McMurdo Station – PM-3A NNPU Small Modular US Navy Nuclear Power Reactor - Nukey Poo, A Failed Atomic Power Plant

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McMurdo Station – PM-3A NNPU Small Modular US Navy Nuclear Power Reactor - Nukey Poo, A Failed Atomic Power Plant

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Federal hearings exploring radiation exposure among McMurdo Navy veterans get underway in Washington

McMurdo Investigation
A federal agency investigating the link between veterans cancer and a leaking nuclear reactor found years of key records documenting exposure have been lost.

Federal hearings prompted by an exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation into radiation exposure among McMurdo Navy veterans are scheduled to begin Tuesday morning.

A Navy veteran who helped trigger a federal probe into a leaking nuclear plant at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, has died of cancer just weeks before a government report on radiation exposure is due to be released.

IMAGES


Images Of PM - 3A

HISTORY OF SMALL MODULAR NUCLEAR PLANT


Wikipedia; "PM-3A: 1.75 MWe, plus heating and desalinization.McMurdo Station, Antarctica.[10] Owned by the Navy. Initial criticality March 3, 1962, decommissioned 1972. The PM-3A, located at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, was designed by the Martin Company to provide electric power and steam heating to the Naval Air Facility at McMurdo Sound. PM-3A operated at a uranium-235 enrichment of 93 percent.

The PM-3A (Portable, Medium-power, 3rd generation) was a plant installed to provide power for the McMurdo Base in Antarctica. During the 1970 to 1971 winter, it achieved a world-record power run. It was one of the first shore-based power plants to use solid-state equipment. The PM-3A was not operated by the Army, but was under the NAVFAC (Naval Facilities Engineering Command "Sea Bees"), shore-based power division of the US Navy. 

Although the majority of the personnel were Navy, the PM-3A was a tri-service stationing. For 1970-1971, there was an Army Sergeant and an Air Force Sergeant stationed with the crew. The plant was air-cooled with the condensers and fan units running glycol. Waste heat was also used for desalination using vacuum flash distillation. 

The reactor was located in buried tanks in the ground. After decommissioning, the plant was cut into pieces and transported to the US for burial. The soil surrounding the tanks had become radioactive; so it was also removed and transported to Port Hueneme Naval Base, California, where it was incorporated into asphalt pavement.
PM-3A McMurdo Station, Antarctica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Nuclear_Power_Program

NUCLEAR REACTOR SHUT DOWN AFTER ONLY 10 OUT OF NORMAL 40 YEAR LIFESPAN; WHAT HAPPENED TO IT?


McMurdo Station – PM-3A NNPU "Nukey Poo" US Navy power reactor (operational 1962, shut down 1972, fully dismantled in 1979)

A nuclear plant has a useful lifetime of 30 to 40 years. Many reactors are also having their licenses extended to run 60 to 80 years total.

This small modular plant only lasted 10 years and had to carted away in pieces. It took SEVEN years to 'dismantle' this reactor, which begs the question about why it took almost as long as the plant was in operation to dismantle it? 

A regular shut down of a modular reactor would involve a quick one month removal in the same container that it was shipped over in, and then shipping the whole thing to a place like Hanford. This reactor had so many problems it is hard to even count them all. Then it took many years to dismantle it and haul the pieces away. 

Put all of this together and what would you conclude? It sounds more like this nuclear plant melted down. A melted down nuclear reactor takes many years to decontaminate the area and chop up into pieces.

How much money was spent in total on 'dismantling' it? What kind and number of people were involved? Why did it take so long? Where are the pieces? What does the reactor look like? Is it all in one piece, or is it melted down? 

438 REPORTABLE INCIDENTS, STARTING ON DAY ONE


Rick Green: Nuke Plant Problems Haunt Sick Veterans Of Antarctic Post
The veterans, and a dogged investigative television reporter in Ohio, are now raising questions about whether years of radiation leaks from the faulty reactor could be related to the cancers that numerous McMurdo vets have suffered. The Navy says there is no evidence of any connection. "They had nothing but problems from day one,'' said Kelly, who is 58, about the reactor. "They had 438 reportable incidents. Our drinking water came from there."

There were problems with the plant from the beginning. It underperformed to expectations and frequently fell victim to power failures. It also raised concerns in New Zealand, where U.S. Navy ships transporting the fuel and waste under Operation Deep Freeze would dock for a few days while in transit. All of these factors led to PM-3A existing on very shaky ground almost from the day it began operating. The coup de grace, however, came in 1972 when a leak in the reactor's pressure vessel was discovered during a routine inspection. A closer look uncovered cracks throughout the reactor, caused by failures in some of the welds, and the decision was made to close and dismantle PM-3A. Disposal presented other headaches. Decommissioned nuclear plants are usually entombed in concrete, but provisions in the Antarctic Treaty made this impossible, so the dismantled plant, along with some of the contaminated ground surrounding it, was shipped to a disposal site in California.


