Simi Valley, CA, USA

Partial meltdown in the Santa Susana Field Laboratory sodium reactor experiment. There were about 1.036 TBq released.
(Cost approx. US$ 38 million)

At the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, which operated a 7,5 MWe sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor, a 30 percent meltdown occurred in this reactor due to a clogged cooling duct. Most of the fission products could be filtered out. However, most of the radioactive gases were released into the environment, resulting in one of the largest iodine-131 releases in nuclear history. The accident was kept secret for a long time ...

accident in 1959

Sodium Reactor Experiment#Accident in 1959

... It is very likely that the coolant partially boiled (boiling point of sodium: 883 °C), which allows conclusions to be drawn about the local temperatures. However, the melting temperature of the metallic uranium used as fuel was not reached, only the fuel rod cladding began to turn into a liquid state. The exact date of the damage is unknown, but could be narrowed down to the period between July 12 and 26, 1959.

[...] The incident resulted in a radioactive release of 28 Curie (1.036 TBq) over the fireplace; supposedly a controlled levy spread over two months.

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

Nuclear power accidents by country#United_States

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Simi Valley, USA 1959

On July 26, 1959, a partial meltdown occurred in the Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE), a sodium-cooled reactor with an output of 7,5 to 20 MW at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Moorpark, California.

Because of the high heat, 10 of 43 fuel elements were damaged and radioactive substances were released. The reactor was shut down in February 1964 ...

1958

30 December 1958 (INES-4) Los Alamos, NM, USA

Due to an accident at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, an operator died of acute radiation sickness.
(Costs ?)

Nuclear Power Accidents

Slowly but surely, relevant information on disruptions in the nuclear industry is emerging from Wikipedia away!
This INES 4 accident and two other accidents with a total of 3 fatalities are dealt with in four sentences.

Wikipedia

Los Alamos National Laboratory#Problems

Problems

In the 1940s and 1950s, three fatal nuclear accidents occurred at Los Alamos, two of them involving the same plutonium core, the so-called DemonCore (INES 4). The third criticality accident (December 30, 1958) involved improper handling of a liquid containing plutonium. (The operator died of acute radiation sickness)

This accident led to a shift from manual labor to the use of manipulators when working with critical masses in the United States.

There are large quantities of radioactive waste on the LANL site, and reprocessing and disposal is ongoing to this day.

The LANL's Plutonium Facility PF-4, a central facility of the Stockpile Stewardship Program to maintain the existing US nuclear weapons potential, has been closed since 2014 due to inadequate risk management in the handling of fissile material...

October 15, 1958 (INES-4) Research reactor am Boris Kidrič Institute, Vinca, SRB

6 workers were exposed to a high dose of radiation, one of whom died a few days later.
(Costs ?)

Nuclear Power Accidents

NTI - Nuclear Threat Initiative

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/former-yugoslavia-nuclear/

Yugoslavia worked with Norway in the field of plutonium reprocessing, set up a department for the reprocessing of spent fuel elements in Vinca, signed a cooperation agreement with the Soviet Union in 1956 for the 6,5 MW research reactor RA (heavy water reactor with moderation and cooling) and built the RB, a critical arrangement with heavy water natural uranium at zero output. Described by Vinca officials as "essentially a reactor for producing plutonium," the RA reactor was fundamental to Tito's weapons research.

In the early 1960s, as the nuclear research program gained momentum, Tito reportedly scaled back the weapons aspect of the program. In 1958, a criticality accident at Vinca's heavy water RB reactor killed one person and suffered five others from radiation poisoning...

Wikipedia

Vinča Nuclear Institute

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

The Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences is a nuclear physics research facility located near Belgrade, Serbia. Since its establishment, the institute has also conducted research in the fields of physics, chemistry and biology. The scientific institute is part of the University of Belgrade.

[...] The institute operates two research reactors: RA and RB. The research reactors were supplied by the USSR. The larger of the two reactors had a power output of 6,5 MW and used 80% enriched uranium fuel supplied by the Soviet Union.

The nuclear research program ended in 1968; the reactors were shut down in 1984.

reactor accident in 1958

On October 15, 1958, a criticality accident occurred in one of the research reactors. Six workers received high doses of radiation. One died shortly afterwards; the other five received the first bone marrow transplants in Europe...

The article in Wikipedia is unfortunately not particularly informative, this INES 4 incident is not mentioned at all.

Wikipedia

Institute of Nuclear Sciences "Vinča"

The Institute of Nuclear Sciences “Vinča” is the largest scientific research institute in Serbia...

June 16, 1958 (INES-4) Nuclear factory Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA

A chemical explosion released an unknown quantity of uranyl nitrate.
(Costs ?)

Nuclear Power Accidents

Slowly but surely, relevant information on disruptions in the nuclear industry is emerging from Wikipedia removed!

Wikipedia

List of accidents in nuclear facilities

The list of accidents in nuclear facilities names incidents that are to be classified as accidents of level 4 and higher within the framework of the international rating scale INES. Less serious incidents occur in the List of reportable events in German nuclear facilities and in the List of accidents in European nuclear facilities detected.

This list is limited to nuclear facilities. Accidents and risks that arise during the dismantling and further processing are therefore not included Uranium, in uranium oretailings dumps or -tailings lakes have occurred, such as the one that occurred in 1979 Breach of a tailings lake dam in the USA, which released more radioactivity than the one included in this list Three Mile Island-Accident ...

June 16, 1958

A criticality accident occurred on June 16, 1958, at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, in a uranium processing plant. A leak allowed uranyl nitrate from a pipeline to enter the plant's piping system, where it accumulated undetected. When the pipelines were emptied, the solution reached a critical mass, triggering a brief chain reaction. Several workers were exposed to elevated levels of radiation. Some of those affected suffered long-term health consequences from the radiation exposure. The accident led to stricter safety measures for handling and controlling uranium-containing solutions in process plants.

