Lockheed GA Reactor Site

[Superlyte27]

I'm not giving anyone the wrong idea I hope. The chances exist that you could accidentally walk in the wrong place, albeit slim. The chances of getting too much radiation as a commercial diver in a nuclear power plant are just about zero. However, the chances of having contaminated water in contact with your skin are pretty much guaranteed (be it from an already leaky suit, neckdam or tear in a suit during work). It was a common occurence. Out of 10 divers, it would happen nearly weekly for at least one of us.

Now, you want to talk about real risk? We go through a 90 minute lock out tag out procedure to turn off the pumps on the intake cooling system. These pumps are about the size of um.... a car, maybe 12' in diameter. They suck the water in from the river to cool the reactor. But, we've been through the lock out tag out procedure for Reactor 1, bays 1 & 2, Because reactor 1 is shut down, and we are cleaning the travelling water screens, basin, etc. So... we're diving in Bay 1 after this long extensive Lock Out Tag Out procedure to ensure we won't be turned into Ketchup. We've been diving about 30 minutes in Bay 1. It's just dumb luck that we decided to dive Bay 1 first, because 30 minutes into the dive, Bay 2 intake pump turns on automatically. Had two divers been in Bay 2. We would have been turned into Ketchup pretty much instantly.

Risk of bad radiation, not so much
Risk of getting killed by some other means, a bit more scary.

You guys remember about 20 years ago Timex was doing commercials on their watches. "takes a licken, but keeps on ticking"? They'd show extreme activities where a person would be dropped into some kind of situation where life was threatened or abused, but the watch would still work. One such commercial was about a scuba diver in south florida who got sucked into an Intake Pipe from a Nuclear Reactor out in the River. It was just dumb luck that he got sucked into a pipe that diverted 30 percent of the water claimed into a reservoir and not directly into the travelling water screens. He survived, but made a fortune suing the Port St. Lucie power plant, then made another fortune selling his story to Timex. Well, Port St. Lucie was the same plant that almost sucked us up into Bay 2 cooling pump.

Anyway, that has little to do with Lockheed, but i'm sitting here on the toilet and felt like typing.

[FW]

...Anyway, that has little to do with Lockheed, but i'm sitting here on the toilet and felt like typing.

TMI

[MORGAN]

... i'm sitting here on the toilet and felt like typing.

Ain't laptops great?

Mike

[Gary]

I used to be called ET1 point source in the navy beacuse I always seemed to pick up the most radiation.


soundbites from the navy nuclear days:
The difference between radiation and contamination. Think dog poo:
Radiation is: you smell it. Contamination: you stepped in it.

1 mrem is about the same damage as 1 cigarette.

Smoking 2 packs a day leads to an equilibrium dose of 2 REM (2000 mrem) per year to the lungs.

[AB8CD]

We had a couple diving together in Lake Michigan and she dove over a Consumers Power intake in the lake bed and went for the ride of her life. Her husband didn't see her taken in but made the assumption as he saw the intake "T" lying on its side next to the open hole. She was able to escape via an inspection access... It was determinded that Consumers Power had left the "T" off the intake due to zebra muscle contamination on the screens. The settlement required that they never speak of the amount of money recieved. I have tried to imagine what went through her mind... and his... Wow!

[Superlyte27]

Ain't laptops great?

Mike

What's a laptop? My desktop is set up in here. JK

[MORGAN]

What's a laptop? My desktop is set up in here. JK

You must spend more time in the bathroom than the average person!

Mike

[Superlyte27]

With 4 kids, it's the only place to hide.

[Mike Edmonston]

I spent years sleeping next to the Reactor on a sub. You get more REM from being out in the sun for 1 day, than you do in an entire year on patrol.

Here's a tip: Never leave your TLD on your belt and your pants in the back window of your car during a sunny day at the beach! My dose was so much higher than anyone else when I turned it in to Nucleonics, that I had to fill out an entire friggin novel of paperwork to explain where I had been for the last year!

Lesson learned.

Cheers,

[slow]

I am not a cave diver. However, I am a frequent visitor to the Lockheed site. In fact, I mountain biked there yesterday. So -- some first-hand information:

The reactor site is not underground. In fact, an astounding fact about this facility is that the reactor, in operation, was "air shielded," which means it had no shielding at all. The naked reactor core just sat there and pumped radiation into the surrounding forest. Between sessions, the core was lowered into an open pool.

The complex was built in the 1950s to research reactor-powered aircraft. I am not sure why that necessitated a naked core. When that line of research ended, Lockheed (at the government's instruction) did research on radiation's effect on plants and animals. I guess this reactor was well suited for that research since it baked everything around it in the normal course of its operation. Eventually, Lockheed tried irradiating materials such as lumber to impart desirable qualities (what those qualities would be, I do not know).

The reactor site, not surprisingly, is still contaminated.

I believe the underground and flooded portion of this complex is bunkers that protected employees from the exposed reactor. No radiation contamination there (supposedly), but, as a previous poster noted, there could be some other unpleasant stuff in the water. Likely candidates: PCBs, mercury, and oil from old electrical equipment; asbestos; lead from radiation shielding; etc. This place was shut down in the 60s, and I suspect it was not cleaned up well in those pre-EPA days.

The city of Atlanta bought this and several other sites in the 60s/70s for a possible second airport. Not sure what Atlanta was thinking with the Lockheed site. Quite apart from lingering radiation, this tract has a couple of good-sized rivers crossing it -- not conducive to airport construction.

It's now run as a natural area. Lots of horseback riding, biking, and hunting, including bear hunting. You can cave dive and bag a bear all in one easy trip.