"DoN. Nichols" wrote:

On 2011-03-18, Michael A. Terrell ? wrote:
?
? CaveLamb wrote:
??
?? A few more historical accidents.
??
?? http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...ne/nucacc.html
?
?
? The SM-1 reactor at Fort Belvoir, Virginia is listed as a historical
? place. it was built in the late '50s:
?
??http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/register... mination.pdf?

So *that's* what that area was. I used to work within the
overall compound which enclosed that compound, and we would occasionally
take a picnic lunch down to near there in the early 1990s.

Back in the mid to late 1960s, I remember we would occasionally
have a radiation drill, requiring us to all move cars to a somewhat
distant location (the parking lot of the on-post movie theater IIRC) and
get everybody checked for radiation. They used to shout at people to
close the air intake vent (remember those at the base of the
windshield?) as we drove out of the compound.


None of my cars ever had one, the first being a '63 Catalina
convertible which was followed by a '66 GTO.


Since I drove a MGA at the time, there was no such vent, and the
whole vehicle was totally un-sealable.

There was also another reactor not that far away -- on a ship,
with heavy duty power lines going from there to the shore and joining
the commercial power lines. I thought that was why we had the drills.
I didn't know about the ground-locked one.


It's twin, the SM-1A was across the street from my barracks at Ft
Greely, AK. It was decommisioned and encapsuled in concrete, on site.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Nuclear_Power_Program has a photo
about half way down, on the right side of the page.


--
You can't fix stupid. You can't even put a Band-Aid™ on it, because it's
Teflon coated.