Did the 39th president of the United States save the Capital city of Canada from nuclear destruction?
If you spend a lot of time on Twitter, you may have seen a recent tweet from Professor Jeff Lundeen of the University of Ottawa, hailing an unlikely hero of Canada’s capital city… former U.S. President Jimmy Carter?
Do you remember the world’s very first nuclear meltdown? That time the US President, an expert in nuclear physics, heroically lowered himself into the reactor and saved Ottawa, Canada’s capital?
— Jeff Lundeen (@LundeenOttawa) December 15, 2021
Sounds like schlocky action movie, but it actually happened! pic.twitter.com/LtAQYC79QZ
In 1952, Canada’s premier nuclear research reactor, called NRX, underwent a meltdown mainly due to several human errors and miscommunications, with additional mechanical errors. The reactor staff and research physicists present identified and corrected the original errors within minutes, but part of the nuclear fuel began to melt.
Although the accident was halted before a full meltdown occurred, the reactor remained in a damaged state, and it was clear that the cleanup effort would require a significant number of volunteers. The radiation levels in the reactor were high enough that any individual person would only be allowed to enter the reactor area for a short time, to limit their individual radiation dose.
A decision was made by the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), who owned the reactor, to ask the United States Navy for help in cleaning up the damage, in addition to the AECL staff and some Canadian military personnel. Enter our hero: then-Lieutenant James E. Carter was assigned to lead one of the cleanup teams. It was the early days of the U.S. Navy nuclear program, and Lieutenant Carter had been stationed at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Schenectady, New York. He had taken a reactor technology and a nuclear physics course at Union College, giving him a background in nuclear technology to help in his duty of preparing enlisted men to eventually operate the USS Seawolf (SSN575).
In Jimmy Carter’s biography, Why Not the Best? he describes how a mock-up of the reactor was built on a nearby tennis court, so each three-person team could practice their tasks before executing them on the actual facility. Each person, including President Carter, could only spend about 90 seconds in the reactor. Therefore, while he played an important role, he was also just one of the hundreds of volunteers who participated in the reactor dismantling.
Some tweets, and even a few news articles, have stated that the reactor would have fully melted down (beyond the partial meltdown that had already occurred) without the actions of Jimmy Carter, thus endangering the city of Ottawa. I have yet to find any historical paper or source to back up this claim, the reactor was long since under control by the time dismantling occurred. Ottawa is also 180 km (more than 110 miles) outside Chalk River, or a nearly 2-hour drive away. This claim appears to be pure hyperbole.
The cleanup process was so successful that only 14 months after it began, the reactor was rebuilt and running again, this time operating at 40 megawatts as opposed to 10 before the accident. A follow-up study of the AECL employees involved with the clean-up found no unusual pattern of mortality, and concluded that participating in the reactor cleanup process, “did not have a harmful effect on the health of those involved.”
To recap:
Did future-President Jimmy Carter prevent a nuclear meltdown? No, it had already happened. The damaged reactor was being dismantled so that it could be rebuilt.
Did he single-handedly save the effort? No, but he led one of the cleanup teams from the US Navy. He also personally participated in an approximately 90-second shift inside the reactor, the same as hundreds of other volunteers, during dismantling.
Tl;dr: President Jimmy Carter deserves to be commended for his role in cleaning up the world’s first nuclear meltdown. He acted bravely in volunteering for a shift inside the high-radiation environment as part of a three-man team. He did not prevent a nuclear meltdown or single-handedly save the nearby(ish) Ottowa from nuclear destruction.
Sources and recommended readings:
The accident to the NRX reactor on December 12, 1952, reported by W.B. Lewis of the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (1953)
The Chalk River Accident in 1952, presentation by William G. Cross of the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (1980)
The NRX Incident, was posted by Peter Jedicke on the Canadian Nuclear Society website and adapted from a course at Fanshawe College. (1989)
Why Not the Best?: The First Fifty Years by Jimmy Carter (1996) (Specifically, Chapter Five. “Why Not the Best?”)
Deep Waters: The Ottawa River and Canada’s Nuclear Adventure by Kim Krenz (2004)
Canada Enters the Nuclear Age: A Technical History of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited As Seen from Its Research Laboratories by D. G. Hurst, and E. Critoph (1997)
Follow-Up of CRNL Employees Involved in the NRX Reactor Clean-Up, (AECL-7760), Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories, by Werner, M.M.; Myers, D.K.; and Morrison, D.P. of the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., C (1982)
Jimmy Carter’s Naval Service, The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum
