Earlier this year, there was an issue with the criticality accident alarm system at Y-12’s Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, which may contain the world’s largest inventory of bomb-grade uranium at any one site.
With that much fissionable material on hand, any abnormal happening that involves the criticality alarm system is taken seriously. In this case, according to a recently released activity report by staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the Plant Shift Superintendent office at Y-12 “received an alarm indicating a problem.” This was on a Saturday, April 23.
The Plant Shift Superintendent contacted the on-call shift manager for the uranium storage facility, who investigated the scene and “discovered that a CAAS (Criticality Accident Alarm System) equipment cabinet had experienced a rise in temperature that was above the “alarm set point.” Continue reading