Idaho Falls: The untold story of America鈥檚 first nuclear accident by William McKeown, ECW Press, $16.95, ISBN 1550225626 Reviewed by Jonathan Beard
ON A bitterly cold night in 1961, a small nuclear reactor in the Idaho desert exploded, killing the three young soldiers who were working on it. Despite William McKeown鈥檚 subtitle, the 鈥渘uclear excursion鈥� of SL-1 does not appear to have been an accident: the combination of poor design, shoddy maintenance, one bad marriage and two hot tempers probably led to a unique suicide. One man pulled out the main control rod, and angry neutrons did the rest.
Idaho Falls is a tautly written whodunnit based on government records and interviews with relatives and survivors. It is a good reminder that people cause accidents, technology doesn鈥檛.
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