USS ENTERPRISE Nuclear Chemistry Emergency

I served four tours on three ships in my Navy career: USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65) twice, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72), and USS SAMUEL GOMPERS (AD-37). I traveled to many parts of the world, mostly in Asia, though I rode the Enterprise through the Suez Canal for my first return trip to Europe. Out of all the “adventures” the Navy gave me, I consider this one the defining moment of my career. Now, with twenty years of perspective I wonder if I handled it properly.

Let me start by saying no radioactive material leaked out of the reactor plant and no one was injured in this incident. The main goal of maintaining the state of chemistry in the water in a nuclear power plant is so the parts of it do not rust or wear out. In addition, tiny bits of rust passing through a reactor core become dangerously radioactive.

So it is in the best interest of the operators and the general public to keep the water as pure and as free of acid as possible. I worked in the division (shop) whose job it was to monitor and adjust chemistry when needed for the eight reactors powering the USS ENTERPRISE (CVN-65).

            We add several different chemicals to adjust the pH or the water and to scavenge oxygen. When pH is high (well above 7) and no oxygen is present then metal is much slower to rust despite being in close contact with water. That is why the Enterprise has lasted with more or less the same engine rooms and reactor plants for coming up on 52 years!

Background

I joined the Navy’s nuclear power program before I graduated high school.  I shipped out to boot camp in Orlando, Fla. at the end of the summer. Nine weeks later I went to my first school in Great Lakes, Illinois. I completed that school and three more besides in the next two years in Orlando and New York before finally reporting to the ENTERPRISE in the shipyards in Puget Sound, Washington.

By the time of this incident in 1984, I was on my second tour on the ENTERPRISE and attained the rank of first class petty officer. I was in charge of the Aft Chemistry Group; that is the two plants near the back of the ship. We had responsibility over four of the reactors and 16 of the steam generators. Six teams of two rotated keeping watch over the operating plants in each group around the clock every day the ship is on its own power.

The Incident

One day while the ship operated in coastal waters near California I received a call from my team on watch in the morning. The Top Watch (the senior member of the team) informed me that he had an out of spec chemistry problem. He gave me the numbers and told me he had made a mistake. The plant was supposed to go online earlier that day and he had prepared chemistry to support it.

Now when you open the steam valves of a reactor the chemicals in the water seem to disappear. They don’t really but they are not in the steam the way you want them to be. So after we bring a plant online we add more chemicals, which my team did.

Unfortunately, the plant shut down immediately after that which brought all the previous chemicals out of hiding. It took more than three hours for all of my teams working together to get things back to normal.

Aftermath

Normally when incidents happen a report has to be filed. The supervisor gathers the logs and statements and submits a written report that makes its way to the high offices of the Navy Yard. However in this case, the Chemistry officer insisted I give an oral report to the senior navy staff on board the ship. I suspected his intent was to place me in the awkward position of explaining something that few people truly understand. That officer was one of those given to letting personal biases affect his leadership (or lack thereof). He chose the wrong person.

I was fully versed in the vagaries of nuclear chemistry and had worked on those plants for years. Endless days and nights of watch in the chemistry shack left me closely attuned to the plants and how they behaved when conditions changed.

I had a day to prepare my report which was plenty of time despite my fatigued condition. I did extra research to find out the latest theories of crystal formation in water under intense neutron flux. That was the key. I won’t explain that here because it is esoteric chemistry that few people understand as I later discovered.

The Presentation

            The content of my report is still classified decades later (75 years by government policy). The audience consisted of my entire division, its officers and several members of the naval reactors inspection team. Normally, those men do not attend these reports but again, I suspect my boss was trying to increase the pressure on me. No problem.

            I spent the next twenty or so minutes giving a lecture on where the chemicals go when temperatures and pressures change, how radiation affects crystal structure and the response to changing power levels.

            When I was done the room was silent. I asked my Chemistry officer if he was satisfied with the answer. I could tell he was lost. I asked his boss, the Chem-Radcon Assistant (a man with an advanced biology degree), he seemed likewise lost. No one seemed to understand enough to know if what I had just explained was accurate.

            Except Master Chief Bowers, one of the greatest chemists in the history of naval nuclear power. He had authored much of our Chemistry manual and the fleet’s top expert on all things chemistry. I asked if he thought I gave an adequate explanation for the unexplainable. He said, “Yes, but you got it backwards.”

            I looked over my equations and charts for a moment. Master Chief prompted me on the open-ended crystal formula; I had it! It took several minutes to work it back but I was able to give the correct chemical process to his satisfaction.

            The meeting ended and all of my notes left with the officers. Master Chief gave me a pat on the back before leaving. No more challenges to my competence came up again for that tour at least. Regardless of why the officer placed me in that position I enjoyed it. Not because it gave me the chance to show off, but because it was a challenge to figure out what the engines of my ship were doing. In presenting my report I gained greater knowledge of how chemistry works.

            The lingering thought, the final loose end for me is  . . . what if I was right in the first place? What if Master Chief was testing my confidence in my report? I don’t think I will ever know. If I had more time to prepare or maybe had more rest before standing in front of that crowd I would have been more certain. Nonetheless, I am pleased with the way I handled the challenge from an officer whom I later learned was racist(never a good thing in a military officer but all too common). He threw down the gauntlet and ended up eating it. That in itself was good enough for me.

Bring My ENTERPRISE To Life!

The First Mission

On July 4^th, 2033 the world’s first starship orbits high above the East Coast of the United States.  The president stands in front of a crowd of the invited guests and dignitaries from around the globe.  One of the banks of cameras feeds his image in direct communication to the tiny bridge module.

Captain John Forrester tries his best to look like the calm military man he has cultivated in a distinguished career but everyone knows the excitement he has jumping inside of him.  Most of the world is standing idle watching the interchange on televisions, phones and virtual screens everywhere at once.  They are waiting for the historic moment when a living man, a crew of 57 men and women, sail out of the Solar system for the first time.

The speeches end and the applause dies down.  With one final salute to the screen, Captain Forrester sits down, looks to the emblem welded to the wall; with a small wink to the past, he says, “Engage.”

Dreamers find a way

Seems like a fantasy, doesn’t it?  Something fan boys and geek girls have dreamed about since James T. Kirk passed into syndication five decades ago.  But some people here and now, in the real world are not willing to let that story sit on faded pages anymore.  A vision of independent development is growing on the Internet and the stars are moving closer to mankind than at any time before.

Build the Enterprise is a focal point for that energy.  People around the world long for the far frontier and frankly, governments and space agencies have let us down. After an incredible decade plus of heady achievement the United States and Russia got bored.  Neither side saw any value in continuing their expensive space programs when down to Earth problems seemed more pressing.

However, the populations of many countries did not share in that sentiment.  As one of those children of the Space Age I fully expected to have bases on the Moon by now and possibly on Mars.  I even hoped the process would have become efficient enough so that ordinary people like me could have a chance, no matter how small, of going up there.  Our government let us down.

The Tower of Babel

The book of Genesis in the Bible tells of an effort by mortal man to build a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens.  The Lord came down Himself to see the tower and declared that “ the people are one and the all have one language and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them (Gen, 11:4-6).”

Language is the key.  Language is the spoken expression of culture.  Today English is the uniting language; more precisely, the American language is the common language of commerce, science, art and culture.  It is the primary language for one nation to communicate with another and the most commonly used second language for people of the 200 nations and thousands of cultures.  American English draws the people of the world together.

And why should it not?  America is a country built up of the melding of diverse immigrants from around the world drawn to its shores by the common dream of liberty and self-realization.  America has spawned most of the great innovations of the past century and it has done so through the efforts of Jews, Italians, Germans, Russians, Poles, Africans and Asians as well as too many more to list.  The aggregate effort combined with opportunity and freedom makes anything possible.  The computer you are reading this on is proof of that.

President Kennedy proposed the preposterous goal of landing a man on the Moon during this decade (the 1960s).  The entire world scoffed, but gasped in awe and fear as the American people achieved his goal—on time.  Imagine what we could do now, with today’s technology if given one uniting purpose.

To the Moon and Beyond

Captain Forrester gazed down on the North Polar Region of the Moon. Not even three hours have passed since he left Earth orbit and he has been here 20 minutes already. The Apollo 11 mission took 88 hours to make the same journey.  Forester’s ENTERPRISE had not used more than 10% of thrust for this historic leg.

Below him four passengers disembarked.  The crew shuttle Armstrong and the cargo shuttle Aldren released on schedule.  Their business on the Moon would take another week as they assembled the first long-stay module that would be the core of the first Lunar Base.  They would fly back to Earth on their own when the mission ended.  No one gave voice to the fear that the ENTERPRISE’s mission might fail and the shuttles were designed to self-return for that contingency.

Be that as it may, ENTERPRISE had business with other planetary bodies.  Losing the shuttle cut their mass by 20 percent.  The trip to Venus would be with a faster, more nimble ship.  Gravity pulled and the stars beckoned.

Another twenty minutes passed before the shuttle announced safe touch down on the surface. Free of back stop duties, ENTERPRISE turned her nose sunward aiming for the “second star to the right, straight on past morning.”

Nothing they propose will be withheld from them

The government let us down.  President Obama killed the space shuttle program and slashed budgets for future space manned missions to nothing.  He intended to use the power of his office to keep man tied to the ground.  He did not reckon with the power of the America people.

Innovators like Burt Ruttan have found many ways to get around government reticence.  Wealthy dreamers like Peter Diamandis fund competitions to explore space through the private sector.

Firing most of NASA’s rocket scientists didn’t kill progress either.  Just the opposite; firing them flooded the market with thousands of the brightest minds in the nation now free from government restraint and bureaucracy.  They can pursue long held personal projects in private labs and can profit from any patents generated by their work.  Enlightened self-interest is the impetus behind many great inventions.

Man will get off this one planet because he dreams of doing so.  Trusting corporations to provide the change was as fruitless as leaving it in the hands of bureaucrats.  Many dreamers and innovators from around the globe will contribute to the effort but as usual, the bulk of the effort will come from the American people.

Nothing unusual there; Americans are used to leading the way.  Two generations have passed since the last Apollo mission returned from the Moon.  Meanwhile the rest of the world is engaged in a race to go there and the leaders are nearly a generation away still from being able to mount a successful mission—this despite having access to far more powerful computers and better rocket technology.

That old scientist might have been right after all.  If not for the American people, the trip to the Moon really would have been a century away.  Perhaps Captain Forrester will be able to watch the winner of the Silver Medal race to land on the Moon – from somewhere beyond Pluto.

21st Century Gunboat Diplomacy

“Speak softly and carry a big stick; and you will go far.”

Theodore Roosevelt said this maxim originated in West Africa.  He applied it to his method of global diplomacy wherein he negotiated in kindness and generosity but backed up the American position with the threat of military prowess.  President Roosevelt (1901 – 1909) was a military veteran and a well-traveled adventurer.  He knew well the role military power played in a nation’s perceived role in international diplomacy.  A nation that is unable to protect its interests beyond its borders has very little influence with which to bargain.

America emerged from the Spanish-American War as a new player on the international stage. Few in the world expected the distant Americas to be able to defeat a significant European power.  The victory was all the more striking in that much was accomplished on a global scale using modern naval vessels.  The turn of the century marked America’s debut as a top tier military power.

Roosevelt extended this influence through a naval tour de force dubbed the great White Fleet¹.  From 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 a flotilla consisting of sixteen new battleships of the Atlantic Fleet sailed from Hampton Roads, Virginia around South America to San Francisco, California. It then turned west to Hawaii, Asia and up to the Suez Canal.  Emerging into the Mediterranean the fleet took the opportunity to assist Italy after a devastating earthquake in early 1909.  The entire civilized world had witnessed the brute power and prowess on the United States by the time the ships returned to their home moorage in Hampton Roads.

Few American presidents have since failed to learn the lessons of the Great White Fleet.  The US Navy became the single most effective instrument of diplomatic pressure available to the American government.  That this is true is no accident; the navy is by all accounts the single most powerful military force on the planet.

