REPORT OF CONFERENCE San Francisco Naval Shipyard Meeting at 1100, 1 October 1946. Present were: Dr. F. H. Rodenbaugh Dr. K. 3. Scott Capt. W. E. Walsh (MC) USN Capt. Wynn, USN Capt. Lemler, USN Capt. Maxwell, USN Lt. Comdr. Turnbaugh, USN Lt. Comdr. Skow, USN Lt. Chadbourn (MC) USN Lt. (jg) Morton (MC) USN Lt. Howell, USNR Mr. Hammond Mr. Gordon Comdr. Hoffman
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Maxwell: We called this conference together to make certain recommendations to’ BuShips on the means and methods to decontaminate salt water piping based on experiments conducted at this Yard – using ammonium citrate solution and muriatic acid solution. We found that muriatic acid removes all the foreign matter and activity. It does a complete job. The ammonium citrate does a similar job to a lesser extent – about 90% of the activity is removed. We found a medicine that can be used – it may not be the best, etc.
Dr. Scott and Dr. Rodenbaugh, are you in a position to give us a few answers that we are after – when should we use this medicine – what standard should we use – when should we use the acid and when should we use the citrate thru the salt water system?
TO: COMWESSEAFRON COM 11 NAVSHIPYD SAN FRAN, C0M12 NAVSHIPYD PUGET SOUND NAVSHIPYD MARE BLAND NAVSHIPYD TERMINAL IS NAVSHIPYD NORFOLK, COM ’13 NAVSHIPYD PEARL, COM 14 NAVSHIPYD SANDIEGO, COM 15 ATC M KWAJ, COMMARIANAS COMNAVPHIL CINCPAC COMSERVPAC CNO 032133Z NCR 1162
ON BASIS FURTHER STUDY RADIOLOGICAL HAZARDS AND CONFERENCES WITH BUMED, MANHATTAN DISTRICT, RADIOLOGICAL SAFETY ADVISOR AND UNIVCAL REPRESENTATIVES FOLLOWING DECISIONS MADE. NO HEALTH OR SECURITY HAZARDS ARE PRESENT IN FOLLOWING PROCEDURES. THESE INSTRUCTIONS SUPERSEDE PREVIOUS RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED AND WILL BE INCORPORATED IN CHANGE TO MY CONF LTR ALL/ALL CROSSROADS /C S99) (0) OF 22 NOVEMBER 1946: A SPECIAL DISPOSAL OF SAND USED IN WET SANDBLASTING UNDERWATER BODIES CROSSROADS NON TARGET VESSELS NOT REQUIRED. B. MARINE GROWTH ANTSCALE REMOVED FROM VESSELS AT FIRST DRYDOCKING SHALL BE SEGREGATED AND SUNK AT SEA AS PREVIOUSLY PRESCRIBED. Continue reading “1946-12-04 ACID AND OTHER DECONTAMINATING SOLUTIONS USED IN CLEARING SALT WATER SYSTEMS MAY BE DISCHARGED INTO HARBORS”→
NOTE: THIS DIRECTIVE PARTIALLY SUPERSEDED CJTF1 SERIAL 079 OF 9 SEPTEMBER 1946. (SEE APPENDIX II)
BUSHIPS Code 180 NAVY DEPARTMENT All/Crossroads/FS/L9 BUREAU OF SHIPS BUMED All/Crossroads (P2) and A4-1/FS and Serial 1381 BUREAU OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
CONFIDENTIAL AIRMAIL SPEEDLETTER 24 SEPTEMBER 1946
TO: CINCPAC COMWESSEAFRON COMSERVPAC COMTWELVE COM19THFLT
SUBJECT IS RADIOLOGICAL CLEARANCE OF NON TARGET VESSELS AND PROCEDURES FOR DECONTAMINATION X BUSHIPS HAS BEEN ASSIGNED COGNIZANCE OF DECONTAMINATION PROCEDURES PLUS SAFE OPERATING AND MAINTENANCE METHODS IN CASES OF ALL VESSELS EXPOSED TO RADIOACTIVITY X BUMED ASSIGNED RESPONSIBIUTY FOR DETERMINING SAFE RADIOLOGICAL LIMITS X THESE BUREAUS WILL ACT JOINTLY IN GIVING FINAL RADIOLOGICAL CLEARANCE TO VESSELS AFTER REVIEWING REMAINING IN ACTIVE SERVICE X REFERENCE COMJOINT TASK FORCE ONE SERIAL ZERO SEVEN NINE OF NINE SEPTEMBER X WHERE INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS THIS SPEEDLETTER CONFLICT WITH REFERENCE THIS SPEEDLETTER WILL APPLY X Continue reading “1946-09-24 RADIOLOGICAL CLEARANCE OF NON TARGET VESSELS AND PROCEDURES FOR DECONTAMINATION; Ships bound for Pacific bases after Atomic Bomb tests”→
Operation Crossroads (1946) was two atomic bomb tests where the second one was exploded under water creating a radioactive steam cloud that spread over all of the ships, including the support ships thus irradiating about 80% of the US Pacific Fleet at the time. The Navy had set up a set of Target Ships including the Saratoga and Independence Aircraft Carriers to see what effect a nuclear explosion would have on the ships. The explosion irradiated the water in the lagoon the equivalent of 5000 tons of radium.
