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My father was a civil service EE at mare island naval shipyard in vallejo, on north-east san francisco bay. He told me that when they drain the reactor cooling
by MichaelCrawford 11y ago
My father was a civil service EE at mare island naval shipyard in vallejo, on north-east san francisco bay. He told me that when they drain the reactor cooling water, there is a flange where they cut the hole in the hull, with a pipe running to there to a cement mixer. They make concrete out of the radioactive water, then haul the concrete and the mixer to hanford, to bury it.
But one time they neglected to bolt the flange together. When they pumped out the water, it poured down on a shipyard worker who was standing on the floor of the drydock.
While he was not injured, he exceeded his lifetime maximum dose of radiation. At the time Dad told me this story, the guy still worked at Mare Island but was no longer permitted in the nuclear yard.
- brandmeyer 11y agoNormal reactor coolant isn't nearly that radioactive. However, there is a continuous filtration system that gets flushed from time to time, and it is extremely nasty stuff. Its possible that the yard worker was actually doused with filter media.
- mpyne 11y agoI actually don't think it's possible. If I remember my OPWACHEM course correctly, if the media you're thinking of did wash onto the yard worker he'd have been severely injured by radiation exposure, and not just quickly bumped up to his maximum lifetime allowable exposure. It is indeed extremely nasty stuff.
- MichaelCrawford 11y agoI would expect it to be full of tritium.