Boeing had a secret nuclear reactor in Long Beach?

[bdk]

I can't believe the reporter in this story could pen this drivel. I'm sure the Boeing facilities folks are getting a big laugh out of this.

http://www.longbeachcomber.com/story.aspx?artID=451

Maybe this is where they made the fuel rods for the nuclear powered variant of the DC-9?

[Cvairwerks]

Until all the stuff from those programs is declassified, you can't be sure that it isn't true. Boeing claims it was part of a anodizing line, but the chemicals in that process attack concrete. Besides, there is no engineering reason for an inground tank like that to have the wall thicknesses that the photos show, unless it was a containment tank for some kind of alpha/beta/gamma emmitter. Also, if it were a process tank like they claim, why would you design a set of steps into the wall? That would be a major design and fabrication expense. Besides, most process tanks would use retractable ladders for access, so as to eliminate the problems that stairs would cause. I don't necessarily buy into a conspiracy on this, but the photos and the testing do raise some questions about it's original purpose. It will be interesting to see what the raw data and test results end up revealing in a couple of weeks.

Convair had reactors in the Ft Worth plant and airborne from there for a number of years before anyone not involved in the program knew about it. Only after a takeoff problem that scattered hundreds of pages of classified flight manuals for the reactor operations several miles downrange from the runway, did it become common knowledge.

I've worked with stuff so compartmentalized on programs that the guys in the next cubicle didn't have a clue as to what I was working on.

Heck, we just had a major revelation in the paper today about a Soviet mole in the Manhattan project. It was only in 2002 that the penetration of the project was even verified by anyone other than a very few select intel types. The only reason the public even knows about it was due to Putin giving the guy a major decoration and publically talking about it.

[Ryan Keough]

I can't get over how nuke-crazed Californians are! It reminds me of a "concerned citizen" that called me at the group I formerly worked for regarding the radioactive contamination that our plane (which had been used for atomic testing in the 50s) was subjecting to his neighborhood. Unimpressed with our statements that the plane had been giger tested years ago and showed no remarkable levels and the fact that MOST of the sheet metal on the plane had been replaced in the years since, he called a state agency on us.

The agent that called me on it was laughing as he asked if he could come out and test the plane and promised that it wouldn't be a big deal at all. After all was said and done, the plane passed with a very positive bill of health.

What amazed me more was the fact that this "person" who called on us was one town over from Livermore Labs in the Bay area!

I should expect this from an area that confiscated thousands of dollars of antique instruments from a warehouse due to radium contamination...

[bdk]

Until all the stuff from those programs is declassified, you can't be sure that it isn't true. Boeing claims it was part of a anodizing line, but the chemicals in that process attack concrete. Besides, there is no engineering reason for an inground tank like that to have the wall thicknesses that the photos show, unless it was a containment tank for some kind of alpha/beta/gamma emmitter. Also, if it were a process tank like they claim, why would you design a set of steps into the wall? That would be a major design and fabrication expense. Besides, most process tanks would use retractable ladders for access, so as to eliminate the problems that stairs would cause. I don't necessarily buy into a conspiracy on this, but the photos and the testing do raise some questions about it's original purpose. It will be interesting to see what the raw data and test results end up revealing in a couple of weeks.

Well, all I can say is that I have been in those buildings and seen those very tanks in use. Tanks like that are normally lined with plastic. Being in Long BEACH, and the fact that much of southern California has loose sandy soil, the thickness would not surprise me at all. What makes you think those are steps? A tank that size needs circulation pumps and filtering that don't encroach on the open tank space.

They are also sampling the soil after the soil has undergone reclamation, so the soil they are testing may not have even come from that area of the facility. They still have a mountain of soil there that is about 50 feet high and the size of a football field.

If there is something to hide I would think that they are smart enough to remove the tank foundation before they knocked the building down.

There are many reasons to find depleted uranium around the area. Not only does it occur naturally, but control surfaces for commercial airliners used depleted uranium for years (and may still) as balance weights. No doubt this material was machined on occasion at the Douglas Long Beach plant. Don't forget that this plant was in continuous use as an aircraft factory for nearly 60 years.

It seems as though many people seldom look for the simplest solution and instead look for government coverups, conspiracy theories, etc.

BTW, Rocketdyne (now part of Boeing) did have an active reactor in the Santa Susana mountains near Los Angeles that expelled a large cloud of radioactive iodine (3rd largest in history I read) on one occasion in the early 1950s and another smaller cloud in the early 1960s until the reactor was shut down.

If it was a TRIGA reactor as claimed, the water itself is dense enough to contain the radiation and thick concrete would be of no more value than it would in an anodizing tank.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIGA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool-type_reactor

The water acts as neutron moderator, cooling agent and radiation shield. The layer of water directly above the reactor core shields the radiation so completely that operators may work above the reactor safely.

[phil65]

Hey Rocketdyne is a part of Pratt & Whitney.
I know because every time a rocket goes up, they brag to us about it
http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/redir?src= ... WebResults
The P&W plant in Middletown Ct. were I work was set-up to build a nuke engine for aircraft
No wonder the water taste funny

Phil

[bdk]

Santa Susana Field Laboratory

For many years Rocketdyne engines and power systems were tested at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), located in the Simi Valley,, in Ventura County, California, northwest of Los Angeles and near the company headquarters in Canoga Park. Extensive use of rocket propellants and other toxic chemicals eventually resulted in significant soil contamination at the facility. There have also been accusations regarding improper disposal of nuclear waste.

On 26 July 1959, the Sodium Reactor Experiment, a Rocketdyne-owned experimental sodium-cooled nuclear reactor at SSFL, suffered a partial core meltdown — the first meltdown in the history of nuclear power — which may have resulted in a significant release of radiation. Long-term effects and mitigation efforts have been the subject of ongoing controversy; see Santa Susana Field Laboratory#Conflict over cleanup for more details.

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory was not included in the sale to Pratt & Whitney and remains solely owned by the Boeing company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketdyne

[rwdfresno]

It seems as though many people seldom look for the simplest solution and instead look for government coverups, conspiracy theories, etc.

[phil65]

Santa Susana Field Laboratory

For many years Rocketdyne engines and power systems were tested at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), located in the Simi Valley,, in Ventura County, California, northwest of Los Angeles and near the company headquarters in Canoga Park. Extensive use of rocket propellants and other toxic chemicals eventually resulted in significant soil contamination at the facility. There have also been accusations regarding improper disposal of nuclear waste.

On 26 July 1959, the Sodium Reactor Experiment, a Rocketdyne-owned experimental sodium-cooled nuclear reactor at SSFL, suffered a partial core meltdown — the first meltdown in the history of nuclear power — which may have resulted in a significant release of radiation. Long-term effects and mitigation efforts have been the subject of ongoing controversy; see Santa Susana Field Laboratory#Conflict over cleanup for more details.

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory was not included in the sale to Pratt & Whitney and remains solely owned by the Boeing company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketdyne