Jimmy Carter helped clean up the nuclear accident at the Chalk River in Canada

In a wide array of articles published by The New York Times this week following the death of former President Jimmy Carter, a piece of largely forgotten Canadian history has resurfaced.

The Times’ visual story of his life, told through a variety of objects, reveals how Mr. Carter came to help clean up a major nuclear accident near Ottawa in 1952.

(Reads: The Life of Jimmy Carter, in 17 Objects)

Among the 17 objects, photographed by Tony Sinicola and described by Bill Marsh, is a yellow certificate issued by New York State’s Knowles Atomic Energy Laboratory in 1953, declaring Mr. Carter an “atomic diver.”

He was a naval officer at the time of his receipt. Mr. Carter attended the U.S. Naval Academy from 1943 to 1946, on his way to becoming the first in his family to graduate from college, and served in the submarine fleet during World War II. Later, he participated in the development The country’s first nuclear-powered submarines; Knolls’ certificate was to complete his training.

But before that, Mr. Carter got a first-hand look at the enormous power of nuclear power in Canada.

On December 12, 1952, a series of errors and mechanical failure led to the partial collapse of the reactor core. NRX reactor At Chalk River Laboratories on the Ottawa River, about 180 kilometers northwest of the capital. This accident gave Canada the dubious distinction of hosting the world’s first nuclear reactor accident.

NRX had a capacity of 30 megawatts that day, powerful by the standards of its time (today the Bruce Power nuclear plant in Ontario produces 6,400 megawatts).

On the day of the accident, the reactor was shut down to check its cooling system. downstairs, Error lifted operator A few control rods that can reduce the chain reaction in the reactor and stop it completely if necessary.

This was quickly spotted, and a supervisor, based on some signal lights, believed he had lowered the rails back into place. But the lights were wrong: two or three of the rails were stuck and only partially returned to safety.

When the supervisor, who was still downstairs, telephoned the control room with directions to lower the rails, he also mixed up the numbers of buttons to press, exacerbating the problem.

The reactor’s production increased to about 100 megawatts.

This power surge lasted for only one minute and eight seconds before the reactor was brought back under control, but the damage was profound. The fuel rods have melted or exploded. The basement was filled with a million gallons of water and highly radioactive debris. The reactor building, which had large glass windows, was dangerously radioactive.

A 150-member U.S. Army contingent came to Chalk River to conduct the cleanup. Among them was Mr. Carter, who led a group of about a dozen Navy personnel from Knowles Laboratory. They were joined by 862 workers at the Chalk River site, 170 members of the Canadian military and 20 employees of companies that made parts of the reactor.

Morgan Brown, President Canadian Nuclear Heritage Preservation Societywhich runs a museum near the Chalk River, told me that the Americans had not come there to provide technical advice, as the NRX was designed in Montreal in a joint Canadian-British project. But they provided equipment that Canada lacked, such as CCTV, and gained experience and training for themselves in dealing with the unprecedented situation.

“American assistance has been greatly appreciated,” said Mr. Brown, who worked for decades at the Canadian Atomic Energy Corporation, which owns the NRX reactor, where he studied ways to prevent reactor disasters.

A progress report prepared a few months after the Chalk River accident shows that Lt. Carter, then 28, and his group worked on a “header” that fed cooling water from the river to the reactor, Brown said.

In interviews, Mr. Carter noted that his team used a scale model of the reactor to practice disassembly techniques in advance and worked in shifts to limit radiation exposure. A 1959 The film was produced by the American and Canadian governments It shows those experiences – and points out that standards for worker safety and radioactive waste disposal were far below current practices.

The NRX reactor continued to operate until 1992. The Chalk River accident remains the worst in Canadian history.

The worst nuclear power accident in the history of the United States, the partial collapse of a reactor in Three Mile Island In Pennsylvania in 1979, it would happen during Mr. Carter’s presidency. Days after the accident, he and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, He toured the factory “If we make a mistake, we all want to make a mistake in terms of extra precautions and extra safety,” he told residents.

(If you have not read it, I advise you to A comprehensive and reliable obituary for Mr. Carter By Peter Baker and Roy Reid.)

Across Canada

Ian Austin Reports on Canada for The Times, based in Ottawa. Originally from Windsor, Ontario, he has been covering Canadian politics, culture and people and reporting on the country for two decades.

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