A reactor 30 miles from Detroit melted, and nobody could look inside for a year ☢️ . . . On October 5, 1966, the Fermi 1 breeder reactor near Monroe, Michigan tripped its alarms. A loose zirconium plate had blocked the sodium coolant. Two fuel assemblies melted at ~700°C. Engineers didn't identify the culprit until 1967 — after peering in through a periscope built specifically for the task.
Source
John G. Fuller, 'We Almost Lost Detroit' (1975); also documented in U.S. Atomic Energy Commission reports on the Fermi 1 incident of October 5, 1966.
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