Category: Nuclear Accidents

1946-09-16 Submarine Barracks at Hunters Point Shipyard contaminated by use as decontamination centers for workers at Shipyard to clean ships used in atomic tests.

Citation: OPERATION CROSSROADS, RADIOLOGICAL DECONTAMINATION OF TARGET AND NON- TARGET VESSELS Part 2 pp. 14-18

Navy Reports that document the dumping of nuclear waste directly into San Francisco Bay as well as other Navy Bases, the orders, correspondence, etc.

[Submarine Barracks at Hunters Point Shipyard now used as commercial space and was the ironically the site office of Lennar Builders were used for decontamination of shipyard workers who scraped and sandblasted the ships from the Atomic Tests. These buildings were used by the workers to clean off by showering off the plutonium and other radioactive elements and may be some of the most contaminated buildings on the site. The Hot Cell where they stored nuclear materials in lead lined chambers and maybe the storage of radioactive waste all over the shipyard may have more contamination. These are also where the workers ate their lunches while in contaminated uniforms.

Building 103 which still stands and is directly over the fence from the Artists buildings is referenced directly in this report but the decontamination centers soon expanded to all of the submarine barracks as the ranks of the personnel increased.]

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REPORT NO. 2

EXPERIMENTAL WORK, SAN FRANCISCO NAVAL SHIPYARD

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.

SECOND REPORT 16 September 1946 – INVESTIGATION OF RADIOACTIVITY of Ships from Bikini at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard starting 5 September 1946. Continue reading “1946-09-16 Submarine Barracks at Hunters Point Shipyard contaminated by use as decontamination centers for workers at Shipyard to clean ships used in atomic tests.” →

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Dumping Nuclear Waste Directly into San Francisco Bay, the Cover UP, NAVY REPORT 10 December 1946

DTIC AD0473908: OPERATION CROSSROADS. RADIOLOGICAL DECONTAMINATION OF TARGET AND NON- TARGET VESSELS. VOLUME 3 pp.102-115
Note: “The Cover Up” is on page 109
[Note all page numbers and notes will be enclosed in these brackets]

Code 180 A
All/Crossroads/S99
S-E-C-R-E-T

NAVY DEPARTMENT
Bureau of Ships
Washington 25, D.C.

10 December 1946

MEMORANDUM

Subject: Conference on Radiological Safety; Report of.
Time: 0910, 27 November 1946.
Place: Navy Department, Bureau of Ships Room T3-2703.

Present: R.Adm.SOLBERG (BuShips) Col. NICHOLS (ManhatDist)
Capt. MAXWELL (BuShips) Col. ROPER (ManhatDist)
Cdr. REE (BuShips) Col. FIELDS (ManhatDist)
Cdr. HOFFMAN (BuShips ) Col. COONEY (RadSafe)
WesCoRep.) Capt.LYON (BuMed)
Cdr. LANGER (BuShips) Dr. HAMILTON (Univ.Calif)
Cdr. HAWES (BuShips) Continue reading “Dumping Nuclear Waste Directly into San Francisco Bay, the Cover UP, NAVY REPORT 10 December 1946” →

Yuba City B52 Crash with two Hydrogen Bombs on board 14 March 1961

B-52 Crash, Yuba City CA “Broken Arrow” (1961) 12:40


Editor’s Note: This is the correspondence of officials for the crash of a B-52 bomber just outside of Yuba City California with two hydrogen bombs on board. Note that in the beginning of this they did not know if the bombs had detonated on the crash site. Directly below is the link to a video of the crash site which shows that the destruction of the airplane was complete and that all the hopeful thinking and initial reporting by news agencies was just speculation. You will see that as the information came in you see panic on the part of the local fire department where they had a wreck on the way to the crash site resulting in the death of a fireman. As with any disaster people hope for the best but they really cannot determine what happened until they get to the scene.
Also this shows you the documentation of each of these events. The military writes down everything even when they are covering up information such as the plutonium injections in San Francisco, Chicago, Rochester, Oak Ridge and New York. It is all written down even when they are conspiring to keep the information classified so it will not get out to the public. All of it is written down, you just have to know where to look.
Note there is no information on whether the area was decontaminated. No superfund site, no state site, nothing. This is symptomatic of the disconnect between the DOD and the EPA.

B-52 Crash, Yuba City CA “Broken Arrow” (1961) Video of the crash site.

