Chronology

Note that these are the years that I have researched so far. There is content for other years I have just not posted it yet, but the course lists and publication in Navy publications at Treasure Island are continuous up to the closing of the base.

1944-1951

  • ALL NAVY PERSONNEL Exposed to Radium for EYE TESTS 1944-1951 – The Navy wanted to test for night vision, so they used a device called the Radium Plaque Adaptometer that used a slab of radium as the light source and exposed all Navy Personnel to this device directed at their eyes and head every 6 months from 1944 to 1951

1946

1946 – has its own page as there were extensive work done in trying to clean up the ships used in the nuclear tests in the Pacific. Since this was all brand new, and unexpected, the Navy needlessly exposed the dock workers and the people of San Francisco to nuclear radiation and contamination from sandblasting radioactive ships, with the radioactive dust traveling all over the bay area as well as dumping radioactive materials including Plutonium directly into San Francisco Bay. They did not understand the long term effects of Radiation and at the start of this, they only had 2 working Geiger Counters for the entire expedition.

1947

  • TI-Post Graduate Medical Training for Reserves 4 July 1947 – TI –  “PG Medical Training for Reserves,” Bumed News Letter, Vol. 10, No. 1 RESTRICTED , pp 26-29; Editor: Captain F.W. Farrar, MC, USN; United States. Navy Department. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. U.S. Navy Medicine. Washington: U.S. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery; 4 July 1947 NAVMED 369 RESTRICTED
    (b) Radiological Safely – 6 weeks at Radiological Safety School, Treasure Island, California. The course deals with radioactive ships, decontamination procedures, protection of personnel, and effects of atomic radiation on military and civil personnel. (See the 6 June 1947 issue of Bumed News Letter for definition of atomic terms.) Citation: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015072919056?urlappend=%3Bseq=26

1948

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

  • Operation Castle Atomic Warfare Countermeasures (Navy Washdown System) 1954 Video – TI – https://youtu.be/DX69Ek5mk2I – TI – Ships were outfitted with extensive plumbing to create a cloud of water so that if there is a nuclear explosion nearby the entire surface will be wet and the water will drain off the ship so that no puddles where radiation can accumulate will occur.  This video also points out that the operation crossroads procedure of having ships spray the ship to wash it down resulted in dangerous levels of radiation onto Naval Personnel manning those ships.
  • Fort Mason in San Francisco received nuclear materials from Atomic Energy Commission and NRC – All Military Bases, Ships, etc conducted radiological training to clean up after a strike. They received radioactive isotopes from the Atomic Energy Commission and later by the Department of Energy or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This problem of radioactive contamination is nationwide and unfortunately most bases buried their radioactive materials in and around their ammunition bunkers or firing ranges where explosions can further contaminate large areas.

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959 and 1961

Two nuclear reactors sites, 369 Whisman Road Mountainview (now Google) and San Ramon CA Portable Nuclear reactors were used and manufactured in these locations. The industry died when safe levels of radiation made these nuclear reactors nuclear accidents even when turned off.

1959

1960’s to present

  • Building Housing on top of Munitions Bunkers at Treasure Island – maps including radiation maps showing the radiation surveys under housing built from the 1960s on top of the munitions bunkers and the Atomic, Biological and Chemical Warfare School at Treasure Island, and note the housing under the USS Pandemonium which was a mock-up of a ship for Chemical, Biological and Radiation training.

1960

1961

  • TI-Course in A B C Warfare Defense 1961 – TI – Course in ABC Warfare Defense Title: ABC Warfare Defense Course for Medical Officers – Three Weeks‘ Course – No. 6, Date: Convening 9 – 27 January 1961Place: U. S. Naval Schools Command, Treasure Island, San Francisco, Calif. Reporting Time: Prior to 2200, 8 January 1961, Personnel Office, U. S. Naval Schools Command, Bldg. 28 Security Clearance: SECRET
  • Yuba City B52 Crash with two Hydrogen Bombs on board 14 March 1961 – DA – Yuba City CA which is northeast of the Bay Area. Includes video of crash site and officers picking up high explosives from the wreck. Text of communications regarding the crash. Personnel from USNRDL were sent to the crash site. Note this crash site is NOT on the EPA Superfund site list.

1962

  • TI-Alpha Field simulator 1962-1963 Navy developed a radio based device to mimic the effect of an alpha particle emitter, and a radio based detector with all of the same controls as an actual alpha particle detection device in order to save the students and particularly the teachers from being over exposed to radiation in any particular year. Before this device the instructors refused to conduct this test as it had a heavy exposure to radiation. But these devices are a simulator and so if these devices are used by contractors to try to find radiation, they will always not find it as they are not made to find real alpha contamination. They are simulators. So in order to find out if a survey is made, you need to know exactly what devices were used and they must be subject to inspection.

1963

1964

1965

1967

1969

1978

1983

1986

1987

1988

1991

1992

  • Why is it snowing inside the Nuclear Power Plant? – ACRS reports on nuclear accidents caused by Fire Protection Systems when it was discovered that Nuclear Power Plants are not waterproof and the testing of the equipment caused fires that resulted in Reactor shut downs.

1995

2004

2010

2011

2011 Nuclear Radiation Maps of Treasure Island Housing made by the Navy

2015

2018

2019

  • 90 REMS of Nuclear Radiation Per Year at Treasure Island – the Spreadsheet and the laws UPDATE – Radium objects found in the top 10 inches of soil under the housing at Treasure Island in 2007 were placed in metal boxes and reburied and later dug up between 2015 to 2018. Instead of removing the objects when they found them, the Navy decided to bury them and thus exposed everyone to the radiation for 11 years. When they removed the radioactive objects from the boxes, they placed them on slabs of concrete in the open air to dry them as they were soaked in the water table, thus directly exposing everyone to the radiation. In 2021 they are finding other objects mixed in with munitons including a Japanese mortar shell which they are detonating on the site thus further exposing the residents to the radiation. One of the is 30 REMS per year.

2020

  • TI- City of San Francisco application to Harass and Kill take Marine Mammals to build Ferry Pier on Treasure Island
    Harbor seal, California sea lion, bottlenose dolphin and Harbor porpoise spatially co-occur with the activity to the degree that take is reasonably likely to occur, and we are authorizing take of these species. For gray whale, northern fur seal and northern elephant seal, occurrence is such that take is possible, and we are also authorizing take of these species. All species that could potentially occur in the proposed survey areas are included in San Francisco’s IHA application (see application, Table 2). Humpback whales could potentially occur in the area. However the spatial and temporal occurrence of this species is very rare, the species is readily observed, and the applicant would shut down pie driving if humpback whales enter the project area. Thus take is not expected to occur, and they are not discussed further.

2021