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At 10.35 p.m. on January 3rd, 1961, a physicist named Ed Valario pulled up to a secret nuclear test site in the Idaho desert. Ed had received an emergency call about an explosion at the nuclear

reactor known as SL1.

No one had been able to contact the three men who were working that night.

Valario waved at his partner who was waiting for him in front of the reactor building.

The two men grabbed their gas masks and rushed inside.

They hurried up three flights of winding stairs that led toward the reactor's control room,

past pipes and motors and condensers, towards the cramp nerve center that controlled the reactor.

The building was completely silent, save for the frantic static from their Geiger counters.

Valario glanced down and saw the needle pointing to maximum radiation levels.

He'd never seen levels that high before.

When Valario opened the control room door, his heart skipped a beat.

The scene inside was total devastation, twisted metal scattered across the floor,

clouds of steam hovering above the shattered control board,

pools of blood and water everywhere.

Two bodies lay on the floor.

Bodies so badly mutilated, it was impossible to tell who they were.

But where, he wondered, was the third man.

Then something above him caught his attention, something on the ceiling... But where, he wondered, was the third man.

Then something above him caught his attention, something on the ceiling, something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Hi, I'm Misha Brown, and I'm the host of Wonderry's podcast, The Big Flop.

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