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Birth of the Idaho National Test Site
During WWII, a Naval test firing range was established in what is now known as the Idaho National Laboratory. -
Idaho National Laboratory is established
First U.S. Nuclear powered Submarine begins construction -
EBR-1
The Experimental Breeder Reactor was the first reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory. -
Borax 1
Borax 1 reactor is built -
SL-1
The Stationary Low-Power Reactor number one is constructed -
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SL-1 operation
SL-1 is operated by army personal. -
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A poor design
Boron strips were tack welded to the 5 long controlled rods. These strips began to deteriorate and flake off. Movement of the rods started "sticking" unpredictably when they were being slid back down into position. As the flaking increase, the controlled rods ability to to keep the reactor core sub-critical. Also the Boron flakes change the distance that was once known as operating a distance that caused the fission between the uranium and control rods, making safe operation unpredictable. -
Byrnes, Legg, Mckinley
Jack Byrnes, Dick Legg, and Richard Mckinley become the fourth group of trained Army personal to conduct the operations of SL-1. -
Cole and Legg
Judy Cole (an Idaho Falls Local) and DIck Legg start a relationship. -
Byrnes Family
Jack Byrnes, wife Arlene and there toddler move to Idaho National Lab. -
The Party
After seven months Byrnes and Legg arrived at the Idaho National Laboratory there is a party that all the coworkers had a party in Idaho Falls. Byrnes, Legg and two other Sargent's leave the party to go to a strip bar. After the strip bar the men along with a stripper name "Mitsy" ended up at one of the homes of the Sargent's. -
The Fight
At one of the Sargent's home,some of the men paid for sex with Mitsy, Byrnes being one of them. Afterwards Legg and Byrnes commenced to fighting. One of the Sargent's got between the men and broke of the fight. Later the Sargent stated that Legg had made a critical comment about Byrnes being a married man. -
Get a Legg up
Legg is awarded a Chief operator and supervisor position. This new position is the Job that Byrnes wanted but was passed on. Legg was very lucky for receiving this promotion, due to the fact that one of his superiors was gone the day of interviews and has since stated that had he been there he would've blocked Legg from this advancement. He sighted that Legg was not intelligent enough for this role and that he like Byrnes was a "Hot Head" making him unsuitable for this leadership role. -
A Reputation
Byrnes reputation for partying and stepping out on his wife along with his callous attitude puts him in a lesson light among his superiors and he is passed on receiving a promotion. He is viewed as incompetent and as one who has little respect for his superiors. Byrnes consistently upset fellow coworkers at S:-1 and developed a reputation as a "pot stirrer". He was well known to plot/play coworkers against one another. He had hot temper that was displayed daily. -
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The Jokester
Legg is well known for pulling pranks on fellow co-workers. Examples given: causing false buzzers and alarms to go off, giving the crew members false reports of faulty monitoring systems. -
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Scheduled Shutdown
Reactor is shutdown for Maintenance and Repairs. -
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A house Divided
Jack and his wife have a falling out. Jack stays at a friends house and is out most of the night at the bars. The next morning he calls his wife and instructs her to leave his paycheck in the mailbox, so that he can pick it up. Later, he finds the check is missing and is very upset. Later that day, he returns to work, upset and angry. His wife phones him to tell him that there marriage is over. Jack is very upset and unfocused. The men start their duties. -
Legg, Byrnes, and Mckinley
The three men are to perform scheduled maintenance on the reactor. This is Leggs first time as a supervisor to oversea the operations. -
17 below 0
Alarms connected to S:-1 notify the site fire firefighters at fire station cold morning. -
Anybody Here?
Fire fighters rush to SL-1, they find it dark and abandoned. Fears that something terrible has happened, one responder has the forethought to retrieve a radiation detector. Upon returning to the inside they witness the detector max out its reading. Thinking that it is a faulty detector, they get another one, only to find that it too maxes out its reading. It is at this point that they storm out of the building. -
Bodies
Fire fighters find two bodies on the floor, Byrnes and Legg. Mckinley was found later stuck to the roof. -
We Went To Far
It is theorized that one of the control rods were pulled to far out and that it caused a chain reaction/explosion.