AtomkraftwerkePlag

There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:

Sites for uranium enrichment and reprocessing

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 7:00

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 at Hanford, La Hague, Windscale/Sellafield, Mayak, Tokaimura, or elsewhere in the world, all face the same problem: With each processing step, more and more extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste is generated...

May 24, 1958 (INES Class.?) NPP Chalk River, Ontario, CAN

An incident involving radioactive radiation exposure of personnel is considered INES-2 classified ...

Release of radioactive radiation into the environment means INES-3 ...

A fuel rod caught fire, contaminating half the facility.
(Cost approx. US$ 78 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

The power of the nuclear lobby

Just as no INES classification was made at that time, this incident til today in Wikipedia (.de) simply not mentioned.

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

Chalk River Laboratories#1958 NRU incident

The 1958 accident resulted in a fuel rupture and fire in the reactor building of the National Research Universal Reactor (NRU). Some fuel rods had overheated. Using a robotic crane, one of the rods containing metallic uranium was pulled out of the reactor vessel. As the crane's arm moved away from the reactor vessel, the uranium caught fire and the rod broke. Most of the rod fell into the containment vessel and was still burning. The entire building was contaminated. Ventilation system valves were opened and a large area outside the building was contaminated. The fire was extinguished by scientists and maintenance personnel in protective gear, who ran buckets of wet sand through the hole in the containment and threw the sand down the moment they passed the smoking entrance.

... The Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, an anti-nuclear organization, however, points out that some clean-up workers who were part of the military contingent in the NRU reactor building unsuccessfully applied for a military disability pension due to poor health. Chalk River Laboratories remains an AECL facility to this day and is used both as a research facility (in collaboration with the NRC) and as a manufacturing facility (on behalf of the AECL) in support of other Canadian electric utilities...

SPIEGEL report on hidden nuclear power plant incidents around the world

»A cold shiver runs down my spine«

Humanity has slipped past the catastrophe several times by a hair's breadth. This is revealed by 48 accident reports that were kept secret by the Vienna International Atomic Energy Agency: breakdowns, often of the most bizarre, profane kind from the United States and Argentina to Bulgaria and Pakistan ...

28 April to 18 August 1958 ("Hardtack I", test series with 35 A-bombs) Eniwetok and Bikini, MHL

Since 1945, over 2050 nuclear weapons tests have been carried out worldwide, which could be a possible explanation for the steadily increasing number of cancer cases.

IPPNW Report - August 2023 - Nuclear Weapons Tests - (PDF file)

... Aboveground tests were conducted at several Atolls in the Pacific Ocean in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, on traditional land of the Western Shoshone in Nevada, USA, on Aboriginal land in Australian Outback, on the land of the indigenous Nenetz in the Russian Arctic, in the territory of nomads in the Algerian Sahara, in Uighur region in China and elsewhere. Residents were often evacuated late or not at all, and were not informed about the effects of the tests. Radioactive fallout fell as dust and rain, contaminating drinking water and locally produced food...

The nuclear chain

Bikini & Eniwetok, Marshall Islands

Nuclear weapons tests

Nuclear weapons tests on the Bikini and Eniwetok atolls rendered entire island groups uninhabitable. Thousands of people were exposed to high doses of radiation. Exposure to radioactive particles from radioactive fallout increased worldwide.

Background

The two atolls of Bikini (Pikinni) and Eniwetok (Āne-wātak) are part of the Marshall Islands. They were occupied during World War II, first by the Japanese and later by the US military. The US military chose Bikini Atoll for its first atomic explosions after dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the islanders were evacuated, the atomic bomb "Able" was detonated on July 1, 1946, over a fleet of captured ships filled with laboratory animals. Five of the 78 ships sank, and 14 were destroyed. A third of the animals died as a result of the blast. Marines had to clean the decks of the remaining ships of radioactive fallout and were thus exposed to high levels of radiation. Since decontamination ultimately proved ineffective, many of the ships were sunk in the Pacific. A total of 1946 atomic bomb tests with a total yield of approximately 1958 megatons were conducted on the Bikini and Eniwetok atolls between 67 and 214. The most devastating test was "Castle Bravo" in 1954. At 15 megatons, this hydrogen bomb had the highest yield ever achieved by the US nuclear weapons program; 1.000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. The radioactive fallout spread halfway around the world—to Australia, Europe, and the USA.

More than 400 atomic bomb tests had been conducted worldwide before the 1963 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water banned above-ground nuclear tests. Significant amounts of radioactive strontium had been found in children's teeth – a compelling indication of the extent of radiation exposure to which the entire world population was subjected by the atomic bomb tests...

Wikipedia

Operation Hardtack

Operation Hardtack was a series of US nuclear weapons tests conducted in 1958 in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean and at the Nevada Test Site. It is often divided into Hardtack I and Hardtack II based on its different test locations.

Hardtrack I

During Hardtack I, a total of 35 atomic bombs ignited ...

April 28, 1958 - "Yucca", the first bomb in Operation Hardtack I, was carried by balloon to an altitude of 26 km and detonated there; this test had an explosive force of 1,7 kT.

5 May 1958 - “Cactus”, the second bomb in Operation Hardtack I, was a surface test of the Runit IslandThe detonation had an explosive force of 18 kilotons It created a crater with a diameter of over 100 m; this crater was later used as a final repository for nuclear waste. The resulting Runit Dome It was originally intended to be only a temporary solution until a permanent repository for nuclear waste could be found for the debris stored there. However, such a solution never materialized, and in 1983 the USA declared that it was no longer responsible for the Runit Dome.

