diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 673c3dd9..1d29636d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,18 @@ split, begin at v1.0.0 — see [VERSIONING.md](VERSIONING.md) for exactly what
 
 ---
 
+## [Unreleased]
+
+### Fixed
+
+- The event-loop watchdog no longer crashes the process at boot intermittently
+  (`Module not found "blob:null/…"`): it revoked its worker's blob URL right
+  after `new Worker()`, racing Deno's async module load. The URL is no longer
+  revoked, and a worker that fails to load now disables the watchdog with a log
+  line instead of exiting the process (#60).
+
+---
+
 ## [0.35.0] — 2026-10-27
 
 ### Changed
diff --git a/src/runtime/watchdog.ts b/src/runtime/watchdog.ts
index 4c86edef..6aa4238d 100644
--- a/src/runtime/watchdog.ts
+++ b/src/runtime/watchdog.ts
@@ -346,8 +346,11 @@ export function startWatchdog(opts: WatchdogOptions): Watchdog {
   const url = URL.createObjectURL(
     new Blob([WORKER_SOURCE], { type: "application/javascript" }),
   );
+  // Never revoke `url`: Deno loads a module worker's source asynchronously,
+  // so revoking right after construction races the load and kills the
+  // process at boot ("Module not found blob:null/..."). One small blob per
+  // process lifetime is harmless.
   const worker = new Worker(url, { type: "module" });
-  URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
   activeWorker = worker;
   worker.postMessage({
     type: "init",
@@ -388,6 +391,13 @@ export function startWatchdog(opts: WatchdogOptions): Watchdog {
   // shutdown) must therefore call stop(); signal-driven and Deno.exit()
   // exits end the process regardless. 'unload' is a best-effort backstop.
   globalThis.addEventListener("unload", stop);
+  // A worker that fails to load or throws must not take the process down: an
+  // unhandled worker error exits it. Degrade to "no watchdog" instead.
+  worker.addEventListener("error", (e) => {
+    e.preventDefault();
+    console.error(`[dune] watchdog: worker failed (${e.message}); watchdog disabled`);
+    stop();
+  });
   return {
     ready: () => {
       if (!stopped) worker.postMessage({ type: "ready" });
diff --git a/tests/runtime/watchdog_test.ts b/tests/runtime/watchdog_test.ts
index dfabeee0..50dfe4e6 100644
--- a/tests/runtime/watchdog_test.ts
+++ b/tests/runtime/watchdog_test.ts
@@ -198,6 +198,34 @@ Deno.test(
   },
 );
 
+Deno.test(
+  "watchdog: a worker that fails to load disables the watchdog instead of crashing the process",
+  noSanitize,
+  async () => {
+    await withRoot(async (root) => {
+      const script = join(root, "child.ts");
+      await Deno.writeTextFile(
+        script,
+        `const Real = globalThis.Worker;\n` +
+          `globalThis.Worker = class extends Real {\n` +
+          `  constructor(_url, o) { super("data:application/javascript,throw new Error('boom')", o); }\n` +
+          `};\n` +
+          `const { startWatchdog } = await import(${JSON.stringify(WATCHDOG_URL)});\n` +
+          `startWatchdog({ root: ${JSON.stringify(root)}, mode: "exit" });\n` +
+          `await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 1000));\n` +
+          `console.log("survived");\n`,
+      );
+      const r = await finish(
+        new Deno.Command(Deno.execPath(), { args: ["run", "-A", script], stdout: "piped", stderr: "piped" }).spawn(),
+      );
+      assert(!r.timedOut, "process lingered");
+      assertEquals(r.code, 0, r.stderr);
+      assertStringIncludes(r.stdout, "survived");
+      assertStringIncludes(r.stderr, "watchdog disabled");
+    });
+  },
+);
+
 Deno.test(
   "watchdog (off): starts nothing and the process exits normally",
   noSanitize,
@@ -466,3 +494,8 @@ Deno.test(
     });
   },
 );
+
+Deno.test("watchdog: the worker blob URL is never revoked (revoking races the async module load)", async () => {
+  const src = await Deno.readTextFile(new URL("../../src/runtime/watchdog.ts", import.meta.url));
+  assert(!/revokeObjectURL\s*\(/.test(src.replace(/\/\/.*$/gm, "")), "revokeObjectURL would race the worker load");
+});