Published: May 24th, 2012 at 12:23 am ET
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Groton Based Sub Hit By Fire At Maine Shipyard
Associated Press
9:43 p.m. EDT, May 23, 2012
A fire on aboard a Groton, Conn.-based nuclear-powered submarine has injured four people at a Maine shipyard, officials there said.
[...]
Nonessential personnel were removed from the sub, over which black smoke was billowing.
[...]
The cause of the fire hasn’t been identified.

Fire still burning aboard nuclear-powered USS Miami
SeacoastOnline.com
Joey Cresta
May 23, 2012 7:45 PM
A four-alarm fire was still burning aboard the USS Miami nuclear-powered submarine Wednesday night at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, more than four hours after it began, according to the yard’s commander.
[...]
Residents in some parts of Kittery reported a small of burning plastic in the air, and sirens from fire apparatus were heard throughout the night.
Firefighters hurt battling blaze on nuclear sub in Maine
Boston Herald
By Jordan Graham
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Four firefighters were injured tonight while battling a fire aboard the USS Miami nuclear-powered attack submarine
[...]
Black smoke was visible from Prescott Park in Portsmouth, N.H., and continued to billow from the dry dock. A Portsmouth fire engine was on standby at Peirce Island.
Nicole Doherty, who works at Badger Island Pizzeria nearby, told the Herald she could see the smoke clearly and the smell of the fire had her worried.
“It smells like plastic,” she said. “It doesn’t smell like a regular fire.”
Nuclear sub catches fire in Maine Naval shipyard | Reuters
Reuters
Ros Krasny
Wed May 23, 2012 11:35pm EDT
[...]
Firefighters were still battling the blaze after 10 p.m., with equipment brought in from as far away as Boston’s Logan International Airport, about 60 miles away.
“The ship’s reactor was not operating at the time and was not affected,” shipyard spokeswoman Tami Remick said by telephone from Kittery.
[...]
Issues not addressed by the spokeswoman:
- Has there been any release of radioactivity?
- Though it’s reported the fire is not affecting the reactor, has any nuclear material been affected?
h/t Anonymous tips, chemfood
UPDATE III (Fire extinguished): Commander reveals nuclear fuel on board burned sub -- Local News: He 'could not say how much'
Published: May 24th, 2012 at 12:23 am ET
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sending...
Anyone know what burning corium smells like?
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death…
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…and lived too tell the tale.
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remember…living beings don't feel, taste, or smell radiation…a regular fire…like wood? Its been a well since subs were made of wood.
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Actually, Yeo, some of us here can feel the effects of radiation entering our body after ingesting it, so in a sense, we can feel it.
For example, my tongue has been tingling again the past couple of days, just like it did last year after fallout plumes wafted over the Pacific Northwest. It's been raining here in Seattle again, after a week of sunny clear days…Not sure if it is in the air, or something I ate or drank.
Whatever the cause, I don't like it.
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effects? in a sense? smilely face?
I'm speaking of the thing itself(like heat).
Now think about why we feel, evolution, genenic stability relative to background radiation…
a pissing contest about who who's getting more irradiated?…really
love,
V from SF
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Hey Yeo! No pissing contest meant here at all! I was just stating that in a sense, some us are sensitive to its effects in our bodies. I wasn't discounting what you said, just adding my own personal experience.
The smiley face was my way of showing it was meant with light humor, that's all. I smile a lot in the "real world" and use smileys a lot when communicating online too. Just my personality.
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Just from Iodine 131:
tender or swollen saliva glands
taste changes
sore throat
altered sensations around your thyroidectomy scar
swelling in the thyroid area
http://www.thyroid-cancer-forum-uk.org/radioactive-iodine-part2.php
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Hey Yeoman in SF. Greetings from across the Bay in Berserkeley. I am <>afraid</i> to post an answer to you. I have stopped posting much to this thread. I spent a lot of time begging for more rigorous and scientific standards.
I became very dismayed at seeing virtually all events attributed to radiation, particularly radiation from Fukushima. I felt the lack of accuracy, attention to detail, and lack of journalistic principles of fact checking led, and leads, to the kind of criticism that someone like Atomicrod calling us "misinformed antinuclear activists" (as quoted below by Etwas Seltsam).
If we don't want to be called "misinformed antinuclear activists," we should stop posting as if every sore throat, every instance of diahrea, every dead bird in a backyard in Wichita (sp) Kansas is result of Fukushima and the history of radiological events since the beginning ot the nuclear age.
The Atomic Age is a horror. We damage our cause with inaccuracies.
Good luck Yeoman. I support your efforts.
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Dharmasyd, your point is well taken. At the same time, I believe most of us here share in a common pursuit for answers, whether or not we are scientists (which I believe most here are NOT).