August 1th and 12th, 1958 "Teak" and "Orange," tests number 32 and 34 of Operation Hardtack I, were launched by rocket from Johnston Atoll as high-altitude tests and detonated at altitudes of 76 km and 43 km, respectively. The explosive yield of both tests was 3800 kT.

List of nuclear weapons tests

Chronological, incomplete list of nuclear weapons tests. This table contains only significant points in the history of the detonation of an atomic bomb for testing purposes. In addition to nuclear explosions in the true sense of the word, countless tests were also conducted with nuclear weapons that intentionally or inadvertently failed to explode...

Atomwaffen A - Z

United States of America

According to the "Nuclear Notebook" (2024) by Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda, the US nuclear weapons arsenal currently contains 5.044 nuclear warheads. Of these, 1.770 are "active", i.e., ready for use - 1.370 on land- and sea-based ballistic missiles and 300 on strategic bomber bases in the United States, as well as another 100 tactical nuclear bombs in Europe. About 1.940 warheads are stored as "reserves" and can be brought into the "active" arsenal if necessary. 1.336 warheads are currently earmarked for disarmament...

Nuclear weapon states

There are nine nuclear weapons states, but only five are "recognized." The United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom - the states that also have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council - are named as "nuclear weapons states" in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty because they exploded nuclear weapons before 1957. However, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea also possess nuclear weapons, although Israel does not admit to having them, and are therefore not members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...

March 11, 1958 (Broken Arrow) Mars Bluff, South Carolina, USA

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident

On March 11, 1958, a U.S. Air Force Boeing B-47E-LM Stratojet took off from Hunter Air Force Base operated by the 375th Bombardment Squadron of the 308th Bombardment Wing near Savannah, Georgia, at approximately 16:34 p.m., bound for Britain and then North Africa as part of Operation Snow Flurry. The aircraft was carrying nuclear weapons in case of war with the Soviet Union. Air Force Captain Bruce Kulka, serving as navigator and bombardier, was called to the bomb bay after the aircraft's captain, Captain Earl Koehler, discovered a trouble light in the cockpit indicating that the bomb harness locking pin was not engaging. As Kulka reached around the bomb to pull himself up, he inadvertently grabbed the emergency release pin. The Mark 6 nuclear bomb fell on the B-47's bomb bay doors, and the weight pushed the doors open, causing the bomb to fall 4.600 m (15.000 ft) to the ground...

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 1950 B-50 Rivière-du-Loup, Canada
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.

Wayback Machine

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

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...

February 5, 1958 (Broken Arrow) Tybee Island, Georgia, USA

Wikipedia

Tybee bomb

The Tybee Bomb is a 3,5 ton Mark 15 hydrogen bomb that was lost on February 5, 1958 near Tybee Island off Savannah, Georgia. After a Boeing B-47 bomber from the US Air Force's Strategic Air Command collided with an F-86 in mid-air during a training flight, the commander had to drop the bomb in order to land the plane safely. It is one of eleven missing US nuclear weapons...

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

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:

Unofficially, the Defense Atomic Support Agency (now known as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)) has detailed hundreds of "Broken Arrow" incidents.

Wayback Machine

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

The OOPS List

2 January 1958 (INES-4) Nuclear factory Mayak, USSR

Three people were killed and a worker was seriously injured in an accident at the Mayak complex.
(Costs ?)

Nuclear Power Accidents

Over the years, some 235 radioactive incidents occurred, of which only a few became known ...

Wikipedia

Mayak, January 2, 1958

After a criticality experiment, the uranium solution should be transferred to geometrically safe containers. To save time, the experimenters bypassed the standard decanting procedure, assuming that the remaining solution was far below critical. However, due to the changed geometry during decanting, the presence of the people was sufficient to reflect enough neutrons so that the solution promptly became critical. The solution exploded and three workers received radiation doses of about 60 Gray and died after five to six days. A worker 3 meters away received 6 Gray, survived the acute radiation sickness but suffered from serious sequelae...

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

AtomkraftwerkePlag

The Mayak plutonium factory

Mayak is located 15 kilometers east of the city of Kyshtym in Chelyabinsk Oblast on the eastern side of the Southern Urals and was an important part of Stalin's plans from 1945 to quickly produce weapons-grade plutonium and to catch up with the Soviet Union in nuclear weapons.

[...] In Mayak, in addition to two reprocessing plants and a factory for the production of metallic plutonium, ten reactors for plutonium production were built ...

There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:

Sites for uranium enrichment and reprocessing

YouTube 7:00

Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium

Reprocessing plants turn a few tons of nuclear waste into many tons of nuclear waste

1957

October 7, 1957 (INES-5 NAMS 4,6) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR

A fire ignited plutonium and generated a very large amount of radioactive dust (1786 TBq), which, among other things, forced surrounding dairy farms to give up.
(Cost approx. US$ 89,9 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

The nuclear chain

Sellafield/Windscale, UK

The largest civilian and military nuclear facility in Europe is in Sellafield. While in the past plutonium was produced here for the British nuclear weapons program, the site now serves as a nuclear waste reprocessing plant. The Great Fire of 1957 and numerous radioactive leaks contaminated the environment and exposed the population to increased levels of radiation...

The full extent of the accident and the errors in organization and technology were kept secret for 30 years.

The fire of Windscale in October 1957, which was classified as a "serious accident" (INES 5), is the only Sellafield incident from before 2005 that has not yet been Wikipedia has disappeared!

Wikipedia

Windscale/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. 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.

Windscale brand

In the nuclear reactor Pile No. 1 in Windscale and Sellafield, respectively, technicians heated up the reactor in order to glow the so-called Wigner energy from the graphite serving as a moderator...

The accident is later blamed for dozens of cancer deaths.

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield

Nuclear power accidents by country#United_Kingdom

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Sellafield (formerly Windscale), Great Britain 1957

Windscale began operations in the 1940s. The site was initially responsible for the inspection and packaging of small arms ammunition and later, aided by its isolated location, for plutonium production for the British nuclear weapons program...

