Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory facts for kids

The United States Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) was an early military lab. It was created to study the effects of radiation and nuclear weapons. This facility was located at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, California.

History of the NRDL Lab

The NRDL was started in 1946. Its job was to manage testing and cleaning of US Navy ships. These ships were contaminated by the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean. Many ships that survived the atomic blasts were brought to Hunter's Point. They were studied and cleaned there. Some ships were cleaned and sold for scrap metal.

The aircraft carrier USS Independence was heavily damaged. It was also covered in nuclear fallout from the July 1946 Operation Crossroads explosions. This ship was brought to the NRDL for study. For years, the Navy tried to clean the ship. They wanted to make it safe enough to sell. But they could not clean it completely. So, in January 1951, the Navy filled the ship with nuclear waste. Then, they sank the radioactive ship off California. It rests near the Farallon Islands. The ship's wreck was found in 2009. It was sitting upright under 790 meters (about 2,590 feet) of water.

The NRDL used several buildings at the Hunter's Point shipyard. This was from 1946 to 1969. The lab worked with the new United States Atomic Energy Commission. This group later became the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Navy did many radiation experiments there. They tested on materials and animals. They even built a cyclotron at the site. A cyclotron is a machine that speeds up tiny particles. It was used for radiation experiments. The lab also stored different nuclear materials.

What the NRDL Did

An article from May 2, 2001, in SF Weekly shared details. It talked about nuclear testing at NRDL. These details came from records that were no longer secret. The NRDL often experimented with nuclear material. They also got rid of it. They seemed to have little concern. This was even though they were in a big city.

Historical documents show some of their activities:

• They dumped huge amounts of contaminated sand and acid. These were used to clean radioactive ships. They dumped them into San Francisco Bay.
• They spread radioactive material on and off the base. They did this like it was fertilizer. It was to practice cleaning up contamination.
• They burned radioactive fuel oil in a boiler. The smoke went into the air.
• They sold radioactive ships as scrap metal. A private company in Alameda bought them.
• They hung a source of cobalt-60 in San Francisco Bay. Cobalt-60 is a nuclear material. It gives off strong radiation like X-rays. They left it there for two weeks. They seemed to just want to see what would happen.
• They did experiments on people. This included asking people to drink radioactive elements.
• They experimented with many types of long-lasting radioactive poisons. These included plutonium, cesium, uranium, thorium, and radium.
• They studied and got rid of thousands of irradiated animals. These included mice, rats, dogs, goats, mules, and pigs. At one point, the lab owned a ranch. It was in Contra Costa County. It was used only to raise animals for radiation testing.
• They asked for permission to dump 1,000 gallons of liquid waste. This waste had "small amounts of fission products." They wanted to dump it into San Francisco Bay. This was an experiment. It was to see how tides would spread out the radioactivity. This experiment was meant to be a test. It was for dumping 1,000 gallons of liquid radioactive waste daily. The documents do not say if this daily dumping happened.

Contamination from the Lab

The NRDL started using radioactive materials before licenses were needed. Later, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) gave licenses. These allowed many types of radioactive materials for research at the NRDL. Radioactive materials for nuclear weapon testing did not need AEC licenses. When the NRDL closed in 1969, the AEC gave licenses for cleanup. The AEC licenses for the shipyard and NRDL ended in the 1970s.

The testing and cleaning at NRDL caused a lot of contamination. This was at the shipyard site. The NRDL and a military training school at Naval Station Treasure Island loaded nuclear waste into steel barrels. They sent barges weekly to dump them offshore. This was near the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. This area is a US National Wildlife Refuge. It is also a big fishing area.

Between 1946 and 1970, records show that the lab and naval station dumped about 47,000 drums of nuclear waste. This was in the Pacific Ocean. It was 30 miles west of San Francisco. This created the first and largest offshore nuclear waste dump in the United States. The USGS says the barrels have only "low-level radioactive waste." But some experts and historical records disagree.

The US Navy finished a study of the Hunter's Point Shipyard in 2004. This included the known NRDL facilities. This was years after the SF Weekly article. That article showed that many sites and buildings used by NRDL were not on the Navy's list. These were places that might have radioactive contamination. Many buildings used by NRDL had been torn down by then.

The former shipyard site is still being cleaned up. It has been divided into parts. This lets the Navy declare them clean one by one. The developer Lennar Corporation has built and sold many new homes. These are in the SF Shipyard development. But some regulators, activists, and cleanup workers have concerns. They say the site is still very contaminated. They also claim that the company doing the cleanup, Tetra Tech, has not followed rules. There have been concerns about the cleanup process and testing at the site.