Joint Nuclear Accident Coordinating Center Record of Events:

“1150 MST 15 March 1961. Lt Col Sweenam, SAC Liaison Officer, to Lt Col Schuyler, Chief JNACC
Col S: This is Col Sweetnam, SAC. We had another North Carolina type incident. It’s B-52F on a cover all mission, carrying two (redacted) (redacted) And it went in 15 miles SW of Yuba City, California Time was 1807Z on the 14th. Just about an hour ago. And the aircraft was out of the 5134 Strategic Wing, Mather AFB. They come under our 15th AF. And the only other information we have is that they sent a airplane for refueling. Somehow the B-52 went out of control. The Aircraft commander notified control room that they were bailing out and there has been a report that the aircraft was burning, but there been no evidence of detonation of any type. And that was the information that was phoned in from the SAC control room. They’ll keep us posted and we’ll let you know if there are further developments.” Continue reading “Yuba City B52 Crash with two Hydrogen Bombs on board 14 March 1961” →

SF – NAVAL STATION TREASURE ISLAND (38370044)

Site History

Envirostor (State of California) page 550 ACRES; BETWEEN SAN FRANCISCO & OAKLAND, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94130

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“Naval Station Treasure Island (NSTI) is located in San Francisco Bay (Bay), midway between San Francisco and Oakland, California. The facility consists of two contiguous islands: Treasure Island (TI), which is approximately 550 acres, and Yerba Buena Island (YBI), which is approximately 550 acres. Stormwater outfalls and offshore sediments (Site 13) encompass approximately 563 additional acres. Treasure Island is a manmade island that is anchored to a natural rock island (YBI), that was constructed of materials dredged from the Bay in 1936. The island was developed to be the site of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. In response to a Navy request, in 1941, the City of San Francisco leased TI to the Navy for the duration of World War II. After the war, the city agreed to transfer the deed for TI to the Navy in exchange for government-owned land south of San Francisco where the San Francisco International Airport was later built. TI provided administrative and support facilities for processing Pacific-bound naval personnel, and for the administrative operations of other Navy, Marine Reserves, and non-military Federal activities. Military activities at YBI date back to 1866. In 1993, NSTI was designated for closure under the Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC) of 1990. The base was closed on September 30, 1997, and is currently in the transfer process.

In April 1988, a Preliminary Assessment/Site Inspection (PA/SI) Report of the facility was prepared for the Naval Energy and Environmental Support Activity (NEESA). Based on information from historical records, aerial photos, agency contacts, field inspection, and personnel interviews, a total of 20 areas were identified with potential contamination and for additional site investigation. These identified acres included: a medical clinic; a former foundry; a boiler plant; an old bunker; stormwater outfalls; a refuse transfer area; a car hobby shop; an oil recovery waste facility; a seaplane maintenance shop; an exchange service station; a hydraulic training school; a painting shop; two storage shed areas; a landfill; and fire training fuel tank releases. During subsequent investigations additional sites were identified that brought the total number of sites to 33. Contaminants include: low-level radioactive waste, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, pesticides, paints, waste oil and fuel, solvents, asbestos, acids, and heavy metals.

Since closure of the base in 1997, nearly all of TI has been leased to the City of San Francisco for a variety of uses including movie production, an elementary school and daycare center, approximately 750 rental housing units, and an Olympic sailing school at Clipper Cove. In addition, 35 acres were transferred to the Federal Department of Labor for the establishment of a job corps center on TI. Portions of YBI were also transferred to the State to facilitate the construction of the new East Bay Bridge. The remainder of the land on YBI is comprised of housing that is controlled by the City of San Francisco and a U.S. Coast Guard Station that occupies the southern half of the island.

EnviroStor includes separate profiles for 13 of the 33 sites that provide the current, ongoing and projected activities for each site. The previous reports and historical documents for these 13 sites were retained in this basewide profile. The 13 sites are:
Site 6 – Fire Training School (4.54 acres, EnviroStor # 60001091)
Site 8 – Army Point Sludge Disposal Area (3.12 acres, EnviroStor # 60001161)
Site 11 – YBI Landfill (2.88 acres, EnviroStor # 60001162)
Site 12 – Old Bunker Area (93.2 acres, EnviroStor # 60001092)
Site 21 – Vessel Waste Oil Recovery Area (2 acres, EnviroStor # 60001093)
Site 24 – Dry Cleaning Facility (20.46 acres, EnviroStor # 60001094)
Site 27 – Clipper Cove (19.55 acres, EnviroStor # 60001095)
Site 28 – West Side On/Off Ramp (10.53 acres, EnviroStor # 60001096)
Site 29 – East Side On/Off Ramp (15.13 acres, EnviroStor # 60001164)
Site 30 – Day Care Center (1.46 acres, EnviroStor # 60001097)
Site 31 – Former South Storage Yard (2.02 acres, EnviroStor # 60001098)
Site 32 – Former Training and Storage Area (2.6 acres, EnviroStor # 60001099)
Site 33 – Water Line Replacement Area (4.89 acres, EnviroStor # 60001100)

Updated 09/07/2018 – KAW”

Deed Restriction / Land Use Covenant:

Envirostor (State of California) Land Use Restrictions Page

YBI Covenant to Restrict Use of Property (CRUP)

Note this Land use Restriction by the State of California only applies to Yorba Buena Island, while the rest of the base is under the EPA Superfund Site.

