nuclear criticality accidents

“All violations of operating procedures and equipment failures, however, are examined closely to minimize recurrence, even when those incidents have no impact on the safety of the workers, facility, or the public,” the statement said. It said “there has not been a nuclear criticality accident at a Department of ...

SANTA FE – Los Alamos National Laboratory says there was no risk of an accidental nuclear reaction in a recent safety violation where plutonium limits were exceeded during casting work at the lab. “The incident on August 18, 2017 was not a criticality accident,” a lab spokesman said in a statement.

LANL in 2016 was the only one of the Department of Energy's nuclear facilities to receive a failing “red” safety rating in the area of “criticality,” or ... 18, a crew that had cast a “shell,” part of the construction of plutonium pits that are the triggers for nuclear weapons, then moved the shell “into a location that ...

As the articles reported, a serious nuclear criticality accident was narrowly averted in July 2011, which resulted in the three-year shutdown of LANL's main plutonium facility. Nevertheless, according to the fiscal year 2011 LANL Performance Evaluation Report, the lab contractor was paid $50 million in pure ...

In mid-2013, four federal nuclear safety experts brought an alarming message to the top official in charge of America's warhead production: Los Alamos National ..... During a drill simulating a criticality accident on June, 15, 2016, some alarms at PF-4 didn't work, and workers showed “inattentiveness” to a ...

In fact, Los Alamos violated nuclear industry rules for guarding against a criticality accident three times more often last year than the Energy Department's 23 other nuclear installations combined, that report said. Because of its shortcomings, federal permission has not been granted for renewed work with ...

There has not been a nuclear criticality accident at a Department of Energy nuclear facility in nearly 40 years. When safety concerns are identified, our focus is to determine the causes, identify corrective actions, and minimize recurrence. This focus on continuous improvement is apparent in our safety ...

The fiasco brings to mind the 1999 criticality accident at a nuclear fuel processing facility operated by JCO Co. in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, which killed two workers — the worst nuclear radiation accident in Japan prior to the 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. The fatal accident occurred ...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's expectations for safely storing spent fuel are spelled out in Section 9.1.2 of the agency's Standard Review Plan for nuclear power plants. Protection against reactivity excursions in the spent fuel pool are mandated by 10 CFR 50.68, Criticality Accident Requirements.