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Civil Nuclear

In 1961, a routine restart at the SL-1 reactor in Idaho ended when an operator withdrew the central control rod about 20 inches by hand, triggering a steam explosion that lifted the entire 26,000-pound vessel off the floor in about four milliseconds and killed all three men on duty

On January 3, 1961, three young servicemen restarting a small Army reactor in the Idaho desert died in about four milliseconds when a single control rod came up 20 inches instead of four. SL-1 remains the only fatal reactor accident in U.S. history — and no one has ever fully explained why the rod moved that far.

By Nuclear Power Daily Editorial Team · Jul 29, 2026

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Civil Nuclear

A single uranium fuel pellet the size of a fingertip holds roughly the energy of one tonne of coal, 149 gallons of oil, or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas, and a typical reactor core contains about 10 million of them stacked into 12-foot zirconium rods.

A uranium fuel pellet the size of a fingertip holds roughly the energy of a tonne of coal — and a typical reactor core stacks about ten million of them into twelve-foot zirconium rods. Here's how the math, the metallurgy, and the physics actually work.

By Nuclear Power Daily Editorial Team · Jul 28, 2026
Civil Nuclear

In 1946, physicist Louis Slotin was demonstrating a criticality experiment at Los Alamos when the screwdriver holding two beryllium hemispheres apart slipped, the plutonium core flashed blue, and Slotin shielded his colleagues with his body knowing he had just absorbed a fatal dose

On 21 May 1946, physicist Louis Slotin's screwdriver slipped during a criticality demonstration at Los Alamos, sending a plutonium core prompt-critical in a flash of blue light. He pulled the beryllium shell off with his bare hand, shielded seven colleagues, and died nine days later — the second man killed by the same sphere of plutonium, later nicknamed the demon core.

By Nuclear Power Daily Editorial Team · Jul 28, 2026
Civil Nuclear

In December 1942, beneath the abandoned squash court under Chicago's Stagg Field, Enrico Fermi's team pulled the cadmium control rods from a stack of graphite bricks and uranium slugs and watched the world's first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction hold steady for 28 minutes before Fermi ordered the emergency rod called zip dropped back in and the pile went silent

On December 2, 1942, in a squash court beneath the University of Chicago's Stagg Field, Enrico Fermi's team ran the world's first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at about half a watt for 28 minutes — held in check by cadmium rods, an axe, and three buckets of cadmium sulfate solution.

By Nuclear Power Daily Editorial Team · Jul 28, 2026

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Tracking the future of nuclear energy.

Nuclear Power Daily is an independent publication covering civil nuclear energy, reactor technology, regulation, safety, fuel cycles, and the policies and projects shaping nuclear power. The site pairs a deep archive with current reporting on the research, companies, policy shifts, safety debates, and technical breakthroughs shaping the future of nuclear energy. We employ modern AI technologies to support our editorial workflows; every published piece is editorially directed and reviewed.

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