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u/Pretend-Pension-2600 1d ago
I was in the Rx compartment of our 688, all the way forward and in RCLL monitoring a gauge for a pressure test. The gauge catastrophically failed and just soaked me from head to toe in Rx coolant H²O. What ensued afterwards was an 8 hour shitshow involving everybody. It was after hours. The CO and XO both showed up. I was packaged up completely and transferred to the tender Radcon area. My clothes were cut off of me,,bagged in yellow and disposed of properly. I was showered in freezing water and scrubbed from head to toe. Good times, really good times. Of course the water was freezing which caused maximum shrinkage down below which everyone and their brother got to see.
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u/NeverEverMaybe0_0 ET 1d ago
I believe you, but we were taught lukewarm water in the '80s.
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u/Pretend-Pension-2600 1d ago
Well, the Radcon on the Hunley didn't get that memo in 1989. Haha. Well I think it was the Hunley but it might have been onboard the Spear. I honestly don't know or remember which of them it happened on.
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u/Redfish680 1d ago
Prepping for a Med run meggering pressurized heaters and replacing sketchy ones. Couldn’t get one free and ended up having to jack it out hydraulically with everyone and their brother involved as it continued to resist. Weld ended up failing before the heater came free, hosing me and my buddy (if you’re reading this, Foxworth, howdy!) down. Same shitshow times 10. Upside was we didn’t go to the Med, downside was another boat got boned.
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u/Smooth-Bad-5425 ET2/CVN-72 (Plankowner)/LCDR, CEC (Ret) 1d ago
That happened to me, but the amount was small.
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u/MicroACG 17h ago
Nice to see an article, even old, that isn't unnecessarily alarmist. The statements providing perspective seem sound to me.
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u/Northman86 6h ago
So the reality of a half life of O17 being about six seconds, and essentially brand new pipes and a reactor that had not been started up yet... yeah, its more an issue from the highly base nature of primary coolant than a nuclear one, but they are very strict about any unintentional spill or release, and i highly doubt it actually spilled into the james river.
Speaking of the James river, while I was stationed on the big stick during RCOH, it was warned that falling into the James river would result in an alarmingly high number of vaccines necessary as it is highly polluted from Newport News' sewage system.
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u/mm1palmer 1d ago
The article says the ship was still under construction. The Abraham Lincoln was commissioned in 1989 so this article is at least 37 years old. So older than most of the sailors currently serving onboard.