On October 7, 1957, Pile 1 was heated for the ninth time, and initially there were no complications. However, when the temperature did not rise to the required level the following day, the crew decided to heat it up again, causing the reactor to spiral out of control. There was a sudden increase in temperature, which continued over the next few days without being able to be stopped. On October 10, the reactor caught fire and radioactivity was released. All attempts to delete it failed. On October 11, 1957, a maximum temperature of 1.300 °C was reached and a large radioactive cloud containing iodine, cesium, strontium and plutonium spread over the Irish Sea. The reactor was finally cooled with large quantities of water and the fire was extinguished the following day.

In November 2001, the European Parliament adopted a Study on the possible toxic effects of the reprocessing plants in La Hague (France) and Sellafield, written by WISE/Paris under the direction of Mycle Schneider. The study concluded that up to that point, both sites had caused the highest human-caused release of radioactivity ever, comparable to one major nuclear accident every year. The release of radioactive substances was possibly twice that after the Chernobyl disaster. A significant increase in leukaemia cases has been observed in the area surrounding both sites; it is considered possible that radioactive emissions from both plants may have contributed to this. At Sellafield, significant concentrations of radionuclides have been detected in food, sediments, flora and fauna. Carbon-14, caesium-137, cobalt-60, iodine-129, plutonium, strontium-90, technetium-99, the latter with a half-life of 214.000 years...

According to an October 2018 report, the decommissioning of Sellafield is scheduled to be completed by 2120. Estimated to cost £121bn...

There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:

Sites for uranium enrichment and reprocessing

YouTube 7:00

Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium

Reprocessing plants turn a few tons of nuclear waste into many tons of nuclear waste

September 29, 1957 (INES-6 NAMS 7,3) Nuclear factory Mayak, USSR

There were about 1 million TBq Radioactivity released. At the spent fuel storage facility at the Majak Scientific-Production Association, heat exchangers in the nitrate storage tank failed, causing a major chemical explosion.
(Cost approx. US$ 1733 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

Over the years, some 235 radioactive incidents occurred, of which only a few became known ...

Wikipedia

The Kyshtym accident in Mayak

Also known as the Mayak Accident. The reprocessing plant there stored its waste products in large tanks. The radioactive decay of the substances generates heat, which is why these tanks have to be constantly cooled. After the cooling lines of one of these 1956 m³ tanks leaked in the course of 250 and the cooling was therefore switched off, the contents of this tank began to dry out. Triggered by a spark from an internal measuring device, the nitrate salts contained exploded and released large amounts of radioactive substances. Since the contaminated cloud remained close to the ground, the pollution in the area around the Russian Kyshtym was almost double the amount of the Chernobyl accident. Since the contamination was limited to the Urals, measuring devices did not sound the alarm in Europe (see Chernobyl accident), which meant that the accident could be kept secret from the global public for 30 years. (INES level 6)

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

Nuclear power accidents by country#Russia

The nuclear chain

Mayak/Kyshtym, Russia

Nuclear factory

Background

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. For example, the spread of radioactive dust from the Karachay nuclear waste dump in 1967 led to contamination of over 1.800 km² with caesium-137. The most serious accident occurred in 1957 in Kyshtym, 15 km away, when a container with 740 PBq of radioactive waste exploded and contaminated an area of more than 15.000 km2. After Chernobyl and Fukushima, this accident is considered the third worst nuclear accident in history (level 6 on the International Nuclear Event Scale INES). The lasting consequence of the catastrophe is the radioactively contaminated "Eastern Ural Trail" that is more than 300 km long and 30–50 km wide, in which the leukemia-causing substance strontium-90 alone reaches concentrations of up to 7,4 MBq/m2 (mega = million). By comparison: after Chernobyl, areas with more than 0,5 MBq/m2 of radiation exposure were declared permanent exclusion zones...

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, located 15 kilometers east of the city of Kyshtym in the Chelyabinsk Oblast on the eastern side of the southern Urals, was a key component of Stalin's 1945 plans to quickly produce weapons-grade plutonium and close the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons gap. The first reactor was switched on in 1948, the first atomic bomb detonated in 1949, and Stalin had caught up with the United States...

There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:

Sites for uranium enrichment and reprocessing

YouTube 7:00

Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium

September 11, 1957 (INES-5 NAMS 2,3) Nuclear factory Rocky Flats, United States

A fire destroyed a plutonium processing plant. Approximately 7800 TBq released radioactivity.
(Cost approx. US$ 8189 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

Wikipedia

Rocky Flats#Accidents & Contamination

On September 11, 1957, the year of the Mayak and Windscale accidents, the most serious accident occurred at Rocky Flats when an encapsulated plutonium storage facility in building 771 spontaneously combusted. The fire department tried to extinguish the fire first with carbon dioxide and then with water - initially in vain, and the fire raged for almost four hours. It penetrated the ventilation ducts and burned a filter bank, contaminating the immediate area around the plant. It is estimated that between 40 g and 500 g of plutonium (median 300 g) were emitted...

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

Radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats facility

Sources of contamination

Most of the radioactive contamination at Rocky Flats came from three sources: a catastrophic fire in 1957, leaking drums in an outdoor storage area in 1964-1968, and another, less serious fire in 1969. Plutonium, used to make the weapons' fissile components, can spontaneously ignite in air at room temperature. Other sources of actinide contamination include inadequate pond concrete vitrification experiments and routine releases during plant operations.

