Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory

rdf:langString Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory

rdf:langString Davis, Lisa

rdf:langString SF Weekly

rdf:langString The NRDL often experimented with and disposed of nuclear material with little apparent concern that it was operating in the middle of a major metropolitan area. Among other things, historical documents show, scientists at the NRDL: * – Oversaw the dumping of huge amounts of contaminated sand and acid into San Francisco Bay after they were used in attempts to clean irradiated ships. * – Spread radioactive material on- and off-base, as if it were fertilizer, to practice decontamination. * – Burned radioactive fuel oil in a boiler, discharging the smoke into the atmosphere. * – Sold radioactive ships as scrap metal to a private company in Alameda. * – Hung a source of cobalt-60, a nuclear isotope that emits high-energy electromagnetic radiation similar to X-rays, in San Francisco Bay for two weeks, apparently just to see what would happen. * – Conducted human experiments that included requiring people to drink radioactive elements. * – Experimented with significant amounts of a wide variety of long-lived radiological poisons, including plutonium, cesium, uranium, thorium and radium. * – Studied and disposed of thousands of irradiated mice, rats, dogs, goats, mules, and pigs, among other animals. At one point, the lab owned a ranch in Contra Costa County used specifically to raise animals for radiation testing. * – Sought permission to dump 1,000 gallons of liquid waste containing "small amounts of fission products" into San Francisco Bay, as an experiment to study how tidal action would dilute the radioactivity. The experiment was meant as a precursor to the disposal of 1,000 gallons of liquid radioactive waste in the bay every day.

rdf:langString Fallout

rdf:langString The United States Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) was an early military lab created to study the effects of radiation and nuclear weapons. The facility was based at the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, California.