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Uncle Joe

(58,782 posts)
Wed May 15, 2024, 12:32 PM May 15

A nuclear reactor was melting down. Jimmy Carter came to the rescue.



As a 28-year-old Navy lieutenant, Carter was one of the few people on the planet authorized to go inside a damaged nuclear reactor

Lt. Jimmy Carter, center top, in the main control room of submarine USS K-1 in 1952. (U.S. Navy)

The world was in the grip of the Cold War in 1952 when a nuclear reactor began melting down.

That reactor, located at Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, had suffered an explosion on Dec. 12. Radioactive material had escaped into the atmosphere, and millions of gallons of radioactive water flooded into the reactor’s basement. Thankfully, no one was injured, but the Canadians needed help to disassemble the reactor’s damaged core.

The United States sent 28-year-old Jimmy Carter.

(snip)

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter on their wedding day in 1946. (The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum)

In one minute and 29 seconds, Carter had absorbed the maximum amount of radiation a human can withstand in a year.

(snip)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/02/20/jimmy-carter-nuclear-reactor-navy/


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A nuclear reactor was melting down. Jimmy Carter came to the rescue. (Original Post) Uncle Joe May 15 OP
What a wedding photo! bucolic_frolic May 15 #1
I highly recommend his autobiography "A Full Life: Reflections at 90" Rhiannon12866 May 16 #2

bucolic_frolic

(43,876 posts)
1. What a wedding photo!
Wed May 15, 2024, 12:43 PM
May 15

And what a Fairy Tale life! As patriotic as Eisenhower, truly traditional values, always doing his best for America.

Rhiannon12866

(208,549 posts)
2. I highly recommend his autobiography "A Full Life: Reflections at 90"
Thu May 16, 2024, 07:42 AM
May 16

He really has led a fascinating life, early life in rural Georgia, graduated from Annapolis, his brilliant career in the Navy which he gave up when his father died to run the family farm, his time on the school board when he attempted to get better conditions and books for segregated schools, his first run for public office when he uncovered cheating - I have it on disc, read by the author, and I don't think he even got to his run for president until disc #5.

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