CrudeDude Look up "Nukey Poo"- the name affectionately given the experimental nuclear reactor that continually leaked radioactivity. Many lawsuits were filed by victims with cancer resulting from radiation exposure from this leaky piece of crap.

FREQUENT RADIATION LEAKS


Small-scale US nuclear reactor blamed for spiking cancer rates, casting pall over Russia’s FNPP fetish
AMSTERDAM – A small nuclear power plant operated the United States at Antarctica’s McMurdo Sound has been implicated in dozens of cases of an unusual cancer in personnel who worked at or near the station between the years 1964 and 1973, US and New Zealand media have indicated. The PM-3A reactor operated on uranium-235 fuel of 93 percent enrichment, according to official US Navy documents. Staff nicknamed reactor ‘nukey poo’ because of frequent radioactive leaks.  Those interviewed by ABC news also indicated that the reactor at McMurdo Antarctic base was known among staff as “nukey poo” for the frequence and volume of its leaks.

Antarctica's Failed Atomic Power Plant: Still Deadly 30 Years On - Authorized and funded by a 1960 act of Congress, the McMurdo plant was switched on in March 1962 and managed by the U.S. Navy. It worked, more or less, for 10 years, but hundreds of malfunctions, shutdowns and, ultimately, a leak marked its history. Still, PM-3A wasn’t closed because the Navy couldn't live with its well-documented inefficiencies. The site was shut because operating—and fixing—a nuclear plant in such a remote part of the world proved too expensive. Navy workers employed at the facility are now dying, some with horrific cancers. Navy man Charlie Swinney, who died in Cleveland a year ago, was said to have 200 cancerous tumors. His widow, and other Navy men, suggest the radiation-contaminated soil around the facility led to his cancers. A retired Navy veteran from San Diego, Bill Vogel, believes Swinney’s cancers—like those of other veterans based at McMurdo—are related to Operation Deep Freeze, in which 1,500 Navy men worked more than 10 years on or near the malfunctioning plant. For more on this; http://www.takepart.com/article/2011/05/23/antarcticas-failed-atomic-power-plant-still-deadly-30-years


RADIOACTIVE TRITIUM FROM NUCLEAR PLANT CONTAMINATES WATER SUPPLY


The plant structures and equipment were installed the following season, and the reactor first went critical on 4 March 1962. It went on line producing useful power for McM on about 12 July 1962, although its reliability was poor for the first few years.  In fact, late in 1962 there was a small fire in the containment vessel due to hot hydrogen from decomposing water. 

CANCER CAUSING NEUTRON RADIATION FROM NUCLEAR REACTOR FORCED NEUTRON DETECTOR LAB TO MOVE FURTHER AWAY


Site preparation and excavation were completed during the 1960-61 season. (It so happens that the cosray lab had been erected and first used during 1959-60--in the Pass. The lab had to be moved in 1961-62 so that the neutron detectors were shielded by Ob Hill from the reactor radiation.) 
http://www.southpolestation.com/env/env1.html

MANY PEOPLE NEVER MONITORED FOR RADIATION EXPOSURE


Stanford Univ Report - Nuclear Power at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, Tyler Reid
March 21, 2014 As a result of the multiple malfunctions of the PM-3A as well as it's clean up activities, there have been concerns that the health of personnel involved with the reactor may have been adversely affected. [7] Although members of the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Unit were continuously monitored for radiation, many of the military support crew were not.

During the first few years of fresh water production (between 1967 and 1969) there were several instances of abnormally high amounts of tritium in the drinking water. [7] In addition, there was a case of abnormally high amounts of long-lived beta activity in the drinking water in 1969. [7] In addition to problems with the drinking water and environmental contamination, there were several recorded instances of crew radiation exposure, some resulting in injury. [7] During the plant operation, 223 reports of abnormal levels of radiation were recorded. [7] Of these cases, 14 resulted in injury and 123 resulted in exposure in the amount of 0.350 rem over a period of 7 days. [7] This is a substantial amount of radiation when it is estimated that, one average, a typical yearly dose from background sources is 0.240 rem. [8] The remaining 86 instances were abnormal radiation levels detected within the plant and its immediate surroundings. [7]

