Atomic America: How a Deadly Explosion and a Feared Admiral Changed the Course of Nuclear History

Unwarranted & libelous

With respect to the SL-1 accident this account is; inaccurate in many places; and insulting to the technical staffs who: designed, supervised construction, and assisted testing, operation, maintenance and improvement of the nuclear plant; rescued one of the victims; and accomplished the accident recovery and investigation.

Inaccuracies in Facts & Terminology: Many of these like; "storing debris from both SL-1 and Three Mile Island in the ANP hanger (sheet 11 of photograph section).(The debris actually went into the ANP/TAN Hot Shop facility), and the use of "core" instead of "reactor vessel" or reactor vessel with core" when describing the reactor vessel removal from the SL-1 reactor building (pp.194&195).

Insults: "shocking negligence"(Wrapper), "shocking subterfuge"(Wrapper), "deliberately obscured the true cause"(Wrapper), "poor engineering"(Wrapper & p.206), "designed so perilously close to criticality"(p.6), "reactor seemed to be falling apart"(p.109), "the language of the scientists and engineers seems almost deliberately opaque"(p.179), "SL-1's miserable history of stuck rods"(p.181), "sloppy maintenance"(p.183), "poor design"(pp.183,187&205), "bit of ignorance in Idaho"(p.184), "poorly maintained"(p.187), "a disaster waiting to happen"(p.187), "Why would a troubled, inexperienced young man like Byrnes even be in a position to wreak that kind of havoc."(p.189), "the overall stability of the core was unknown"(p.189), "appalling"(p.202), "ongoing history of stuck rods was the most heinous failure along with the resigned tolerance for the condition"(p.202), "faulty workmanship"(p.202), "poor condition of SL-1 and the lax supervision was infinitely more scandalous"(p.202), "SL-1 was a sloppy operation"(p.202), "SL-1 had been fatally flawed and that those who tended the reactor had tolerated it."(p.203), "prudent operator would not have allowed operation of the reactor to continue"(p.204), "a scathing critique of Combustion Engineering's performance as managing contractor"(p.204), "poor supervision"(p.206), "decrepit state of SL-1"(p.206), "vague procedures that left the reactor quivering on the edge of disaster"(p.206). and "negligent contractor"(p.206).
The SL-1 technical staff and supervision who I met were some of the most courageous, intelligent, experienced, innovative and caring men I have ever known. Some of them were WWII combat veterans with university degrees. I believe strongly that the author's insults are unwarranted and libelous.

Author's Historian-Expert Qualifications (p.278): In supporting his claim of "the Navy's perfect safety record over 50 years and hundreds of reactors"(p.230) there is neglect for the following history of Navy, nuclear-powered-vessel mishaps:
USS Thresher sinking with 129 casualties,
USS Scorpion sinking with 99 casualties,
USS Greeneville collision with Japanese fishing boat with 9 Japanese casualties.

Author's Technical-Expert Qualifications: A "Naval Nuclear Engineer"(p.278) is more like a railroad locomotive engineer than a Nuclear Reactor Engineer with university-certified expertise in design, construction, test, operation and maintenance of nuclear power facilities and I don't believe that it is "the most challenging technical qualification in the military"(p.278) either. His assignment to the USS Alabama "Gold" crew is not any better than the alternating "Blue" crew.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.