The former San Bruno Navy Base which is currently the site of YouTube Headquarters was irradiated with Radio-Tantalum which decays into Radio Tungsten and so the people who work there are subject to alpha contamination to this day!. I highly recommend YouTube and Walmart leave this site and not build on a toxic waste site. Google Headquarters is located on an EPA Superfund site and I recommend they leave the property as fast as they can. How can you hire people to work on an EPA superfund site knowing it is a toxic waste site? Do the employees know?
The site of the San Bruno Navy Base is bounded by San Bruno Avenue, El Camino Real, Sneath Lane, and I-280. Fallout” By Lisa Davis SF Weekly Wednesday, May 2 2001
The following are references and chronologies of the Navy’s testing where they purposely contaminated areas to radiation levels of between 1000 and 10,000 rads to simulate the effect of an atomic bomb blast and how they cleaned up the area. The problem here is that the dose rates reported are of the clean up crews, but there are people who set up these situations, spreading the contaminated material onto the streets, buildings and yards. What happened to them?
Operation Supersweep is still classified, probably for the exact reasons written above. Spreading radioactive contaminates directly onto grounds is not good for real estate values.
“Removal Effectiveness of simulated dry fallout from paved areas by motorized and vacuumized street sweepers,”USNRDL-TR-746 74-695 Street cleaning technology cleaning effectiveness OCD Task No. 3212A, D. E. Clark, Jr., W. C. Cobbin, U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, San Francisco, California, 8 August 1963
Survival and recovery during the various periods after a land-surface nuclear-weapon detonation requires proper countermeasures. Decontamination is the major countermeasure to be used during the operational recovery period, which occurs after the emergency period of shelter protection and before the long-term recovery period of contamination control.
The decontamination procedure to be used after each contaminating event depends upon the fallout characteristics, the decontamination materials and equipment available, and the nature of the surfaces requiring decontamination. For a land-surface detonation, the radioactivity is associated with the fallout particles in such a way that the prime criteria for decontamination are mass removal and disposal. In regions where enough water is not available, waterless methods must be used to remove and dispose of the fallout mass. Street sweepers of various designs and operating characteristics are commonly available for waterless cleaning of extensive paved areas.
Because most sweepers are designed and used for sweeping leaves and street debris, they may not be capable of effectively removing fallout particles. To determine their decontamination capability, a group of four sweepers (namely – w450, T100, T100AB and T100DS described in 2.1) was tested under controlled, simulated-fallout conditions.
- 1 HISTORY
The usefulness of street sweepers in decontamination procedures was recognized as early as 1948. Operation Streetsweep initiated a series of evaluations based on the continually increasing awareness of the problem and a need for its solution. Operation Streetsweep, [reference 1 below] using ferromagnetic particles of two size ranges to simulate fallout, established that large particles are more easily removed by sweeping than are small particles under the same conditions.
In 1948, Operation Supersweep, [reference 2 below] using three sizes of radio tantalum particles, showed that small particles are the most difficult to remove from macadam and concrete test-sample surfaces. These surfaces were manually swept with brooms. Fire hosing proved more effective than manual sweeping where effectiveness is measured by the residual in mass on the surface after application of the cleaning procedure (usually as percent of the initial mass).
In Operation Stoneman 1 [reference 3 below] (1956 at Camp Stoneman, California), a motorized sweeper was evaluated on asphalt and concrete surfaces that were contaminated with a dry synthetic fallout material dispersed at an initial mass level of 250 g/ft[squared] A removal of 87-90 % of the initial mass from the surface was achieved. In Operation Stoneman II (1958) [reference 4 and 5 below] more extensive sweeper tests were conducted on asphalt and concrete surfaces using three initial mass levels and a fallout simulant covering a broad particle-size range. Motorized and vacuum-equipped motorized sweepers removed more than 95 % of the initial mass. An improvised air broom, consisting of a manifold with air nozzles mounted close to the pavement at the rear of an air compressor truck was also tested. It produced a high removal effectiveness (greater than 99 %), but it created a dust cloud and re-dispersed the contaminant onto downwind areas.
- R. A. Laughlin, J. Howell, et a1. Operation Streetsweep. U. S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory Report ADOC-39, 2 December 1948.
- F. R. Holden, R. A. Laughlin, et ale Operation Supersweep, U. S. Naval Radiological Defense laboratory Report ADZ-42, 4 October 1948.
- J. D. Sartor, H. B. Curtis, et 801. Cost and Effectiveness of Decontamination Procedures for land Targets. U. S. Naval Radiological Defense laboratory Report USNRDL-TR-196, 27 December 1957.
- H. lee, J. D. Sartor, w. H. Van Horn. Performance Characteristics of Dry Decontamination Procedures. U. S. Naval Radiological Defense laboratory Report USNRDL-TR-336, 6 June 1959.
- My Disaster Area article showing with pictures the techniques used to train sailors how to clean up a nuclear strike. https://disasterarea.home.blog/2020/11/09/pittsburg-california-radiation-experiments-covering-half-of-the-city/
USACRDL TM 50-1 Cold Weather Decontamination Study by Joseph C. Maloney, ARM1.950310.003 July 1960, Radiological Laboratory, US Army Chemical Research and Development Laboratories Army Chemical Center, Maryland, CBDCOM Technical Library, Edgewood Arsenal, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD pp 3-4
11. BACKGROUND.
A. Temperate Weather Historical Background.
Radiological decontamination has been intensively investigated during the past decade by a number of different agencies. Although a portion of this work has been accomplished at nuclear weapons tests, laboratory experiments and field tests involving the use of radioactive fallout simulants have also provided much of the basic input data in this field.