The planes of just two aircraft carriers can destroy the entire air forces of most of the countries on earth—and we have at last count 12 of these super-carriers. Yes, they are super carriers.  Any nation that claims to have carriers knows well the difference between the Nimitz-class and their tiny flat tops.  I remember walking to the edge of the USS ENTERPRISE and looking down on the deck of allied carriers on several occasions.

(Note: the ship in the image is misidentified as the USS Nimitz. It is not. The numbers on deck are 66; the USS AMERICA (CV-66) which was still shorter and smaller than the Nimitz-class.)

Additionally, the Navy operates a fleet of nuclear submarines capable of devastating most of the habitable surface of the planet and sinking every ship anyone can build while remaining all but undetectable in the waterways and oceans of the world until it is too late.  Other surface ships carry missiles and guns capable of fighting most navies to a standstill without air support from carriers or submarine assistance.

I went to the bridge of the USS ENTRPRISE before I flew off her deck for the last time.  I spoke to the captain during a lull in operations.  I asked, “What was the single most important thing to know about aircraft carriers?”  Captain “Rocky” Spane answered that the carrier and its battle group controls the politics within a thousand mile radius; not influences, controls.  I agreed with his statement given the events I witnessed on that and many other cruises over two decades.

I recall a comment from a group of civilians I met in France. We were anchored off shore well in sight of Toulon, the home of France’s largest naval port.  Two of their carriers were in port and a third, their largest now called the Charles de Gaulle (R91) was yet under construction.  I sat in a café overlooking the harbor chatting with the locals on a beautiful Riviera day (are there any other kind?)  These young people didn’t know I was an American; because of my barely accented French they took me for an African colonial.  They looked at the massive silhouette of the Big ‘E’ and told me that France only thought it had aircraft carriers.  Seeing the Enterprise redefined the term in their minds.

A few years later the Navy knocked another embarrassing event off the world’s headlines.  Rebels in Mogadishu, Somalia shot down an American helicopter in an incident immortalized in the book and movie BLACKHAWK DOWN.  The local mobs celebrated their success by dragging the dead American soldiers through the streets before global news cameras.

The celebrating ended a few nights later when the aircraft carrier USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN arrived off shore in the wee hours of the morning.  F-14 Tomcats delivered a non-lethal but unavoidable wakeup call to the locals at 4 am.  Coming in at low altitude and 400+ knots, the aviators yanked back the stick and kicked in the afterburners in a steep climb. The sudden blast of noise could be heard for miles.  The Somalis instantly recognized a new power in the region; one for which the entire nation had no answer.  Direct violence against the American Army stopped.

Naval diplomacy continues right up to today’s headlines.  I wrote about the tensions between Iran and the United States over the naval presence of carriers in an earlier blog (“Iranian Military Threatens US Carriers in the Gulf” 1/3/2012).  The Navy today is no less intimidating than Roosevelt’s fleet more than a century ago.  Direct military conflict with the US has been a fatal error for several nations in the region in the past decades so this threat seemed designed to garner local political points rather than a true challenge.  More likely the Iranians were testing the resolve of the president of the United States as to whether he had the courage to use the power he had at hand.  However, President Obama’s lack of response caused an instant spike in the price of oil as the markets were rattled by the Iranian threat.

The Navy improved the situation without direct orders from the White House by adhering to its principles and following established maritime practices.  Ships of the USS JOHN C. STENNIS (CVN-74) battle group came to the aid of Iranian sailors for the third time on Wednesday January 18 in waters in and around the Persian Gulf.  Their dhow became disabled, according to a Navy spokesperson, and had been taking on water for days.

Earlier on the 6^th of January the USS KIDD (DDG-993) rescued 13 Iranian fishermen from Somali pirates who had captured their dhow and held them hostage for an unspecified amount of time.  On the 10^th of January an American Coast Guard cutter rescued six Iranian fishermen 50 mile off the coast of Iraq.

All of the rescues reveal Iran needs to do more work in ship construction and maintenance and they need to improve their maritime emergency response.  Without the American presence in the area almost two dozen of their men would have perished at sea and several boats lost.

