Draft:Wood River Junction criticality accident

On 24 July 1964 at around 6:06pm, a fatal criticality accident occurred at the United Nuclear Corporation Fuels Recovery Plant near Wood River Junction.

Opened on 16 March 1964, the nuclear fuel recycling plant was designed to recover highly enriched uranium from scrap material left over from fuel element production. Technician Robert Peabody, intending to add a bottle of trichloroethane to remove organics from a tank containing radioactive uranium-235 in a sodium carbonate solution, mistakenly added a bottle of uranium solution instead. This produced a criticality excursion accompanied by a flash of light. About 10 L out of 40 to 50 L of the tank's contents were splashed out of the tank. This criticality exposed the 37-year-old Peabody to a fatal radiation dose exceeding 10,000 rad. He died 49 hours later from acute radiation syndrome.

Ninety minutes later, a second excursion happened when a plant manager returned to the building and turned off the agitator, exposing himself and another administrator to doses of up to 100 rad (1 Gy).

The local Hope Valley Ambulance Squad (HVAS) responded to render aid, initially transporting Peabody to Westerly Hospital; the hospital was not equipped for such a patient, so the ambulance was redirected to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.

As a result of the incident, the Atomic Energy Commission charged UNC with 14 violations of nuclear safety regulations, however no fines were ever levied against the company. After decontamination, the plant reopened on 1965 and remained in operation until it was decommissioned in 1980. A 1979 aerial survey found radiation exposure rates in the area to be consistent with natural background radiation, except directly over the UNC facility.

Although commonly referred to as taking place in Wood River Junction, the incident actually occurred just across the river in Charlestown.