  • ACTIVITIES PROHIBITED WHICH DISTURB THE REMEDIATION AND MONITORING SYSTEMS WITHOUT APPROVAL
  • ANNUAL INSPECTION AND/OR REPORT REQUIRED
  • DAY CARE CENTER PROHIBITED
  • ELDER CARE CENTER PROHIBITED
  • HOSPITAL USE PROHIBITED
  • NO DRILLING FOR DRINKING WATER, OIL OR GAS WITHOUT APPROVAL
  • NO EXCAVATION OR ACTIVITIES WHICH DISTURB THE SOIL AT ANY DEPTH WITHOUT APPROVAL OF A SOIL MANAGEMENT PLAN AND/OR HEALTH AND SAFETY PLAN
  • NOTIFY DAMAGES TO REMEDY AND MONITORING SYSTEMS NO LATER THAN 10 DAYS UPON DISCOVERY
  • NOTIFY DETAILS OF COMPLETION OF ANY REPAIRS OF DAMAGES TO REMEDY AND MONITORING SYSTEMS NO LATER THAN 30 DAYS AFTER REPAIR.

POTENTIAL CONTAMINANTS OF CONCERN

DIOXIN (AS 2,3,7,8-TCDD TEQ)
LEAD
OTHER
PETROLEUM
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS (PCBS)
POLYFLUORINATED ALKYLATED SUBSTANCES (PFAS)
POLYNUCLEAR AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS (PAHS)
RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES
UNCATEGORIZED
VOLATILE ORGANICS (8260B VOCS)

Envirostor disclaimer

NPL means EPA National Priorities List (Superfund)

Radioactive object found near homes at Hunters Point shipyard

Article Link:

Jason Fagone and Cynthia Dizikes Sep. 13, 2018 Updated: Sep. 14, 2018 9:39 a.m. San Francisco Chronicle

Approximate location of the deck marker located just outside the submarine barracks where the workers who cleaned the radiation on ships sent to Hunters Point Shipyard after the nuclear tests in the pacific were cleaned. Ironically the builder ( Lennar) of the New Construction had their onsite headquarters in one of these barracks where the nuclear radiation contaminated workers ate their lunch. I wonder if their workers knew they were headquartered on one of the most nuclear contaminated buildings on the site? Generally they were designed to be a buffer zone between the contaminated portions of the base where workers would shower and change clothes after they spent the day sandblasting the radiation off of the ships. Eventually the Navy gave up on the ships that were the target of the nuclear blasts and sank them off the coast of most of the ports on the west coast of the US.

The USS Indianapolis that was cleaned at Hunters Point and then sunk at what is now the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The Navy stuffed the ship with thousands of barrels of nuclear waste when they sent it to the bottom of the Bay and they also dumped the barrels off the Farallon Islands where unfortunately they are only a few hundred feet in depth well within the range of fishing vessels for the Bay Area.

The Article:
“A highly radioactive object has been discovered at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard next to a housing area that has been declared safe and free of radioactive contamination for more than a decade, The Chronicle has learned. The finding is the latest problem at San Francisco’s most ambitious redevelopment project in a century — an effort to transform a 500-acre Superfund waste site into a bustling waterfront neighborhood of 12,000 homes.”

“The housing area is known as Parcel A. The California Department of Public Health is scanning it for radioactivity after revelations that employees of the Navy’s main cleanup contractor, Tetra Tech, faked radiation measurements in other parts of the shipyard. Parcel A residents and city officials demanded a test after whistle-blowers and media reports raised the possibility that some of those problems may have extended to Parcel A, where 300 housing units have been completed and an additional 150 are under construction.But the discovery of a radium device is startling because the city and multiple government agencies have said for years that any contamination on Parcel A was cleaned up long ago. The Navy transferred the 75-acre parcel to the city in 2004. The land is now owned by home builder and developer Lennar Corp. Public officials have repeatedly assured residents that no harmful radioactivity exists near their homes and they have nothing to worry about.”