Qualla: Fermi 1: The Reactor That Almost Lost Detroit https://qualla.com/fermi-1 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Fermi 1: The Reactor That Almost Lost Detroit https://qualla.com/fermi-1 Fermi 1: The Reactor That Almost Lost Detroit: Introduction https://qualla.com/fermi-1/ The crushed beer can changed everything. When engineers drained the sodium coolant from Fermi 1's reactor vessel in August 1967 and lowered a periscope into the radioactive darkness, they expected to find evidence of the partial meltdown that had occurred ten months earlier. What they found instead was a crumpled piece of sheet metal jammed against the bottom of the reactor -- a zirconium shield plate that had broken loose and blocked the flow of liquid sodium coolant, starving fuel assemblies of cooling until they melted. The plate had been added late in construction, never recorded on the blueprints. A forgotten piece of metal, smaller than a doormat, had triggered the most controversial nuclear accident in American history.

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/k/y/fermi-1-wp/dpky-fermi-1-the-reactor-that-almost-lost-detroit-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Fermi 1: The Reactor That Almost Lost Detroit: A Reactor That Breeds Its Own Fuel https://qualla.com/fermi-1/ Fermi 1 was built to prove an audacious idea: a reactor that creates more fuel than it consumes. Sitting on the western shore of Lake Erie south of Detroit, Michigan, the plant used liquid sodium metal -- heated to temperatures that would make it burst into flame on contact with ...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/k/y/fermi-1-wp/dpky-fermi-1-the-reactor-that-almost-lost-detroit-a-reactor-that-breeds-its-own-fuel.mp3 0:06 2 full Fermi 1: The Reactor That Almost Lost Detroit: Warnings Ignored https://qualla.com/fermi-1/ The warnings came early and from the top. On November 29, 1955, EBR-I suffered a partial meltdown when an operator hit the wrong button during a temperature test, and half the core melted in seconds. Despite this, Cisler applied for Fermi 1's construction permit in January 1956. ...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/k/y/fermi-1-wp/dpky-fermi-1-the-reactor-that-almost-lost-detroit-warnings-ignored.mp3 0:06 3 full Fermi 1: The Reactor That Almost Lost Detroit: Fifteen Minutes in October https://qualla.com/fermi-1/ October 5, 1966 began routinely. Operators started ramping Fermi 1 toward 20,000 kilowatts of thermal power for a test run. At 3:05 PM, operator Mike Weber noticed the control rods were withdrawn further than they should have been -- the automatic system was compensating for some...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/k/y/fermi-1-wp/dpky-fermi-1-the-reactor-that-almost-lost-detroit-fifteen-minutes-in-october.mp3 0:06 4 full Fermi 1: The Reactor That Almost Lost Detroit: The Long Aftermath https://qualla.com/fermi-1/ Fermi 1 spent four years in repair. It restarted in July 1970 and ran until November 1972, when the AEC denied its license extension. By then the project had consumed $132 million. Shutting the reactor down created its own disasters: the company hired to dispose of non-radioactiv...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/k/y/fermi-1-wp/dpky-fermi-1-the-reactor-that-almost-lost-detroit-the-long-aftermath.mp3 0:06 5 full Fermi 1: The Reactor That Almost Lost Detroit: We Almost Lost Detroit https://qualla.com/fermi-1/ In 1975, journalist John Fuller published "We Almost Lost Detroit," its title drawn from an anonymous plant operator's remark. Fuller argued the design was inherently unsafe and that only luck prevented catastrophe. Detroit Edison countered with its own publication: "We Did Not A...

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]]> Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/p/k/y/fermi-1-wp/dpky-fermi-1-the-reactor-that-almost-lost-detroit-we-almost-lost-detroit.mp3 0:06 6 full