{"id":207738,"date":"2025-01-04T13:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T13:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/04\/jimmy-carter-helped-clean-up-canadas-chalk-river-nuclear-accident\/"},"modified":"2025-01-04T13:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-04T13:47:09","slug":"jimmy-carter-helped-clean-up-canadas-chalk-river-nuclear-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/04\/jimmy-carter-helped-clean-up-canadas-chalk-river-nuclear-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Carter Helped Clean Up Canada\u2019s Chalk River Nuclear Accident"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/04\/multimedia\/04canadaletter-carterNYC-mbwp\/04canadaletter-carterNYC-mbwp-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Jimmy Carter Helped Clean Up Canada\u2019s Chalk River Nuclear Accident\" title=\"Jimmy Carter Helped Clean Up Canada\u2019s Chalk River Nuclear Accident\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the wide range of articles published by The New York Times this week after the death of former President Jimmy Carter, a fragment of largely forgotten Canadian history resurfaced.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Times\u2019s visual story of his life, told through a variety of objects, reveals how Mr. Carter came to assist in the cleanup of a major nuclear accident near Ottawa in 1952.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">[Read: <\/em><a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/31\/us\/jimmy-carter-17-objects.html\" title=\"\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">Jimmy Carter\u2019s Life, in 17 Objects<\/em><\/a><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">]<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Among the 17 objects, photographed by Tony Cenicola and described by Bill Marsh, is a yellowed certificate issued in 1953 by the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in New York State, proclaiming Mr. Carter an \u201catomic submariner.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He was a naval officer at the time he received it. Mr. Carter had attended the U.S. Naval Academy from 1943 to 1946, on his way to becoming the first in his family to graduate from college, and served in the submarine fleet during World War II. Later, he was involved in the development of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/29\/us\/navy-jimmy-carter-submarine.html\" title=\"\">nation\u2019s first nuclear-powered submarines<\/a>; the Knolls certificate was for completing his training.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But before that, Mr. Carter got a firsthand look at the immense power of nuclear energy in Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Dec. 12, 1952, a series of missteps and a mechanical failure led to the partial meltdown of the core of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/parks.canada.ca\/culture\/cseh-twih\/202229\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">NRX reactor<\/a> at the Chalk River Laboratories on the Ottawa River, about 180 kilometers northwest of the capital. The incident gave Canada the dubious distinction of hosting the world\u2019s first nuclear reactor accident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The NRX had a capacity of 30 megawatts that day, which was powerful by the standards of its time (today the Bruce Power nuclear plant in Ontario churns out 6,400 megawatts).<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the day of the accident, the reactor was powered down for an inspection of its cooling system. In the basement, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.osti.gov\/servlets\/purl\/4379334\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a worker mistakenly raised<\/a> a few of the control rods that can reduce and, if necessary, completely shut down the chain reaction in the reactor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That was spotted quickly, and a supervisor thought, based on some signal lights, that he had lowered the rods back in place. But the lights were wrong: Two or three of the rods were stuck and had only partly returned to safety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When the supervisor, who was still in the basement, phoned the control room with directions for lowering the rods, he also mixed up the numbers for the buttons that needed to be pushed, compounding the problem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The reactor\u2019s output soared to about 100 megawatts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That power surge lasted for only one minute and eight seconds before the reactor was brought back under control, but the damage was profound. Fuel rods had melted or blown apart. The basement was filled with one million gallons of highly radioactive water and debris. The reactor building, which had large glass windows, was dangerously radioactive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A contingent of 150 members of the U.S. military came to Chalk River for the cleanup. Among them was Mr. Carter, who led a group of about 12 members of the Navy from the Knolls Laboratory. They were joined by 862 workers at the Chalk River site, 170 members of the Canadian Army and 20 employees of companies that had made parts of the reactor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Morgan Brown, president of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/nuclearheritage.com\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Society for the Preservation of Canada\u2019s Nuclear Heritage<\/a>, which runs a museum near Chalk River, told me that the Americans hadn\u2019t been there to give technical advice, as the NRX had been designed in Montreal in a joint Canadian-British project. But they provided equipment Canada lacked, like closed-circuit television, and they gained experience and training for themselves in dealing with the unprecedented situation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe American help was well appreciated,\u201d said Mr. Brown, who worked for decades at NRX\u2019s owner, Atomic Energy of Canada, studying ways to prevent reactor disasters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A progress report made a few months after the Chalk River accident shows that Lieutenant Carter, then 28, and his group worked on a \u201cheader\u201d that fed cooling water from the river into the reactor, Mr. Brown said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In interviews, Mr. Carter recalled that his team had used a mock-up of the reactor to practice dismantling techniques in advance and had worked in shifts to limit exposure to radiation. A 1959 <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/whatisnuclear.com\/news\/2024-11-13-restoration-of-nrx.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">film produced by the American and Canadian governments<\/a> shows those trial runs \u2014 and suggests that the standards for worker safety and radioactive waste disposal were well below current practices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The NRX reactor kept operating until 1992. The Chalk River accident remains the worst in Canadian history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The worst nuclear energy accident in U.S. history, the partial meltdown of a reactor at <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/10\/30\/business\/energy-environment\/three-mile-island-nuclear-energy.html\" title=\"\">Three Mile Island<\/a> in Pennsylvania in 1979, would happen during Mr. Carter\u2019s presidency. Days after the accident, he and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/29\/us\/politics\/carter-peace-egypt-israel-nuclear-three-mile.html\" title=\"\">toured the plant<\/a> and told residents, \u201cIf we make an error, all of us want to err on the side of extra precautions and extra safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">(If you haven\u2019t read it, I recommend the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/29\/us\/politics\/jimmy-carter-dead.html\" title=\"\">sweeping and authoritative obituary of Mr. Carter<\/a> by Peter Baker and Roy Reed.)<\/p>\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-b4a7c02\">Trans Canada<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\"><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">Ian Austen<\/em><\/strong><em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> reports on Canada for The Times and is based in Ottawa. Originally from Windsor, Ontario, he covers politics, culture and the people of Canada and has reported on the country for two decades<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">How are we doing?<\/strong><br \/>We\u2019re eager to have your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/04\/world\/canada\/mailto:nytcanada@nytimes.com?%20subject=Canada%20Letter%20Newsletter%20Feedback\" title=\"\">nytcanada@nytimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Like this email?<\/strong><br \/>Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/newsletters\/canada-letter?smid=nytemail&amp;smvar=canadaletter&amp;te=1&amp;nl=canada-today&amp;emc=edit_cnda_20190622\" title=\"\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/04\/world\/canada\/jimmy-carter-nuclear-canada-chalk-river.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the wide range of articles published by The New York Times this week after the death of former President Jimmy Carter, a fragment of largely forgotten Canadian history resurfaced. The Times\u2019s visual story of his life, told through a variety of objects, reveals how Mr. Carter came to assist in the cleanup of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/04\/multimedia\/04canadaletter-carterNYC-mbwp\/04canadaletter-carterNYC-mbwp-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9582,740,6379,160787,115831,6095,3227,10936,3101,18415,163828,63917,3293,163825,163827,163574,163826],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207738"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207740,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207738\/revisions\/207740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}