More info on Crit Accidents - Historical

[Rob Tayloe <tayloe@ibm.estd.battelle.org>]

Given the interest in the latest of the Russian Criticality
Accidents (note this is the second in as many months!), I
thought that folks in the Radsafe community might be interested
in more historical information on crit accidents.  The report
"A Review of Criticality Accidents", by William R. Stratton,
revised by David R. Smith, DOE/NCT-04, March 1989, provides a
good summary of many criticality accidents.  The document
may be purchased from NTIS for $27 plus $4 Shipping and Handling.
The NTIS document number for this report is DE90015896.  NTIS's
telephone number is 703-487-4650.

A summary of other Russian crit accidents was given in "A Review
of Criticality Accidents Which Occurred in the Russian Industry",
V.V., Frolov, et al.  A description of Arzamas-16 critical experiment
facility is given in "The History of Works on Nuclear Criticality
Safety in RFNC-VNIIEF", M.I. Kuvshinov, et al.  These papers were
given at the Fifth International Conference on Nuclear Criticality
Safety, September 17 - 21, 1995, Albuquerque, NM.  Alas, the proceedings
do not appear to be available from NTIS.  There do not appear to be
copyright restrictions on this material; I am trying to verify this.


Rob Tayloe <tayloe@battelle.org>
Battelle
Columbus, OH