As such, our desire to learn the truth about what we are dealing with (which has not been forthcoming from our leaders) compels many of us to share our admittedly anecdotal observations and experiences here amongst like-minded (for the most part)
people, in an effort to make some sense of it all.
No one here is claiming enenews is a pure, "scientific" journal, with solely experienced scientists posting in this forum. (For that, I recommend you try Physicsforum.com, as it is a mix of physics students and professionals.)
Personally-speaking, as to why I post health-related comments: For the record, I have always been very healthy my entire life, a former college athlete, and had NEVER experienced some of the strange health issues, like tingling in my tongue, until Fukushima blew. My child likewise has always been healthy, yet, has now had three episodes of a swelling throat again, post-Fuku. My mother had a stroke just weeks after being exposed to the highest levels of I-131 recorded by the EPA (living in S. CA) and has since passed away. There are too many other health issues I have witnessed in my own circle of family and friends to be coincidental.
(continued below…)
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(continued from above)…
Why do I post this information? Yes, I currently have no proof it is due radiation at this point, however, I aim to continue searching for answers, and this forum is a good place to start and continue my search.
Perhaps someday the truth will become known. I hope and pray the fact that my child and other children here in the PNW last Spring were exposed to 40,000 times background levels of radioactive Xenon-133 gas, along with 1-131, cesium, and who knows what else, is NOT causing their health issues and will NOT be a catalyst for future health issues.
However, to give up searching for answers, or sharing such information with other concerned parents simply because I am concerned with "appearances" as judged by heartless and criminally-insane nuclear "scientists" is not in my make up. I personally could care LESS about what such people think, and I do not believe any of us here need to seek their validation of our efforts.
It is THEY who bear the onus of proving their sanity, their integrity (scientific or otherwise) and their supposed mandate to continue irreversibly polluting our planet and killing our children with their egregious toxic spewing of ongoing radiation into our environment.
I hope this helps clarify things a bit, and perhaps eases your concern…
Namaste and peace.
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What-About-The-Kids,
Thanks for your posts. I am still working, so I don't know if you have seen that potrblog put out a "Maximum Alert."
http://pissinontheroses.blogspot.com/
This was posted because of Radiation Network's notice of an unusual, higher reading in Colorado.
"Rattler operates the ultra-sensitive, pancake-tubed Inspector model which records normal background radiation at about 50 CPM (his elevation is 4,200 feet). So his average had moved up to about 60 CPM, or 20% higher, and for those who focus on spikes, you can see that one minute average in the mid 80's. Rattler was monitoring indoors at the time, with his Inspector near a window. I don't believe it was raining. After the elevated readings had subsided, he moved the Inspector outdoors for later in the day."
http://radiationnetwork.com/Message.htm
If you look at the Jet stream images on potrblog, it looks like it was going right by you in Washington on the way to Colorado, the timing of his increase would match your increase in symptoms.
nuckelchen's videos also indicate activity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms5_JcfV6g0&feature=youtu.be
Okay, back to work!
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WATKids…I'm 79 years old and have probably been fighting against nukes since long before you were born. I started in the 1950s protesting the Pacific tests and all.
I offer you condolences for the illnesses in your family. What you say does not ease my concerns, however. You sound like a kind and caring person; I wish you well
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dharmasyd, it sometimes helps to remember that some of the noise here is almost certainly planted in order to discredit the site and drive "sensible" people away. My point is general – not related to any particular events or dialog.
If you leave, they win. If you believe the nonsense, they win. If you let it get to you, they win. Tough game to play, but the stakes are worth it, I think.
Keep on telling the truth as you see it, share what you can, challenge the inaccuracies, don't knowingly feed the trolls… and so forth. Skip a day from time to time and come back to the pleasure of finding people have covered for you. Good people here, all in all.
Your posts are always worth reading. Pace yourself, grasshopper.
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Aw, thanks, Dharmasyd. You sound like a kind, caring person too.
I want to thank you for being among that "first wave" of anti-nuclear activists, and for continuing your efforts all these long, irradiated years. It is an honor to have you here on enenews and to read your postings.
May we all, as you have, live well, and live well into our older age and maintain the stamina and vigor with which you keep vigil for our planet. (Perhaps it was all that surfing you did as a youngster that kept you young and healthy?)
I admire you for fighting the good fight and never giving up or giving in. The Goodness in me honors the Goodness in you ("Namaste").
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@dharmasyd – agreed on the "events attributed to radiation, particularly radiation from Fukushima"
of course there is no denying people have disease and flora and fauna are suffering.
but not everything can be blamed on fuku rads. i can't say what can and can't be.
somethings may become more apparent given time and the clarity of professional reporting.