SOME PEOPLE 'MAY' BE ELIGIBLE FOR COMPENSATION FOR RADIATION EXPOSURE


The conclusion was that a support member would have received a maximum dose of 0.2 to 0.6 rem to the thyroid or 0.2 to 0.5 rem to the red bone marrow per austral summer tour. [7] The upper bound here is equivalent a typical radiation dosage received by a person living in the United States from typical background radiation and medical procedures. [7] It is, however, recognized that there were personnel who may have been exposed to radiation outside the confines of factors and data considered in those figures that may be eligible for compensation. [7] In addition, the estimated dose above does not include members who were part of the decommissioning procedures who may have inhaled or ingested contaminated particles. [7]

A FAILED AND POSSIBLY MELTED DOWN NUCLEAR REACTOR

This small modular reactor experiment was a failure, not only due to the over 400 reportable incidents/accidents, shutdowns and malfunctions that happened during it's ten year short lifetime, but also due to the final failure at the end, where it has been admitted by the military that the nuclear vessel had caught on fire due to a hydrogen leak, and that the reactor had run out of water at some point as well, which may very well have melted down either partially or completely. The reactor was damaged so much that it was not worth repairing anymore. This massive damage could very likely have been a meltdown in the secretive language used by the military, where coverups are an every day thing.

NAVY ADMITS INCREASED LEVELS OF RADIATION IN BOTH AIR AND WATER


The Navy’s 1973 final report on the plant cites increased levels of radioactivity in both air and water, especially during 1971. The 89-page report concludes: “Acting on the Contractor’s recommendations and in view of the cost ($1,298,000), time (26 months) and exposures (40-60 Rem) involved … and the uncertainties involved in accomplishing the inspection and repair … the Officer in Charge recommends the PM-3A be removed.”
http://seeker401.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/antarcticas-failed-atomic-power-plant/

HOW RADIATION AND TOXIC HEAVY METAL EXPOSURE IS COVERED UP

The following two stories illustrate the way the military and nuclear industry covers up the harm caused by radiation exposure. These techniques and others are still being used today. 

ViaobewanspeaksOctober 28, 2014


"Meanwhile, worries about radiation sparked a year earlier by the badge with the high exposure reading surfaced again. Jed Ball, 40, a nuclear health physics technician from Troutman, North Carolina, had been a member of the survey team that had reported no cause for concern. In August 1999 he sent an e-mail to the OEPA alleging a cover-up. "We were told by the Army Corps. . .that, `You will not find anything,'" Ball wrote.

According to Ball, the rules of the survey changed sometimes daily to ensure that no abnormal radiation was detected. Ball says he personally saw readings 10 times higher than expected and also saw investigators change readings. "They'd just make them up if they didn't like what we got," he says. The Corps investigated and determined that Ball's allegations were without merit. "We're O.K. with the way the survey was conducted," says Kevin Jasper, project manager of the Corps' investigation. The high badge-reading has never been fully explained."

Combine the 'survey' lowballing of radiation readings, the 'losing' of radiation badges, and the denial of any harm caused by anything radioactive, plus the statistical manipulations of radiation readings left over after the initial coverups and minimizations, and you have the recipe for what happens after every nuclear disaster or accident, including this one.

LIES AND DECEPTIONS USED BY NUCLEAR INDUSTRY 'EXPERTS'


Protest the PIGS October 28, 2014 Highlights…radiation is necessary to human health.

…Mother Nature uses nuclear energy exclusively.
…Uranium used in reactors cannot explode like a bomb.
…The Fukushima accident's radiation will not harm anyone.
…Bomb fallout is very different from nuclear power plant radiation releases.
…Low-level radiation is not dangerous, in fact it might be necessary to human health.

SUMMARY


1 rem = 0.01 Sv = 10 m/Sv, so 60 Rem would equal 60 m/Sv, and this amount was over just a couple weeks time period. But this amount does not include neutron radiation, hot particles or tritium ingestion, which also happened.  

The military claims that they 'lost' the radiation badges for most workers, and some support people never even got radiation monitors. So how can the military even 'estimate' radiation exposure? The numerous leaks, fires, and environmental radiation pollution over a period of ten years is plenty of time to expose many of those individuals working in the area to dangerous amounts of radiation.

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Just like any other nuclear accident, spill or military open air nuclear bomb testing, those who were exposed to radiation are on their own, because the proof of their exposure just about always conveniently 'disappears', is lost, or cannot be found.

End

McMurdo Station – PM-3A NNPU Small Modular US Navy Nuclear Power Reactor - Nukey Poo, A Failed Atomic Power Plant
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2014/10/mcmurdo-station-pm-3a-nnpu-small.html
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