More importantly, these humanitarian gestures in the face of Iranian military posturing have created an opportunity for diplomacy.  The Iranians can back down without losing (too much) face. At least for the time, US Navy compassion creates a tangible narrative in direct contrast to the official Iranian government position that America is the Great Satan.  Few of the Iranian mariners now safely at home would agree with that assessment.  What remains to be seen is whether the Obama Administration will squander the diplomatic opening his ships created.

1. DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND -The Great White Fleet: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq42-1.htm

fig 1. Photo "Battleship on the target range" courtesy of: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/ev-1900s/gwf07-09/gwf-sb3.htm

fig 2. Image courtesy of: www.motivatedphotos.com

Iranian Military Threatens US Carriers in the Persian Gulf

One prevailing lesson of international diplomacy is it does not matter what your enemies say, what  matters most how you respond.  Failure to respond firmly and in a timely manner will breed greater danger and greater difficulty in years or even generations to come.

Iranian Army chief Ataollah Salehi said “the United States had moved an aircraft carrier out of the Gulf because of Iran's naval exercises, and Iran would take action if the ship returned.”¹  Can any nation legally claim control of such a large body of water?  If so, what can America do in response?

The Persian Gulf is a flashpoint for many of the world’s problems.  Much of the oil flowing from the Middle East passes through the Straits of Hormuz and most of the trade between Europe and Asia takes the shortcut through the Suez Canal.  Now Iran is trying to play gatekeeper; deciding who may or may not use “their” pond.

Maritime law is largely settled law.  For centuries it has been based on the right of free passage.  No nation can claim unlimited control over the waters of the world.  The International guideline is a 12-mile territorial extension from the nearest sovereign land.

Some may recall in 1973 Muammar al-Quaddafi had his 200 mile claim out into the Mediterranean Sea marked by the “Line of Death.”  He dared the US Navy ships to cross it at their peril.  For a number of years the US Navy conducted Freedom of Navigation exercises down to the 12 mile limit.  In 1981 two US Navy F-14 Tomcats downed two Libyan Su-22 Fitters after they were fired upon in disputed waters.  That incident eventually died down but the Libyan leader never relented.  He spent much of his country’s oil wealth trying to build a stronger defense against American incursions. In 1986 He asserted himself again.

United States President Ronald Reagan gave little time or service to the Arab leader’s saber-rattling.  He order the services to launch a combined strike of Air Force FB-111’s and Navy carrier strike aircraft to hit those defenses, shoot up his air forces and personally slap him around.  On April 15^th Quaddafi found out what our tax dollars bought.  He quickly found a hiding place while several of his palaces took serious bomb damage.

A few weeks later I was onboard the USS ENTERPRISE (seen here conducting UNREP² in the Persian Gulf) steaming in the Med.  A few cross words from Quaddafi and we turned south along with another carrier.  About 2 AM on a clear moonlit night Libyan observers saw both carriers launching strike packages halfway to the horizon.  We didn’t actually hit anything that night but Quaddafi got the message; we could come back at any time we wanted.

Fast forward to January 2012.  How will the United States respond to the Iranian threat?  Don’t look to the White House for leadership.  The man in the big chair now is no Ronald Reagan.  He has never shown decisive leadership and is largely unwilling to take forceful action on the international stage, especially against Muslims.

If the United States (or other significant naval power) fails to challenge the Iranian claim to sovereignty over access to the Persian Gulf in a timely manner then it will be a de facto recognition of the claim and become legitimized.  The fact that no other nation has a fraction of the naval resources as the US means it generally falls to us to enforce the Right of Navigation. Only time will tell if our president has the will to act. I am not holding my breath on this one. I expect it will be in 2013, after the next election before we see anything definite done in the region.

1.      http://news.yahoo.com/iran-threatens-action-u-carrier-returns-irna-082124042.html

2.      UNREP: Underway replenishment, one of several ways a ship at sea gets needed fuel and supplies while on station far from land.   Fuel passes through the hoses, dry goods can come over in pallets across guy wires.

3.      Photo courtesy of: http://www.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_pages/0420-0907-3019-1001.html