YouTube & the Navy

[Pi1otguy]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20070818-9999-1m18youtube.html

The Navy has pulled the plug on a YouTube video shot aboard the San Diego-based aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan because it shows sailors inappropriately using safety equipment, a Navy spokesman said.

[snip]
But it also included fleeting shots of the door to the ship's nuclear power plant and of a sailor dancing while wearing a full-body radiation suit – items that might alarm the Navy's nuclear-propulsion officials, who are hypersensitive about the security. Under Pentagon rules, images of any part of a ship's nuclear plant cannot be shown to foreign nationals.

Aimlessly floating around youtube I ran into this vid and read the article. I've heard news stories about soldiers from several nations accidentally posting pics on MySpace, photobucket, etc with classified equipment in the background and kinda understand how this vid may break a rule or two. From 0:14 to 0:53 they appear to be in or near the reactor area. But I failed to see anything compromising other than maybe the diagram on the whiteboard. Then again, I'm not knowledgeable enough to make much of the rooms.

Under those rules, can I as a natural citizen get a tour of the reactor and its vital parts?
Is wearing the lead suit for fun that big a deal? (btw, seems kind flexible for a lead suit)
No guards (w/ guns & blank look) standing by the reactor room door?
How is the military taking the pic sharing & YouTube thing?

 

[tdager]

OK...I now know I should have joined the Navy and gotten stationed on an aircraft carrier! Damn *some* of them girls were downright attractive!

 

[KennyFlys]

Aimlessly floating around youtube I ran into this vid and read the article. I've heard news stories about soldiers from several nations accidentally posting pics on MySpace, photobucket, etc with classified equipment in the background and kinda understand how this vid may break a rule or two. From 0:14 to 0:53 they appear to be in or near the reactor area. But I failed to see anything compromising other than maybe the diagram on the whiteboard. Then again, I'm not knowledgeable enough to make much of the rooms.

I didn't see anything that stuck out much. The chem suit seemed innocent enough. If that's the same video an admiral had pulled, I think they overreacted. The instructor at the whiteboard was unlikely to allow a camera if they were discussing classified material. That could end his career.

I do think it was pretty cool the skipper of the boat stepped in and gave a hand with the video.

Under those rules, can I as a natural citizen get a tour of the reactor and its vital parts?
Is wearing the lead suit for fun that big a deal? (btw, seems kind flexible for a lead suit)
No guards (w/ guns & blank look) standing by the reactor room door?
How is the military taking the pic sharing & YouTube thing?

Don't bet on it. When I was on the Ike, marines guarded access to the nuclear reactor area. I didn't get close enough to find out more. We did see the nuke guys quite often as their berthing area was just below ours but we were never allowed down there. A friend I had in that department would have to come up and see me.

When we did nuclear weapons loading practice, marines surrounded the plane; with M-16s at the time. If someone walked too close, they were given one warning. The second "advisory" put you on the deck, possibly still conscious.

I wouldn't want to wear a lead suit or the job for its purpose any more than I'd want to put on a Kevlar vest. But, knock yourself out if you get the chance!

 

[KennyFlys]

OK...I now know I should have joined the Navy and gotten stationed on an aircraft carrier! Damn *some* of them girls were downright attractive!

We had girls onboard once during training and CARQUALS for a FRAMP squadron. I got to hang back in a detachment from my squadron as their "host." My memory of that event leads me to believe they hand-picked the girls for their detachment so there would be less likely some hanky panky going on.

 

[steingar]

OK...I now know I should have joined the Navy and gotten stationed on an aircraft carrier! Damn *some* of them girls were downright attractive!

7 hotdogs for every bun.

 

[Pi1otguy]

When we did nuclear weapons loading practice, marines surrounded the plane; with M-16s at the time. If someone walked too close, they were given one warning. The second "advisory" put you on the deck, possibly still conscious.

I knew someone that worked at an airforce base and they had a similar story crossing a certain painted line encircling the airfield. Supposedly they skipped to the 2nd "advisory" with M-16s to the head. Not even during a public airshow would he cross it even with hundreds of normal folk doing so.

 

[Pi1otguy]

7 hotdogs for every bun.

Minus hotdogs belong to other buns. So really ~5 hotdogs per bun?

 

[Steve]

First of all the room you see is mostly likely the chemistry lab where they check the water chemistry of the power plant systems. May or may not be radioactive samples. They would be looking for corrosion products and isotopes which may indicate a "leaker", a fuel rod or a steam generator tube that may have a minute crack in it. When you run a power reactor you have to be careful not to let one area get substantially hotter than another as that can cause excessive thermal gradients which can damage the fuel cladding or steam generator internals (as a minimum). A non-nuclear power plant would have the same capabilities. I couldn't see much detail on the whiteboard in the video, but it looked like it was in a classroom and what I could make out was some standard symbols for valves and piping that you would find at any fluid systems facility, refinery, chemical plant, power plant, etc.

