[BC] Broadcast Engineers Christmas List - book on SL-1

[John Lyles]

I had the same reaction when i read Idaho Falls last year, could not put it down. It is, simply stated, too incredible a story to be real, yet it happened. 
In the 1940s we lost two people in Los Alamos to nuclear criticality accidents, and then another one in the 1950s. 

John Lyles

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Chip sez:
It's not broadcast related, but a REALLY good book is:

Idaho Falls: The Untold Story of America's First Nuclear Accident by  
William McKeown

I was waiting to board a redeye in Las Vegas, and broke it open after  
buying it at the Atomic Testing Museum.  I stopped in at about 10 AM  
and planned to leave about time for lunch.  I ended up closing that  
place!

I broke the book open and read some, then boarded.  I was in First  
Class, so I was looking forward to sleep.  My plan was that I would go  
to sleep once we reached 10,000 feet and I could lean back.  I read  
the book all the way across the country, and got no sleep.  It is a  
real page turner.

I also bought:

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

It is the story of the Army's SL-1 test reactor at the National Labs  
outside Idaho Falls.  The only people killed by a nuclear REACTOR  
accident in the US were killed at SL-1, the three operators.

--chip