Unfortunately they miscalculated and thus irradiated all of the ships present which had to be cleaned immediately to be put back in action. Thus the ships had to go to US Ports and be cleaned by sandblasting and the Navy decided to dump the contaminated sandblast sands directly into the harbors of the Navy Bases. 145 out of 207 ships were sent to be decontaminated, the others were scuttled. Airplanes were sent to their respective bases to be washed down.
The Navy entered the Lagoon with the support ships but had to retreat when the radiation levels exceeded the fatal level and the ships ran out, some went out to sea to escape. One hour after the blast the Battleship “New York” had a reading of 1200 r/hr which is 3 times the fatal dose. Here is a video of the scene, showing the support ships wash down the decks of the target ships like it was a carwash, the sailors completely unaware of the danger of a nuclear blast. https://youtu.be/BKH437o14vA
145 out of 207 ships were sent to be decontaminated, the others were scuttled. There were also airplanes that were affected and they had to return to their bases to be decontaminated. The ships were sent to the following ports to be cleaned:
Bremerton and Puget Sound
Guam/Marianas
Hunters Point Shipyard – San Francisco
Kwajalein
Mare Island
New Orleans
Norfolk
Los Angeles
Pearl Harbor
San Diego
San Pedro
Terminal Island
The Caroline Islands
The Philippines
Treasure Island – San Francisco
The ships had to be sandblasted to remove the paint in order to clean the ships. Because the non target ships used their pumps and hoses to clean the other ships or operated inside the lagoon, their water lines, pumps and evaporators (used to produce clean water) were contaminated and in most cases they could clean them with acid which was also dumped directly into these harbors. At the time the Navy was only concerned with the effects of the acids dumped into the harbors and they really didn’t care about dumping radiation into the water where civilians fish. One thing they found out fast was that copper piping tends to hold the radiation directly in the copper and so those systems had to be scrapped and all the copper piping had to be replaced.
In 1989 the EPA put out a report on the cleanup of Mare Island, Alameda Air station and Hunters Point and they state that they used samples that dug in 4 inches deep to determine radiation. They cleared all of these bases for nuclear radiation. Problem is that in order to fool a geiger counter all you need is a few feet of dirt. You can cover it up all you want, the radiation is still there. Also to test for Alpha and Beta Particles you have drill down and bring up a core of the materials which are them chemically separated to isolate the radioactive elements and then determine the radioactivity based on the contents, not a geiger counter.
Here is the official video of the project: https://archive.org/details/MISC1323OperationCrossroads1948 No description at the National Archives. Castle Films produced this film for the U.S. military — “Operation Crossroads” US Army film # MISC-1323 and US Navy film # MN 5345. Description from Armed Forces Films for Public and Television Use: “A documentary of the Able and Baker blasts of the Atomic Bomb Test at Bikini, produced by Joint Army-Navy Task Force One.” National Archives Identifier: 88210 source file isn’t in the greatest shape.
Video detailing the Nuclear safety at the blast. Notice the officers checking the status of their geiger counters using a radiation source. Similar sources were found buried at San Francisco’s Treasure Island thus causing the site to become an EPA Superfund Nuclear Radiation Site.
Disaster Area 
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