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My family tasted it (metallic, tingling tongue, excessive, soapy saliva, stinging eyes- nausea, vomiting, diarrhea) pretty much all Spring last year…in Louisville, under the Jet Stream.
We sensed it, and it sensed us- thoroughly. It was an unmistakeable, unforgettable experience.
It tastes like burning.
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I'm disgracing the piss poor journalism…its like its meant to undermine.
the situation itself is quite grave…would be interesting to hear naval personnal chime in.
I'm invisioning a hatch opening up and a core falling through… to be retrieved later…perhaps
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You could try Rod Adams (nuclear sub expert) but I'm not sure you (or I)'d want him on this site:
Rod Adams comment at NRC public meeting for draft EIS of WS Lee Nuclear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEsJvEyGU7Q
Maybe address questions to him on YouTube instead of here.
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Or @Atomicrod on Twitter, and his site: http://atomicinsights.com/
Atomicrod doesn't like us a whole lot, no, but ask away…
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Rod on this year's theme for the Nuclear Energy Assembly 2012:
I was excited to learn that the theme chosen for this year’s gathering is “Setting the Agenda.” I like the forward leaning sound of that phrase. Going on the offensive can be the best defense when you are being attacked with predictable regularity from competitors and misinformed antinuclear activists.
Despite what some antinuclear activists might claim, the nuclear industry is typically quite reticent. It rarely advertises its routine successes and rarely reminds people that uranium produces as much energy for the world’s economy each year as the oil produced by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined."
"NUCLEAR POWER?
YES, PLEASE"
Gag me with a Tritium fork. Yeah, so, ask away.
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Crikey/strewth…thanks etwas seltsam!!
Now i know who Atomic Rod on YouTube is.
He is the guy who posted the Berkley edu fuel rod experiment on youtube, but who refuses to acknowledge Arnies similar experiment but using a spray of water to simulate conditions in the reactor in his own Zirconium fuel rod fire test..
He used a very, very weak defense to support the failed Berkely experiment shown on 7 news back them and deleted?? IamGoddards questions and criticisms which were pretty basic.
He did however leave his own replies up.
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Here is the youtube atomicrod video i mention.
Uploaded by atomicrod59 on Mar 20, 2011
"ABC 7 News in Berkeley, CA employs journalists with questioning 'show me' attitudes. Upon hearing stories about the risk of fuel rods in spent fuel pools catching fire and distributing radioactive materials into the atmosphere, they called up their local university to ask them to conduct an experiment. Despite applying a blow torch directly to a zirconium tube for long enough to make the tube glow, it did not catch on fire."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x__2yWx9zGY
And Arnies test.
Uploaded by TheLeftSpace on Apr 11, 2011
"Fairewinds' Chief Nuclear Engineer, Arnie Gundersen, conducts a field demonstration simulating the impact of Fukushima's intense heat upon Zircaloy [zirconium alloy] fuel rods. Gundersen's demonstration shows that intense heat weakens and embrittles Zircaloy changing it from a sturdy metal to a brittle oxide that is easily shattered. Images from the post accident Three Mile Island nuclear core show embrittled and broken Zircaloy fuel rods in the nuclear reactor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRUnASqFEnw
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You're welcome, Spectro, and thanks- I didn't realize he had a YouTube channel – I'm sure that will be hard to watch- that *(&$#@!! gets me steamed… I just canNOT believe how smugly righteous- and so wrong- he is. Makes me go Yosemite Sam. And Tasmanian Devil. Yeech.
Maybe Goddard saved that question-and-answer exchange. Now, that, I would love to see. Atomicrod vs. Goddard and/or Arnie. Hah! Very, very weak defense, indeed- and deep down he knows it.
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We should contact the journalism departments of universities and challenge them to teach the DUTY of journalism to tell the truth about our world. Shame on them!
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Excellent point, the yeoman.
We need to have a funeral for mainstream journalism.
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Yeoman typed these Star Trek pixels of light:
"I'm disgracing the piss poor journalism…its like its meant to undermine."
SP: This forum isn't exactly your grandma's newspaper Yo! My god…Grace Whitney is 82 and still alive! Gee…I am getting damn old.
Anyway…Brian Williams gave a piss poor performance as usual a few minutes ago for his segment on the USS Miami…what happened to the damn fine investigative news reporters like Cromkite? Oh yeah…they all died! GE owns the new guys. Damn fine reporting. (not)
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You can't smell the radiation, but you may be able to smell the radioactive particles. Sort of like when people report a metallic taste. I think that's the cesium. Nuclear subs may have a different type of fuel for all i know, so it may end up smelling different than a melting nuclear power plant. Or maybe they're just building the damn things out of plastic these days.
