"3 April 1960 - Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States
A core melt accident occurred at the Westinghouse Waltz Mill test reactor. From what information remains of the event, one fuel element melted, resulting in the disposition of 2 million gallons of contaminated water generated during the accident. At least a portion of the water was retained on site in lagoons, a condition which eventually led to detectable Sr-90 in ground water plus contaminated soil. The site is currently undergoing cleanup."
Westinghouse's 850 acre Waltz Mill facility is located in the rural community of Madison in Westmoreland County PA. The experimental reactor was one of the first privately owned test reactors to operate in the United States when it went on line in July 1959. The $7 million reactor produced heat but did not produce electric power and was much smaller than commercial reactors operating today. The reactor was 9 months old when a partial meltdown of a uranium-filled fuel rods in the reactor's core caused radioactive krypton and xenon gases to billow into the air over rural Westmoreland County on April 3, 1960.
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Westinghouse Electric Corporation; Waltz Mill Site
NRC Licenses TR-2 and SNM-770,
"The Waltz Mill site is situated 3 miles west of New Stanton between the towns of Madison and Yukon (Westmoreland County), PA approximately 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, PA. The site comprises 850 acres of which about 85 acres were developed and utilized.
Westinghouse Electric Corporation (WELCO) purchased the land for the Waltz Mill site in 1955 for the Critical Experiment Station for the design and testing of an open tank low-power reactor. WELCO subsequently constructed the Westinghouse Test Reactor (WTR), a 60 megawatt, low pressure, low temperature reactor. WTR was placed in operation in 1959.
WTR experienced a "core disruption" in April 1960 that resulted in partial melting of a fuel element and generated a large volume of radioactive water. This water was placed in numerous above-ground storage tanks and 3 storage basins. WTR was permanently shut down in 1962."
There is no way to get a reactor to melt down, and not release radiation off site. The above description is the 'official' sanitized, pro nuclear spin. What really happened may never be known, but what is clear is that the reactor melted down and released massive amounts of radiation down wind while also contaminating the land and water around the facility. Taxpayers are now paying to clean up the mess that a huge company (Westinghouse) created.
Why do taxpayers have to pay over and over again, for radioactive garbage and disasters that are the fault of and created by for profit companies? Why was there a coverup of this disaster, and why was no one notified of this accident? Who was downwind? How many people were exposed to the harmful radiation released by this nuclear disaster? Who was responsible for covering it up?
News reports
Melted down reactor moved
End
1960 - Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania - Westinghouse Waltz Mill Test Reactor Melts Down; via @AGreenRoad
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2014/04/1960-westmoreland-county-pennsylvania.html
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2014/04/1960-westmoreland-county-pennsylvania.html
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