Brand 1957

On the evening of September 11, 1957, plutonium chips in a glove box in Building 771, the Plutonium Recovery and Fabrication Facility, spontaneously ignited (plutonium is pyrophoric). The fire spread to the glove box's flammable materials, including plexiglass windows and rubber gloves. The fire spread quickly through the interconnected glove boxes and ignited a large bank of high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters in a downstream plenum. Within minutes, the first filters had burned through, allowing plutonium particles to escape from the building's exhaust stacks. The building's exhaust fans were shut down at 22:40 p.m. due to fire damage, stopping most of the plutonium release. Firefighters initially used carbon dioxide fire extinguishers because water can act as a moderator and cause plutonium to become critical. When the dry fire extinguishers proved ineffective, they resorted to water hoses.

The 1957 fire released 11-36 Ci (160-510 grams or 0,35-1,12 pounds) of plutonium, much of which contaminated areas off-site as microscopic particles carried by the smoke from the fire. Isopleth diagrams from studies show parts of Denver in the area where surface samples detected plutonium. That the fire had resulted in significant plutonium contamination of surrounding residential areas remained undisclosed. News reports at the time, based on briefing by the Atomic Energy Commission, stated that there was a small risk of minor contamination and that no firefighters had been contaminated. The Colorado Health Department reported no abnormal radioactivity.

AtomkraftwerkePlag

There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:

Sites for uranium enrichment and reprocessing

YouTube 7:00

Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium

Reprocessing plants turn a few tons of nuclear waste into many tons of nuclear waste

April 21, 1957 (INES-4) Nuclear factory Mayak, USSR

11 people were exposed to radiation and became ill, one of the workers died 12 days later.
(Costs ?)

Nuclear Power Accidents

Over the years, some 235 radioactive incidents occurred, of which only a few became known ...

The nuclear chain

Mayak/Kyshtym, Russia

Nuclear factory

The Russian nuclear industrial facility in Mayak contaminated more than 15.000 km² with highly radioactive waste through a series of accidents and radioactive leaks. The Kyshtym accident contaminated a large area of the eastern Urals region in 1957. Thousands of people had to be relocated. To this day, the affected region remains one of the most heavily contaminated places on Earth.

Background

The Mayak Production Cooperative was the first and, with an area of more than 200 km², the largest nuclear industrial facility 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 facility was continuously expanded until production was halted and operations were gradually phased out in 1987. From 1949 to 1956, a total of 100 petabecquerels (peta = quadrillion) of radioactive waste were discharged into the tributaries of the Techa River – including strontium-90, cesium-137, plutonium, and uranium.1 For comparison: The radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima nuclear disaster is estimated at approximately 78 PBq. In addition, at least eight critical accidents occurred at Mayak until 1968.

Wikipedia

April 21, 1957: Criticality accident in container with highly enriched uranium

Too much uranium solution had collected in a container in a glove box, making it critical. The container then burst open and parts of the solution ran into the glove box. One worker received a radiation dose of 30 to 46 Gray and died 12 days later. Five other workers in the same room were exposed to over 3 Grays each and subsequently became radiation sick. Five other people received doses of up to 1 Gray.

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

Major accidents at Mayak, 1953–1998

April 21, 1957 - Criticality accident. An operator dies from a radiation dose of over 3000 rad. Five others received doses of 300 to 1.000 rem and suffered temporary radiation poisoning.

AtomkraftwerkePlag

The Mayak plutonium factory

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:

Sites for uranium enrichment and reprocessing

YouTube 7:00

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, Windscale/Sellafield, Mayak, Tokaimura, or elsewhere in the world, all have the same problem: with each processing step, more and more extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste is generated...

1949 to 1962 ("Joe" (was the code name for the first nuclear tests of the USSR) Semipalatinsk, KAZ

Since 1945, over 2050 nuclear weapons tests have been carried out worldwide, which could be a possible explanation for the steadily increasing number of cancer cases.

IPPNW Report - August 2023 - Nuclear Weapons Tests - (PDF file)

The nuclear chain

Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan

Nuclear weapons tests

The history of the Soviet nuclear weapons test site in Semipalatinsk is a reminder of how supposed "national security interests" can be used to deliberately deceive the public and endanger the health of the people for many generations to come. This is exactly what happened in Semipalatinsk, where nuclear explosions knowingly exposed the local population to large amounts of radioactivity for several decades.

Background

In 1949, the Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear weapons test in Semipalatinsk, a 19.000 m² test site in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Over a period of 40 years, the USSR detonated 467 atomic bombs in Semipalatinsk, 120 above ground and 347 underground—always without regard for the health and safety of the local population or the environment.

In 1990, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War joined forces with Kazakh poet Olzhas Suleimenov and his Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement to persuade President Gorbachev, through demonstrations, to declare a moratorium on nuclear testing. After Kazakhstan's independence in 1991, the Kazakh government closed the test site and scrapped the world's fourth-largest nuclear weapons arsenal, which it had inherited from the USSR.

Globally, more than 1945 nuclear explosions have been carried out at dozens of test sites around the world since 2.000. The consequence of this madness was worldwide contamination with radioactive fallout, which has exposed people worldwide to elevated levels of radiation...

Wikipedia

RDS-37

The RDS-37 was the Soviet Union's first "true" two-stage hydrogen bomb and the first thermonuclear bomb dropped from the air...

List of nuclear weapons tests

The Soviet Union conducted its first atomic bomb test ("RDS-1") on August 29, 1949 Semipalatinsk nuclear weapons test site (now Kazakhstan) through. Between 1949 and 1990, the Soviet Union carried out a total of 715 tests with 969 individual explosives ...

Atomwaffen A-Z

Russia

The Soviet Union, Russia's predecessor, became a nuclear power in 1949 and conducted over 700 nuclear tests. It is estimated that Russia, or rather the Soviet Union, has produced approximately 1949 nuclear weapons since 55.000. The Soviet Union joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970. According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists' Nuclear Notebook, the Russian arsenal contained 2022 nuclear weapons in spring 5.977, of which approximately 4.477 are operational.

