Idaho Falls Read online

  • “Incident at National Reactor Testing Station,” memo from E.C. Anderson, chief of AEC's special projects branch, to US Surgeon General, January 4, 1961

  • “Interment of Radioactive Remains,” memo from Leon S. Monroe to superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, January 1961

  • Interview with C. Wayne Bills, October 2000

  • Interview with J. Robb Brady, then editor and later publisher of the Idaho Falls Post-Register, August 2000

  • Interview with Clay Condit, August 2000

  • Interview with Richard Feil, former SL-1 cadre member, February 2000

  • Idaho Falls Post-Register, “Three killed in Idaho Reactor Blast,” January 4, 1961

  • Idaho Falls Post-Register, “NRTS Blast Prompts Flurry of Phone Calls,” January 5, 1961

  • Idaho Falls Post-Register, “What Happened? The Question Is the Big One in Reactor Probe,” January 6, 1961

  • Idaho Falls Post-Register, “Probe in Explosion Persists at NRTS,” January 7, 1961

  • Memo from Frank K. Pittman, chairman of ad hoc committee on reactor recovery operations, to A.R. Luedecke, general manager, US Atomic Energy Commission, August 7, 1961

  • “Monthly report on the SL-1 Incident, May 1961,” memo from Ray Daniels, National Reactor Testing Station, to E.C. Anderson, chief of the US Atomic Energy Commission's special projects branch, June 5, 1961

  • Newsweek, “Atoms: Hot stuff,” February 27, 1961

  • New York Times, “Fear Safety Question Will Produce Repercussions in Power Programs,” January 4, 1961

  • New York Times, “Reaction of AEC, Atomic Industry,” January 5, 1961

  • New York Times, “Probe On; 2 Bodies Recovered,” January 6, 1961

  • New York Times, “AEC Sees No Hazard Beyond Immediate Vicinity,” January 9, 1961

  • New York Times, “3rd Body Recovered,” January 10, 1961

  • New York Times, “AEC Lays January Explosion to Nuclear ‘Runaway,'” January, 20, 1961

  • New York Times, “AEC Criticizes Itself on Safety,” June 11, 1961

  • “Review of Available Information on the SL-1 Reactor Incident,” a presentation to industry representatives, January 24, 1961, Germantown, MD, by Frank K. Pittman, director of the AEC division of reactor development

  • Scripps Howard News Service, three-part series, by Marshall McNeil, appeared in various newspapers, including the Albuquerque Tribune, during the month of February 1961

  • “Several months after the autopsies, the rumors prompted . . .”: exchange of memos between Francis J. Weber, chief of the US Public Health Service, and George Drasich, president of Local 2-652, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union, with attached report by local union member Donald Seifert, May 1961

  • “SL-1 Reactor Accident, Interim Report,” May 15, 1961, Combustion Engineering

  • “Summary of Aerial Monitoring (January 4 to January 8),” memo from John Horan, director of health and safety, NRTS, January 8, 1961

  • “Summaries of Calculated and Monitored Results of Contamination Following the SL-1 Incident at NRTS,” memo to E.C. Anderson, chief of AEC's special projects branch, May 1961

  • US Atomic Energy Commission, “Interim Report on SL-1 Incident, January 3, 1961,” The General Manager's Board of Investigation, January 27, 1961

  • “Unusual Activities of January 1961,” memo from R.D. Coleman, public health service, NRTS, to E.C. Anderson, chief of AEC's special projects branch, February 20, 1961

  • US Atomic Energy Commission Investigation Board, transcripts of hearings held in January 1961, Idaho Falls, ID; interviews with Paul Duckworth, Sergeant Robert Bishop, Robert Meyer, and various other SL-1 personnel

  Chapter 7: Murder-Suicide?

  • Coming of Age: Idaho Falls and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Ben J. Plastino, BookCrafters, Chelsea, MN, 1998

  • Confidential reports: “John A. Byrnes III, Idaho Nuclear Power Field Office, United States Army,” January 20, 1961, and “SL-1 Incident, Supplemental Report,” July 25, 1962, by Leo Miazga, Division of Inspections, Atomic Energy

  • Cult of the Atom: The Secret Papers of the Atomic Energy Commission, Daniel F. Ford, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 1982

  • “Documents Concerning SL-1 Incident to be Marked ‘Official Use Only,'” memo from AEC's Idaho site manager Allan C. Johnson to division directors, January 16, 1961

  • “Exposures Received in the Recovery of the SL-1 Reactor Site,” memo from US Army Chemical Corps Radiological Unit, August 15, 1961

  • Interview with C. Wayne Bills, October 2000

  • Interview with Homer Clary, March 2001

  • Interview with Richard Lewis, former military supervisor at SL-1, October 2000

  • Interviews with Stephan Hanauer, Department of Energy employee and author of memo describing the incident as a murder-suicide, August and October 2000

  • Interview with Dr. George Voelz, September 2000

  • Interviews with Susan Stacy, July and October 2000, January 2001

  • SL-1, a docudrama, produced by Diane Orr and C. Larry Roberts, a Beecher Films/KUTV Inc. Production, Salt Lake City, UT, 1983

  • US Atomic Energy Commission Investigation Board, transcripts of hearings held in January 1961, Idaho Falls, ID

  Chapter 8: Nuclear Legacy

  • Annual Atomic Energy Commission Report to the US Congress, 1961

  • Associated Press, “1961 reactor accident spawns $1.5 million suit,” January 29, 1979

  • Coming of Age: Idaho Falls and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Ben J. Plastino, BookCrafters, Chelsea, MN, 1998

  • “Exposures to Ionizing Radiation at SL-1,” memo from G. Landon Feazell, US Army Chemical Center, September 8, 1961

  • Idaho Falls Post-Register, “INEEL 50th Anniversary,” various bylines, June 2, 1999

  • Idaho Falls Post-Register, “Idaho Energy Lab Cleanup at 1961 Nuclear-Accident Site,” Jennifer Langston, April 7, 2000, transmitted by Knight-Ridder News Service

  • Idaho Falls Post-Register, “Nuclear Accident Remains a Mystery,” Brandon Loomis, exact date unavailable, 1996

  • Interview with C. Wayne Bills, October 2000 • Interview with Arlene Byrnes, former wife of John (Jack) Byrnes, March 2001 • Interviews with John Byrnes, November 2001 and March 2002 • Interviews with Michael Cole, October and November 2001 • Interview with Clay Condit, August 2000 • Interview with Stella Davis, November 2000 • Interviews with Ed Fedol, April and June 2000 • Interviews with Stephan Hanauer, August and October 2000 • Interview with Bette Vallario, July 2000 • Interviews with Robert Vallario, September and October 2000 • Interview with Dr. George Voelz, September 2000

  • New York Times, “7 Atom Specialists Cited By Hero Fund,” October 12, 1962

  • Record of Decision Abstracts, Idaho National Engineering Lab, December 5, 1991 • US Atomic Energy Commission, “Interim Report on SL-1 Incident, January 3, 1961,” The General Manager's Board of Investigation, January 27, 1961

  Epilogue

  • Adams Atomic Energies, Inc., Atomic Energy Insights, Volume 2, Issue 4, Rod Adams, July 1996

  • Interview with Arlene Byrnes, March 2001 • Interviews with John Byrnes, November 2001 and March 2002 • Interviews with Stephan Hanauer, August and October 2000 • Interviews with Egon Lamprecht, June, August, and October 2000 • Interview with Dr. George Voelz, September 2000 • Professor Eric J. Simon, Fordham University, Web page citation