University of Utah Libraries, Special Collections
Photographs Division
Special Collections
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0860
801-581-8864
http://lib.utah.edu/collections/multimedia-archives
P2103
Orr, Diane
Roberts, C. Larry
SL-1 Film photograph collection
1961-1984
162 items
1 box
SL-1 is a 1983 documentary film by Utah filmmakers Diane Orr and C. Larry Roberts investigating the January 3, 1961 meltdown of a nuclear reactor at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. This collection contains black-and-white photographs of the event collected by Orr and Roberts during the course of their research for the film.
Collection materials are in
English.
Biographical Note
Diane Orr is a documentary filmmaker and photographer whose films have explored subjects including Idaho’s 1961 SL-1 nuclear reactor accident, the 1976 Teton Dam disaster, the disappearance of Everett Ruess, and the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Several of Orr's films document the culture and history of the American West and the issues facing Native Americans. Her photography highlights Western landscapes and rock art (pictographs and petroglyphs). C. Larry Roberts collaborated with Orr on several works. In the 1970s he was a producer for KUTV’s news magazine,
EXTRA . He taught filmmaking at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the California Institute of the Arts, and San Francisco State University and served as artist-in-residence at the Utah Media Arts Center. Roberts died on July 26, 1988.
In 1979, Orr and Roberts began collaboration on
SL-1 , a documentary film about the January 3, 1961 meltdown of the Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One at the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS) located west of Idaho Falls, Idaho. The meltdown killed three people and led to the exposure of approximately 790 individuals to dangerous levels of radiation. Drawing from government documents, photographs, and film obtained through a Freedom of Information inquiry, Roberts and Orr reconstructed the accident and its causes. SL-1 was released in 1983. It won the Josef von Sternberg Prize at the International Film Week festival in Mannheim, Germany and was aired on New York public television station WNET.
The SL-1 Film photograph collection consists of 1 box containing 162 black-and-white photographs depicting the 1961 meltdown of a reactor at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. The photographs were primarily created by the United States government and were acquired by Orr and Roberts for use in their film through Freedom of Information Requests in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Arranged by subject
Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from the SL-1 Film photograph collection must be obtained from the Special Collections Manuscript Curator.
Initial Citation:
SL-1 Film photograph collection, P2103,
Box [ ]. Special Collections and Archives. University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.
Following Citations: P2103.
Donated by Dianne Orr in 2015.
Processed by Special Collections staff.
See also the SL-1 Film records (ACCN 2895) in the Manuscripts Division of Special Collections.
This collection forms part of the Utah Independent Film Archive.
Orr, Diane
Roberts, C. Larry
Beecher Films
Direct Cinema Ltd.
National Reactor Testing Station, Idaho (U.S.)
Nuclear reactor accidents--Idaho--Photographs
Photographs
black-and-white prints (photographs)
1
1
Camera and Film Crew
1
2
Board and Board meetings
1
3
Reactor Room Controls
1
4
Staging Area: Shower, laundry and radioactivity
1
5
Core and Rods
1
6
Rod Removal
1
7
Reacotr Dismantled
1
8
Clean up without protective gear
1
9
Measuring coffin radioactovity
1
10
Radioactive materials taken to burial trenches
1
11
Checking roads for radioactivity