The yellow "bunny suit" is not for radiation protection. It's referred to as an "Anti-C" (anti-contamination) suit and is made of 100% cotton normally. It is similar to a "clean suit" except it is primarily used to keep you from inadvertantly bringing radioactive material out of a controlled area rather than prevent you from bringing contaminants in, although that is also desireable, too. If the contamination level is high you may be required to wear more than one layer of protective clothing. If the area is also damp you may have to wear a rainsuit on top of that. Not very comfortable in a thermally hot environment. You protect yourself from excessive radiation dose in the controlled areas by minimizing your time near the radiation source or by shielding placed between you and the source (temporary or permanent) or by keeping a minimum distance away from the source. A "lead suit" would normally only be worn by someone in the lab while working with radioactive samples, and would be similar to what you see at dentists' offices or x-ray clinics.

For a civilian to be allowed in the area you would have to have a need to be there, normally as a contract worker assigned for a specific job. You would get specialized training for working in a higher than background radiation field. There are exceptions for public relations activities which utilize trained escorts, but those usually do not include high radiation areas associated with the primary reactor systems.

There's always the possibility that sensitive information/material gets put on the internet without proper screening, but I suspect the military has a means to locate and identify it, and take the appropriate action.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20070818-9999-1m18youtube.html


Aimlessly floating around youtube I ran into this vid and read the article. I've heard news stories about soldiers from several nations accidentally posting pics on MySpace, photobucket, etc with classified equipment in the background and kinda understand how this vid may break a rule or two. From 0:14 to 0:53 they appear to be in or near the reactor area. But I failed to see anything compromising other than maybe the diagram on the whiteboard. Then again, I'm not knowledgeable enough to make much of the rooms.

Under those rules, can I as a natural citizen get a tour of the reactor and its vital parts?
Is wearing the lead suit for fun that big a deal? (btw, seems kind flexible for a lead suit)
No guards (w/ guns & blank look) standing by the reactor room door?
How is the military taking the pic sharing & YouTube thing?

 

[gprellwitz]

Minus hotdogs belong to other buns. So really ~5 hotdogs per bun?

Minus hotdogs belonging to other hotdogs, and plus hotdogs that are supposed to belong to other buns but that really tend to slip into whichever bun is closest. So yeah, we're probably back at ~5 hotdogs per bun!

 

[Ghery]

As a former Mare Island Naval Shipyard yardbird who worked in nuclear engineering overhauling and refueling submarines, I can safely say, "No, you wouldn't get a tour of the plant or the control spaces". Certain details of plant operation are classified, and these could be derived by looking at instruments on the control panel. Heck, when the boats were in the yard certain other instruments were kept covered so we couldn't see - things that would indicate how deep they could dive, or how fast they could go, for example. And we had clearances (just no need to know).

And to be honest, a lot of that stuff belonged in a museum when I worked on it in the mid 1970s. Ever heard of a magnetic amplifier? The key advantage they offered was they reduced the amount of lead ballast in the keel.

 

[Pi1otguy]

I couldn't see much detail on the whiteboard in the video, but it looked like it was in a classroom and what I could make out was some standard symbols for valves and piping that you would find at any fluid systems facility, refinery, chemical plant, power plant, etc.

As best I could see it looked kinda like the generic nuke reactor diagram we see in textbooks and such.

The yellow "bunny suit" is not for radiation protection. It's referred to as an "Anti-C" (anti-contamination) suit and is made of 100% cotton normally.[snip]
You protect yourself from excessive radiation dose in the controlled areas by minimizing your time near the radiation source or by shielding placed between you and the source (temporary or permanent) or by keeping a minimum distance away from the source. A "lead suit" would normally only be worn by someone in the lab while working with radioactive samples, and would be similar to what you see at dentists' offices or x-ray clinics.

So in theory, if someone screwed the pooch and had a situation similar to K-19 or a mini Chernobyl, they'd have the similar exposure issues too?

There's always the possibility that sensitive information/material gets put on the internet without proper screening, but I suspect the military has a means to locate and identify it, and take the appropriate action.

No doubt that this is one of the USAF's mission as the patrol airspace, space, & cyberspace. I'm sure they probably keep tabs on a thing ties to service members' emails (YouTube, MySpace, Photobucket, etc), or atleast I'd assume they do just as I assume my work computer may be logging keystrokes & other activities.