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Very good question. It probably happened in the 1950s on an experimental reactor on the INEL site in Idaho. I know that their EBR-1 reactor was damaged by a partial meltdown in that time period, but I don't know if it was the first.

I have considered making a FOIA request to them on that subject.

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12y ago
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6mo ago

The first nuclear meltdown in US history occurred in 1952 at the Chalk River Laboratories in Canada. However, the first nuclear meltdown on US soil occurred in 1959 at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California.

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Q: When was the first nuclear meltdown in US history?
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The only meltdown in a nuclear reactor to ever happen in the US happen where?

Three Mile Island


Was there ever a nuclear meltdown in The US?

None ever recorded but I may happen soon. We'll see >:)


How many years passed from the first controlled nuclear reactoin to the first nuclear meltdown in US history?

I do not know as I don't have full access to INEL (the nuclear reactor development site in Idaho) records, perhaps a good idea for a FOIA request, the first meltdown would almost certainly have occurred in one of their test reactors long before any commercial reactor. I do know that the core of EBR-I (the first US breeder/power reactor prototype) was damaged in a meltdown on November 29, 1955; it was repaired and finally deactivated in 1964. This reactor has been decontaminated and is open for public tours (docent guided and self guided). I have been there 3 times (the first before decontamination of the floors were complete). I very much suspect they had at least one test reactor deliberately designed to thermally damage or even melt its core to study the effects.


Will the nuclear meltdown affect the US?

Worst case scenario, if the Japan nuclear reactors have a complete meltdown, then there is a possibility that the radiation can travel in the Jet Stream to the western coast of the U.S. To protect yourself from the radiation, iodine supplements are available at your local drug store.


When was Americas first major Nuclear disaster?

This was the Three Mile Island Accident on March 28, 1986 in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The first partial meltdown in a US nuclear power plant happened at the EBR-I facility in Idaho on November 29, 1955. It was repaired and continued to operate for some years after. There was also a partial meltdown at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station in Detroit, Michigan on October 5, 1966. These were not, however, what most people would call major disasters, as there was no major release of radioactive materials.


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