Nuclear weapon states

1956

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

Thanks for pointing out Operation Redwing, Nathan the Orphan!

4 May to 21 July 1956 ("Redwing", test series with 17 H-bombs) Eniwetok and Bikini, MHL

Since 1945, over 2050 nuclear weapons tests have been carried out worldwide, which could be a possible explanation for the steadily increasing number of cancer cases.

IPPNW Report - August 2023 - Nuclear Weapons Tests - (PDF file)

The nuclear chain

Bikini & Eniwetok, Marshall Islands

Nuclear weapons tests

Background

Wikipedia

Operation Redwing

Operation Redwing was the thirteenth series of American nuclear weapons tests conducted between May 4 and July 21, 1956, in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. 17 nuclear weapons above ground The operation was conducted to test powerful thermonuclear weapons that could not be tested at the Nevada Test Site. The bombs were named after Native American tribes.

20 May 1956 - The 2nd test as part of Operation Redwing, named after the Cherokee Indian tribe, had an explosive force of 3,8 MTIt was a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb of the Teller-Ulam design. Unlike the standard version of this type, the lithium deuteride cladding in this case was made of highly enriched uranium.

27 May 1956 - The 3rd test as part of Operation Redwing, named after the Zuni Indian tribe, was the first test of an American thermonuclear bomb in the Three-stage design (FFF: “Fission-Fusion-Fission”). The 3,5 MT Explosion created a 30 meter deep crater with a diameter of 800 meters.

July 20, 1956 - The 16th test within the framework of Operation Redwing, named after the Native American tribe of the "Tewa", was detonated on a barge in the Bikini Atoll reef between the islands of Namu and Yurochi and had an explosive force of 6-8MTTewa was after Zuni and Ivy Mike the third American hydrogen bomb with a three-stage design (fission-fusion-fission).

List of nuclear weapons tests

Atomwaffen A - Z

United States of America

Nuclear weapon states

1955

8 December 1955 (INES-3) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR

A fire broke out in a silo for radioactive waste in building B247.
(Cost approx. US$ 1300 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

The nuclear chain

Sellafield/Windscale, UK

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Sellafield (formerly Windscale), UK

According to an October 2018 report, the decommissioning of Sellafield is scheduled to be completed by 2120. Estimated to cost £121bn...

There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:

Sites for uranium enrichment and reprocessing

This accident as well as several other releases of radioactivity are in Wikipedia no longer to be found.

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

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...

YouTube 7:00

Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium

Reprocessing plants turn a few tons of nuclear waste into many tons of nuclear waste

29 November 1955 (INES-4) EBR-I, NRTS Idaho, USA

Partial meltdown during a coolant flow test.
(Cost approx. US$ 1500 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Idaho Falls, USA - 1955: Partial meltdown at EBR-1

The first accident occurred in the Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-1). After two years of construction, the fast breeder went into operation in 1951 and had an output of 0,2 MW. According to a 1953 calculation, he created only one new atom for each split atom.

When the EBR-1 was subjected to a performance upgrade test on November 29, 1955, a technician made a fatal error. Using a button, he accidentally pushed a slow-moving control rod (instead of a fast-moving one) into the reactor core. The technician noticed the error immediately, but after just a few seconds half of the radioactive core had melted. The EBR-1 was decommissioned in 1964.

The partial meltdown was rated level 4 (accident) on the INES scale...

Slowly but surely, relevant information on disruptions in the nuclear industry is emerging from Wikipedia away!
The Wikipedia article on INL does not mention the INES 4 accident of November 29, 1955.

Wikipedia

Idaho National Laboratory

List of accidents in nuclear facilities

November 29, 1955 - At the National Reactor Testing Station Idaho, the EBR-I research reactor suffered a partial meltdown. The core, made of enriched uranium combined with 2% zirconium, melted in tests that called for a rapid increase in power due to fuel tubes warping. Evaporation of the coolant NaK transported the melting fuel into the cooling system tubes and dropped below criticality, causing the reactor to shut itself down...

In the English Wikipedia doesn't look much better...

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

Nuclear power accidents by country#United_States

Power excursion with partial core meltdown at NRTS's EBR-1 Experimental Breeder Reactor I

July 14, 1955 (INES-3) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR

A radioactive leak was discovered during clean-up work.
(Cost approx. US$ 2900 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

The nuclear chain

Sellafield/Windscale, UK

This accident as well as several other releases of radioactivity are in Wikipedia no longer to be found.

Wikipedia

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

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

Sellafield # Incidents

Radiological releases

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Sellafield (formerly Windscale), UK

According to an October 2018 report, the decommissioning of Sellafield is scheduled to be completed by 2120. Estimated to cost £121bn...

There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:

Sites for uranium enrichment and reprocessing

YouTube 7:00

Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium

Reprocessing plants turn a few tons of nuclear waste into many tons of nuclear waste

March 25, 1955 (INES-4 NAMS 4,3) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR

In this fire were about 1000 TBq Terabecquerel radioactivity released.
(Cost approx. US$ 4400 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

The nuclear chain

Sellafield/Windscale, UK

This accident and several other releases of radioactivity are in Wikipedia no longer to be found.

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

Sellafield # Incidents

Radiological releases

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Sellafield (formerly Windscale), UK

According to an October 2018 report, the decommissioning of Sellafield is scheduled to be completed by 2120. Estimated to cost £121bn...

There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:

Sites for uranium enrichment and reprocessing

YouTube 7:00

Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium

Reprocessing plants turn a few tons of nuclear waste into many tons of nuclear waste

1954

February 28 to May 4, 1954 ("Operation Castle", test series with 6 H-bombs) Bikini Atoll, MHL

Since 1945, over 2050 nuclear weapons tests have been carried out worldwide, which could be a possible explanation for the steadily increasing number of cancer cases.

