Another Sea Story

[gu9@cosmail1.ctd.ornl.gov (Robert J. Gunter)]

Maybe not as entertaining as some other stories, but here goes:

When the Chernobyl accident occurred there was a plume of radioactive
material slowly working it's way around the northern hemisphere.  At the
same time (summer of 86), there was a large forest fire in North Carolina.
I was in the Navy, working control point for a steam generator inspection.
The maintenance and sampling required that we perform a lot of radioactive
material transfers from the submarine to the support facility.  The transfer
protocols required a survey to follow up the transfer.  As the transfer
began, it started raining.  Sure enough, contamination was noted on the
route.  Pretty soon, there was a lot of word out on the news that the plume
had made it to Charleston.  Reports were also comming in from other
facilities as well.  After a little sweating, we realized it was all short
lived stuff in the ash resulting from the forest fire.  We had to wait a few
days for the plume.
Robert J. Gunter
Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
P.O. Box 2008 
Bldg: 105MIT Mail Stop 6494
Oak Ridge, TN 37871-6494
PH:  (615) 576-6317
FAX: (615) 576-8593
email: gu9@cosmail1.ctd.ornl.gov