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Scientists Locate Sunken, Radioactive Aircraft Carrier Off California Coast
HughPickens.com writes: Aaron Kinney reports in the San Jose Mercury News that scientists have captured the first clear images of the USS Independence, a radioactivity-polluted World War II aircraft carrier that rests on the ocean floor 30 miles off the coast of Half Moon Bay. The Independence saw combat at Wake Island and other decisive battles against Japan in 1944 and 1945 and was later blasted with radiation in two South Pacific nuclear tests. Assigned as a target vessel for the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests, she was placed within one-half-mile of ground zero and was engulfed in a fireball and heavily damaged during the 1946 nuclear weapons tests at Bikini Atoll. The veteran ship did not sink, however (though her funnels and island were crumpled by the blast), and after taking part in another explosion on 25 July, the highly radioactive hull was later taken to Pearl Harbor and San Francisco for further tests and was finally scuttled off the coast of San Francisco, California, on 29 January 1951. "This ship is an evocative artifact of the dawn of the atomic age, when we began to learn the nature of the genie we'd uncorked from the bottle," says James Delgado. "It speaks to the 'Greatest Generation' — people's fathers, grandfathers, uncles and brothers who served on these ships, who flew off those decks and what they did to turn the tide in the Pacific war."
Delgado says he doesn't know how many drums of radioactive material are buried within the ship — perhaps a few hundred. But he is doubtful that they pose any health or environmental risk. The barrels were filled with concrete and sealed in the ship's engine and boiler rooms, which were protected by thick walls of steel. The carrier itself was clearly "hot" when it went down and and it was packed full of fresh fission products and other radiological waste at the time it sank. The Independence was scuttled in what is now the Gulf of the Farallones sanctuary, a haven for wildlife, from white sharks to elephant seals and whales. Despite its history as a dumping ground Richard Charter says the radioactive waste is a relic of a dark age before the enviornmental movement took hold. "It's just one of those things that humans rather stupidly did in the past that we can't retroactively fix.""
Delgado says he doesn't know how many drums of radioactive material are buried within the ship — perhaps a few hundred. But he is doubtful that they pose any health or environmental risk. The barrels were filled with concrete and sealed in the ship's engine and boiler rooms, which were protected by thick walls of steel. The carrier itself was clearly "hot" when it went down and and it was packed full of fresh fission products and other radiological waste at the time it sank. The Independence was scuttled in what is now the Gulf of the Farallones sanctuary, a haven for wildlife, from white sharks to elephant seals and whales. Despite its history as a dumping ground Richard Charter says the radioactive waste is a relic of a dark age before the enviornmental movement took hold. "It's just one of those things that humans rather stupidly did in the past that we can't retroactively fix.""
The title suggest the ship was lost. Is this now news when something was found right where you left it?
They also seem to suggest this is some kind of environmental disaster, but really don't quantify it in any way, basically saying "there's bad radioactive stuff down there". In reality, any negative impact of the radioactivity from the wreck is likely immeasurable and unobservable. We are doing much worse things to the ocean on a daily basis today, so its a quite comical (or maybe better described as ignorant) to point to this as an example of the environmental atrocities of the past. There certainly have been great environmental mistakes in the past, including many by the DOD and some even radiological, but this is not even remotely comparable.
Canada likely wouldn't want it. We had an aircraft carrier but we scrapped it because it was too expensive for a country of our size to maintain.
Well, actually USS America had been decommissioned after 30 years of service, and been mothballed for the ten years previous to her sinking.
Note that the reason it was decommissioned early was DoD budget cuts - it costs a lot to keep a carrier plus its airgroup operational, even ignoring the required escorts. And America was the most expendable carrier, since it was the only non-nuclear carrier left - fuel oil isn't cheap.
Oh, and note also that it did NOT have diesel engines. Old-fashioned steam turbines on that one...
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Do you happen to know what type of radioactive material is in those barrels?
According to the article, it's a variety of materials, and they name Pu-239 as one of the more dangerous ones, because of its 24000 year half life.
Generally, products with short half lives are not a big risk because they'll be gone quickly, before the contamination reaches us. Products with extremely long half-lives are also not a big risk because they don't emit much radiation. Pu-239 has an intermediate half life, which makes it radiate fairly high levels, for quite a bit of time. However, Pu-239 is an alpha emitter, and alpha radiation doesn't penetrate very far, especially not in the water. The only way that Pu-239 poses a risk is by ingestion, and really only if the amount is high enough. Since the crap is heavy, and covered by 2600 feet of water, I don't think there's a risk of it washing ashore in grains big enough to pose a danger.
Under water might be the best place for the ship to be. The water has a great stopping effect for the radiation. See this WhatIf ( not a comic, actually science) for a great example.
Admitedly, the fish don't know to stay away.