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One reporter said the fire spread to crew, command and missile or torpedo sections. The other did not mention it.
It sounds like the whole sub was on fire, not just the 'forward' section.
Don't these subs have nuke missiles and torpedoes on board? What happens when the nuclear reactor control mechanisms are burned up?
Even if there was a radiation release, there is no way they are going to talk about it. It will be interesting to see if more emergency responders and/or crew end up going to the hospital…
Here is hoping that they know enough to get tested for alpha radiation exposure.
Alpha Radiation Dangers; Polonium, Radon, Radium, Plutonium, Uranium….
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/alpha-radiation-dangers-polonium-radon.html
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Burning plastic is extremely toxic when inhaled
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I hope they can put it out soon and that there truly was no radioactivity released…
Weren't we just reading about other nuke subs experiencing problems here recently?
I also remember reading about a similar fire at a Russian nuke sub in recent months…
Time to put these puppies to bed. No more nukes please! Thank you.
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"“The ship’s reactor was not operating at the time and was not affected,” shipyard spokeswoman Tami Remick said by telephone from Kittery."
so has it been affected since? How about the condensers?
I used to love Boston.
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Bur It Seemed Such a Good Idea at the time ….
Shoulda … Coulda … Woulda ….
DAMN! ….. Peace, OUT!
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As it turns out, man can't control "anything" nuclear. It's a nightmare, and must be outlawed.
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ANYONE HAVE A RADIATION DETECTOR TO MEASURE ANY EXPOSURE FROM THE FIRE ON THE SUB
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My thoughts as well. Get out there with your counters friends! We need hard evidence from citizens to get the truth unfortunately!!
No matter what the MSM reports these days, I just cannot believe them. I cant help but to think in these situations that we cannot believe or trust in any of our institutions to protect us! IMHO they are controlled as much if not more than the MSM's. Our governments and institutions have sold the people out for there own agenda's, and this I am very confident of!
Sick of there lies anyone? I work hard and pay my tax's and have no trust in the system I pay for!
Not happy with those in charge
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Immobilise people!!! Get out there with your
!!!!
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Let's not over-react here, I can assure you that nuclear power is fail-safe.
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Sarcastic much Pat Kittle?
There is no need for nuclear electrical power, since 24/7 baseload power for all 100 million households can be met with CHEAP, SAFE solar concentrating plants, covering a total landmass less than the size of New Jersey: http://enenews.com/forum-alternative-energy/comment-page-2#comment-253530 .
Throw in wind energy, PV, etc., and the debate ends.
Bye-bye toxic nuke plants!
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ha ha ha hahah ahaha hhhahahahaha hahhahahahah hahahha hahahhha hhahha.
thanks for the joke PK
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err pk surely you mean
…has failed safely??…
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AGR asked a question: "Don't these subs have nuke missiles and torpedoes on board? What happens when the nuclear reactor control mechanisms are burned up?"
SP: We need a pro like Jimmy Carter or Atomic Rod to answer the harbor armament question. I would think it might be protocol now in America (especially in an election year) to unload offshore prior to dry dock. The reason I say this is the Russians dodged a massive dirty bomb sub disaster 5 months ago with lots of nuclear missiles ready to explode:
http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2012/02/26/update-admiral-confirms-nuclear-submarine-ekaterinburg-on-fire-was-armed.
As for question 2:
I doubt the nuclear triggers are easily activated by fire, but the nuclear components can certainly be expelled by the missiles or torpedos exploding.
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Thanks S…
Regarding switching from nuclear to solar; it is happening already, at an accelerating pace…
Energy Usage And Costs Compared To Nuclear And Coal; via A Green Road Blog
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/why-solar-energy-energy-usage-and-costs.html
More solar KW installed than nuclear last year.
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We just watched an excellent movie with the title of; K-19 The Widowmaker, available on Netflix or via video in a video store near you. It is rated E for excellent.
It is a story of the 'best' nuclear sub in the Soviet fleet springing a small leak in the nuclear cooling section, with catastrophic results. The movie is based on a real life story.
People do not understand the implications of an accidental fire or nuclear meltdown on a nuclear sub with nuclear weapons aboard, and what that means if a nuclear bomb/missile or torpedo is triggered.
Watch this movie, so you too may see what disasters potentially await the whole world, even if just ONE nuclear bomb is set off on or from a nuclear sub, ship.
What happens if a nuclear missile ever is set off accidentally, via fire, computer malfunction, crazy terrorist takeover, dictator with a death wish due to his enemies taking over his country and deposing him, etc?
The more nuclear weapons, the greater the chance of an accidental nuclear war.
K-19: The Widowmaker is a movie released on July 19, 2002, about the first of many disasters that befell the Soviet submarine of the same name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-19:_The_Widowmaker
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