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Wood River Junction Criticality accident

Digital recreation of a sign hung outside of the Wood River Junction Facility.
The site of the incident seen in 2024 with the site of the facility after its demolishment following the incident, seen today as a field still radioactive.
Date	July 24, 1964 (1964-07-24)
Location	Wood River Junction (Richmond) & Charlestown, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States
Type	Radiation accident
Cause	Criticality accident
Outcome	Facility demolished, radiation detectors set up in Charlestown and Richmond, RI, creation of 1000+ acre exclusion zone
Deaths	1 by radiation sickness

The Wood River Junction Criticality accident, also called the Rhode Island Nuclear accident, was a criticality accident on July 24, 1964 in the State of Rhode Island at the United Nuclear Corporation Charlestown Nuclear Facility.

The site where the incident happened is still radioactive, but the site is as a nature reserve, which the reserve can be visited on foot, but all motor vehicles are blocked off from the area because of the radiation which still exists in the area. Although commonly referred to as taking place in Wood River Junction, the incident actually occurred just across the Wood River in Charlestown.

Background

The incident occurred at a United Nuclear Corporation facility which was located in Charlestown which was designed to recover highly enriched uranium from scrap material left over from fuel element production. The facility was built by the H.K. Ferguson Company, which its engineering and construction management was managed by the H.K. Ferguson Company.

Incident

At the UNC facility, 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 liters (2.2 imp gal; 2.6 U.S. gal) out of 40 to 50 liters (8.8 to 11.0 imp gal; 11 to 13 U.S. gal) of the tank's contents were splashed out of the tank. This criticality exposed the 37-year-old Peabody to a fatal dose of radiation.

Estimates for the received dose vary, as accurate counting was limited. An initial estimation based on blood cells was placed at 2,070 rad from fast neutrons, and 7,930 rad from gamma rays for a total dose of 8,200 rad. Further analysis and estimation revealed that at minimum the operator received a full body dose of 7,000 rad with a maximum dose of 19,000 rad. Later estimates based on the source of radiation yielded higher results; a minimum dose estimate of 15,000 rad (150 sieverts), as well as a maximum dose of 26,000 rad. Overall, the accepted dose estimate in the report was in excess of 100 sieverts, with a range of approximately 70-260 sieverts. This means that Robert Peabody received the highest external full body dose in history. Estimates to individual parts of his body were also made. Tests performed on his wedding ring yielded an estimate of 700 rem (7 sieverts) to that individual finger. His head received an estimated dose of 14,000 rem (140 sieverts) and his pelvis received the largest dose; calculated at 46,000 rem (460 sieverts), which Technician Robert Peabody passed away 49 hours later following the criticality excursion.

Aftermath

United Nuclear made a small cash settlement of $22,000 to Robert Peabody’s family, which left them destitute. The Atomic Energy Commission cited United Nuclear with 14 violations.

Road leading towards the facility seen in July 2024.

Following the incident, the United Nuclear Corporation facility was torn down and the road to the facility was shut down. The area became Rhode Island’s secondary largest nature reserve, and radiation detectors were placed in the road, ground, and trees of the area all the way past the Chariho High School. Potato farms across the towns were torn up and other farms, and were transitioned into turf farms due to the radiation which had settled into the ground, and to some places, water had to be delivered because the rivers were contaminated with radiation from the river that ran close by the facility.

Picture taken of the site in the 2010s by Google Maps of the site, which has since been cleaned up by the USEPA.

Locals have stated that the trees in the area have not been touched since the incident except to read the Radiation detectors, which to prevent further accidents all motor vehicles are blocked from the area which in 2013 became a nature reserve, as the radiation in the area is known to be still existent in the dust and ground especially in the site of the facility itself. Radiation detectors are still active in Hope Valley, Charlestown, and Richmond which were all affected by the incident. The Environmental Protection Agency named the site of the contaminated Wood River Junction plant a superfund cleanup site as of 2020.

As seen in 2024, following the COVID-19 pandemic, the site is a time capsule frozen in time, as the road towards the nuclear facility is still intact and can be seen with its lanes and paint still faded into the road untouched. The site still to this day has an ambulance from Hope Valley Ambulance which in 1964 was buried under the ground where the facility was surrounded in cement with the body of Robert Peabody, as it had radiation on it. Over the buried ambulance in the middle of the field is a single yellow radiation warning sign, as the ground in the site is still highly radioactive.

Affects outside the incident site

See also: Radiation damage and Radiation poisoning

In recent years, many older residents of Richmond, Rhode Island and Charlestown, Rhode Island who have lived closer to the area of the incident have been diagnosed with genetic deformities, which have led to death of people. While not confirmed, radiation exposure from the incident has been believed to be a reason for these deformities such as neopalsm, or tumors, forming more from older residents than normal.

In many of the trees surrounding the area have been proven to hold radiation, and the ground still holding radiation. Parts of the Wood River are proven to hold radiation, which has led to houses and buildings not pulling water from the river such as the Chariho Regional School District which has water delivered from other locations than pulled from the river. Radiation in the river and ground was the main cause of potato fields and other grown foods to be torn up and become turf fields.

As of July 2024, the Chariho High School which was built in 1960 still has radiation detectors on it which are checked yearly, while the Chariho Middle School which was built in 1990, many people who had built it were diagnosed with tumors or other genetic disorders caused by radiation mutation.

See Also

• United Nuclear Corporation

• Wood River Junction, Rhode Island
• Chernobyl disaster
• Radioactive waste
• Radioactive contamination
• Radioactive decay

External Links

• UNC Recovery Systems - Nuclear Incident at United Nuclear Corporation (8/24/1964)
• UNC Recovery Systems - Compliance Investigation Report Volume 1 - Report Details (9/16/1964)
• UNC Recovery Systems - Compliance Investigation Report Volume 3 - Supplemental Report with Exhibits (9/16/1964)
• The Nuclear Aspects of the Accidental Criticality at Wood River Junction, Rhode Island, July 24, 1964, Nov. 12, 1964, United Nuclear Corporation, TID-21995.
• Report of the AEC Technical Review Committee, Nov. 6, 1964.
• NCR Nuclear Accident at Wood River Junction Yankee Magazine, Oct. 1994.