Early laboratory work consisted of contamination-decontamination studies of small panels of various surfaces using reactor produced nuclides in solution or fallout samples obtained from nuclear weapons tests such as Operations GREENHOUSE and JANGLE.
The results of these laboratory studies were used to compare methods of decontamination or phenomena associated with different types of surfaces applicable to land target components contaminated by fallout. However, much of the data were found to be directly
At Operation JANGLE, several agencies conducted decontamination studies on model buildings and paved areas. Due to variations in operating technique and instrumentation, however, the results from these tests were not conclusive. Additionally, difficulties were encountered in contaminating the test surfaces due to unpredictable weather conditions thus limiting the significance and validity of the test results.
In 1953, the USNRDL conducted a series of tests on a land target complex at San Bruno, California, using a fallout simulant. The data obtained proved to be of limited value since it was later determined that the simulant used was not a realistic facsimile of actual fallout. In addition, laboratory tests were conducted with liquid contaminant to determine decontamination reactions on various materials. The results of these laboratory tests were extrapolated to large areas to determine decontamination effectiveness not, however, permit an evaluation of the logistic costs of large scale decontamination operations.
During this same period of time the USACWL conducted gross decontamination studies of RW contaminants on various road surfaces and panels of roofing materials. Again the physical properties of the contaminant were quite different from fallout, the results to that which would have been obtained using actual fallout was subject to question.
Any extrapolation of In 1953, the first edition of the manual, “Radiological Recovery of Fixed Military Installations, ” NAVDOCKS TP-PL-13 (now identified by the Army as TM 3-225) was prepared by the USNRDL under joint Army-Navy sponsorship. The validity of much of the input data in determining cost and decontamination procedure effectiveness was uncertain, and in many cases “best estimates” had to be used. It was therefore determined that decontamination studies were required.
At Operations CASTLE and REDWING, contamination-decontamination studies were conducted on ships, aircraft, and panels of various materials used in the construction of building exteriors which were contaminated by actual fallout. Some of the uncertainties associated with these experiments were due to low intensity levels of contamination, undefined effects of weather on the contaminated surfaces between the contamination and decontamination phases of the experiment, and unknown effects of fallout fractionation. Results obtained had limited application to the studies of the large area decontamination problem.
In 1956 the USNRDL developed a clay and harbor-bottom fallout simulant based on data obtained by their fallout projects conducted at Operations JANGLE, CASTLE, and REDWING. Subsequently, they conducted an extensive series of tests at Camp Stoneman, California, which were jointly sponsored by the Army and Navy. During these tests, structures and pavement were contaminated to mass levels which approximated that of actual fallout at H plus one hour intensity levels of from 1000 to 10, 000 R/hr. Data were obtained on the effectiveness of such decontamination procedure as hosing, scrubbing, and sweeping under ideal temperate weather and operating condition. No limitations were placed in the amount of effort and water used in these operations. In these experiments, the effectiveness data were directly applicable to large areas and were consequently used in revising the manual, “Radiological Recovery of Fixed Military Installations.”
Data on the optimum effort for these decontamination procedures were not obtained. The quantity of water used was unlimited. Due to this, a second series of tests, also under joint Army and Navy sponsorship, was conducted at Camp Stoneman in 1958. The objectives of these tests included decontamination as a function of effort, the effectiveness of dry decontamination methods, and the efficiency of land reclamation procedures for various soil conditions. Most data on effectiveness as a function of effort followed a mathematical model based on theoretical considerations. Dry decontamination methods of sweeping and air hosing were very effective. Practically complete decontamination of cohesive soil was obtained by scraping. Residual contamination was apparently due to spillage only.
Since 1958, testing with fallout simulants by USNRDL has been extended to a 5-acre complex of buildings, roads, and grounds at Camp Parks, California. In these tests, the effects of both dry and rainy weather on contamination patterns were measured over a two-week period after contamination. The two-week period was selected to correspond to the emergency period in which personnel in a heavily contaminated area must remain in shelters prior to the actual commencement of decontamination operations. Next actual logistic requirements for an integrated radiological recovery operation on this complex were determined and compared to that which had been predicted. Results have not, as yet, been reported.
Owen, W. L., and U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory. Radiological Protective Construction: Principles for the Protection of Facilities And Their Inhabitants Against Fallout. San Francisco, California: U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, 1962. pp. 1-2
The usefulness of motorized flushers for decontamination was recognized as early as 1952 when operations at San Bruno using radiotracer Y90 in a contaminant of seawater slurry at an initial mass of 78.5 g/ft [Squared], required a flushing flow rate of 0.5 gal/ft [Squared] to reduce the initial mass to 3 g/ft [Squared].
At Operation Stoneman 1 [reference 2 below] in 1956 conventional motorized flushing was used on dry simulated fallout at a deposited mass level of 250 g/ft [squared]. Water consumption rates of 0.5 gal/ft [Squared] were used and produced 2 % residual mass levels.
At Operation Stoneman II in 1958, conventional and improvised motorized flushing were tested using dry fallout simulant at 10, 33, and 100 g/ft [Squared] initial deposit mass levels. Using improved nozzle adjustments and higher water pressures than before, the water consumption rates were 0.12 to 0.16 gal/ft [Squared] with a residual mass level from 1 to 6 % of the initial mass level.
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