IPPNW Report - August 2023 - Nuclear Weapons Tests - (PDF file)

The nuclear chain

Bikini & Eniwetok, Marshall Islands

Nuclear weapons tests

Background

Wikipedia

Bikini Atoll

The atoll became known as the site of numerous US nuclear weapons tests in the 1940s and 1950s...

Bomb	Date	Location	explosive power
Bravo	February 28, 1954, 18:45 (UT)	Nam Island	15 MT
Romeo	March 26, 1954, 18:30 p.m. (UT)	Nam Island	11 MT
Koon	April 6, 1954, 18:20 (UT)	Eninman Island	110 kT
Union	April 25, 1954, 18:10 (UT)	Bikini Lagoon	6,9 MT
Yankee	May 4, 1954, 18:10 p.m. (UT)	Bikini Lagoon	13,5 MT

The Bravo hydrogen bomb was the most powerful bomb ever detonated by the United States.

Operation Castle

Operation Castle was an American nuclear weapons test series that was carried out in 1954, mainly on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The Bravo and Yankee tests in this series are still the most powerful nuclear weapons tests ever conducted by the United States...

Castle Bravo

Castle Bravo became the most powerful American thermonuclear weapon, detonating with an explosive yield of about 15 megatons of TNT equivalent, almost 2,5 times more powerful than predicted...

In the most powerful nuclear weapons test ever carried out on the atoll, 236 residents of Rongelap Island were irradiated; many of them became radiation sick or suffered severe burns. About 100 ships were affected by the fallout from the Castle Bravo test in the Pacific. The 23-member crew of the Japanese fishing boat, 140 kilometers away, achieved worldwide fame.Lucky Dragon V', which was heavily contaminated by the fallout, causing diplomatic tensions with Japan and bringing the word "fallout" into the public eye worldwide. One crew member (radio operator) died from the effects of radiation sickness; the United States paid compensation to the victims...

List of nuclear weapons tests

Atomwaffen A - Z

Nuclear weapon states

1953

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

An armistice agreement has been in force in Korea since July 27, 1953!

1952

December 12, 1952 (INES-5) Research reactor Chalk River, Ontario, CAN

A hydrogen explosion damaged the interior of the reactor and released 30 kilograms of uranium oxide particles.
(Cost approx. US$ 53 million)

Nuclear Power Accidents

Wikipedia

Chalk River Laboratories

The first serious reactor accident occurred in the so-called NRX reactor at Chalk River Laboratories near Ottawa, Canada. During a test of the research reactor, the reactor core was destroyed in a partial core meltdown due to operating errors, misunderstandings between the operator and operating personnel, incorrect status displays in the control room, misjudgements by the operator and hesitant action. An oxyhydrogen explosion in the reactor core threw the dome of a four-ton helium gas container 1,2 m high, causing it to become stuck in the superstructure. The explosion released at least 100 Terabecquerels of fission products released into the atmosphere. Up to four million liters with around 400 TBq Long-lived fission products radioactively contaminated water were pumped from the basement of the reactor containment into a sandy septic tank in order to prevent contamination of the Ottawa River, which is not far away. The damaged reactor core was buried. The later one US President Jimmy Carter, then a nuclear technician in the Navy, helped with the clean-up work that lasted several months ...

NRX reactor#reactor accident

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

Nuclear power accidents by country#Canada

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Chalk River, Canada 1952

During an experiment on December 12, 1952, four valves under the reactor were accidentally opened, but they could be closed again. Nevertheless, after opening, some control rods got jammed, the radioactivity increased rapidly, and the pressure vessel lid blew up after an explosion. After misunderstandings by the operating team, the reactor went out of control and the fissile material began to melt. To stop the chain reaction, hundreds of thousands of liters of highly radioactive water were released, which collected in the basement of the reactor. The evacuation of the buildings was initiated. Since only a few control rods were affected and the NRX only had low power, the reactor calmed down again after a few hours and the damage was limited...

October 31, 1952 ("Ivy Mike", H-bomb with 10,4 MT) Eniwetok, MHL

Since 1945, over 2050 nuclear weapons tests have been carried out worldwide, which could be a possible explanation for the steadily increasing number of cancer cases.

IPPNW Report - August 2023 - Nuclear Weapons Tests - (PDF file)

Wikipedia

Ivy Mike

Ivy Mike is the short name for the US nuclear weapons test codenamed Mike, which was conducted on November 1, 1952, as part of Operation Ivy. This first large hydrogen bomb released an energy (explosive force) of 10,4 megatons of TNT equivalent, a value that was only exceeded three times in all subsequent US above-ground tests. The test site was the island Elugelab in the Eniwetok Atoll in the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The island was completely destroyed and no longer exists...

List of nuclear weapons tests#USA

The United States conducted 1945 nuclear tests between 1992 and 1.039, 210 atmospheric tests, 815 underground tests, and 5 underwater tests...

List of nuclear weapons tests

The nuclear chain

Bikini & Eniwetok, Marshall Islands

Nuclear weapons tests

Background

Atomwaffen A - Z

Eniwetok Atoll

Eniwetok Atoll is an archipelago of 30 small islands in the Pacific Ocean, part of the Marshall Islands. The area was established and used by the United States as a nuclear test site after World War II. During the tests, over 11.000 US technicians, scientists, and military personnel were stationed on Eniwetok.

On October 31, 1952, the USA detonated its first hydrogen bomb (Ivy Mike) on the atoll with an explosive yield of approximately 10,4 MT (megatons) of TNT...

United States of America

Nuclear weapon states

October 3, 1952 ("Hurricane" 1. Atomic test GBR) Trimouille Island, AUS

Since 1945, over 2050 nuclear weapons tests have been carried out worldwide, which could be a possible explanation for the steadily increasing number of cancer cases.

IPPNW Report - August 2023 - Nuclear Weapons Tests - (PDF file)

The nuclear chain

Australia

Nuclear weapons tests

Between 1955 and 1963, the United Kingdom conducted seven major and hundreds of smaller nuclear weapons tests in Maralinga, South Australia. This left the entire area permanently radioactively contaminated and exposed many people to high levels of radiation. To this day, the victims have been denied the recognition, medical care, or compensation they deserve.

Background

In 1952, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies allowed the United Kingdom to conduct nuclear weapons tests on Australian soil without a vote of Parliament. After the first British nuclear weapons tests on the Montebello Islands and in the desert around Emu Field, in May 1955 the place Maralinga declared a British-Australian nuclear test site. In the following years, seven large detonations of atomic bombs with 1 to 60 kilotons of TNT equivalent were carried out here. For comparison: The explosive power of the Hiroshima bomb was approximately 13–15 kilotons of TNT equivalent...

Wikipedia

Operation Hurricane

was the first British atomic bomb test, on October 3, 1952 on Trimouille Island, one of the 174 small Montebello Islands carried out on the north west coast of Western Australia...

List of nuclear weapons tests#Britain

Great Britain used test sites in Australia (12 tests), on the Christmas Island (6 attempts) and on Malden Island (3 tries).

List of nuclear weapons tests

Atomwaffen A - Z

Trimoulle Island - Montebello Islands

The Montebello Islands are located about 100 km northwest of the Australian coast. Britain secretly carried out three nuclear tests here between 1952 and 1956 with the approval of Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies. It is questionable whether Menzies included his cabinet in the decision. The Australian population initially knew nothing about it.

The first British atomic bomb was detonated as part of "Operation Hurricane" on October 3, 1952, at 8:25 a.m. local time. It was a plutonium bomb with an explosive yield of 2,7 kt (kilotons) and was detonated on a ship, the HMS Plym. The ship was anchored in a lagoon near Trimouille Island. The plutonium used for the implosion bomb, similar to the "Fat Man" bomb, was produced in Windscale and shipped from Canada. The explosion was detonated below deck, 6 meters underwater. It created a crater on the seabed that was 300 meters deep and more than XNUMX meters wide.

United Kingdom

The British tested their first nuclear weapon in 1952. Over the next 25 years, Great Britain produced approximately 1.250 nuclear warheads of nine different types. Between 1974 and 1981, the country had the most nuclear weapons, with around 500, with a total yield of approximately 140 MT (megatons). According to SIPRI, the number of British nuclear weapons today is approximately 225, of which 120 are operational.

Since 1998, Great Britain has had only one nuclear weapons system: a fleet of four nuclear-powered Vanguard-class submarines, each capable of carrying 16 sea-launched Trident II D5 missiles...

Nuclear weapon states

1951

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

1950

The Korean War began on June 25, 1950.

November 10, 1950 (Broken Arrow) B-50 Riviére-du-Loup in Canada

The non-nuclear explosion of a Mark 4 atomic bomb scattered almost 45 kg of radioactive uranium (U-238) in the area.
(Costs ?)

Nuclear Power Accidents

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

1950 Rivière-du-Loup B-50 nuclear weapon loss incident

[...] Background

While returning one of several US Mark 4 nuclear bombs secretly stationed at Goose Bay AFB in Labrador, a US Air Force Boeing B-50 Superfortress suffered engine failure and jettisoned the weapon at an altitude of 3.200 m. The crew dropped it over the St. Lawrence River, where it presumably detonated on impact. The non-nuclear explosion shocked local residents and scattered almost 100 pounds (45 kg) of radioactive uranium (U-238) used in the weapon's detonator. The plutonium core (“pit”), the key component for a nuclear reaction and detonation, was not installed in the bomb at the time. The core's absence was likely due to its high cost and relative scarcity at the time. Standard U.S. Air Force protocol prohibited any aircraft carrying a nuclear device from landing with that device if the aircraft experienced engine trouble—it had to be jettisoned. According to standard protocol, the plutonium detonator was always removed before flight and transported separately to prevent accidental nuclear activation. At the time of the incident, the aircraft was returning from Goose Bay AFB to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The aircraft in distress was successfully diverted to Loring Air Force Base in Maine.

The incident was immediately covered up at the time and explained away as the detonation of 500-pound (230 kg) military training bombs. It wasn't until the 1980s that the Air Force confirmed it had been a nuclear incident.

The U.S. Department of Defense has officially recognized at least 32 Broken Arrow incidents between 1950 and 1980.

Examples of these events are:

Unofficially, the Defense Atomic Support Agency (now known as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)) has detailed hundreds of "Broken Arrow" incidents.

Wayback Machine

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

The OOPS List

February 13, 1950 (Broken Arrow) British Columbia, CAN

Non-nuclear explosion of a Mark 4 atomic bomb without a nuclear explosive charge in the air.
(Costs ?)

Nuclear Power Accidents

Wikipedia

B-36 crash in British Columbia 1950

On February 13, 1950, the US Air Force Convair B-36 long-range bomber took off on a training flight from Eielson Air Force Base. The destination was the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Wort. Three of the six engines caught fire. The crew released the Mark 4 non-core nuclear bomb on board; it detonated conventionally in the air. The crew jumped out of the plane; Of the 17 crew members, 12 survived. The B36 itself crashed into Mount Kologet in British Columbia...

Wikipedia

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

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:

Unofficially, the Defense Atomic Support Agency (now known as the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)) has detailed hundreds of "Broken Arrow" incidents.

Wayback Machine

Translation https://www.DeepL.com/Translator

The OOPS List

2019-2010 | 2009-2000 | 1999-1990 | 1989-1980 | 1979-1970 | 1969-1960 | 1959-1950 | 1949-1940 | Before

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