Halibut Hangar

Originally Published August 02, 2008; Updated and Republished August 07, 2008:

Submarine USS Houston (SSN-713) leaked radioactive discharge into the ocean beginning in March 2008. The radioactive leakage is thought to be the result of a faulty valve. The Navy did not give specifics about the valve or the radioactive discharge, saying only the radioactivity was in the microcurie range. A microcurie1 is one millionth of a curie or 37 thousand decaying atoms per second.

USS Houston Underway

Web:

• UPDATED 08/21/2008 NavyTimes, City wants to know cause of leak from nuke sub. Japanese city of Sasebo has sent a petition to Tokyo urging it to obtain addition information on the cause of the submarine Houston's recent radiation leak.

  The petition also requests the Japanese government to require US nuclear submarines to adhere too additional preventative precautions when entering the port at Sasebo in the future.

• UPDATED 08/07/2008 USA, U.S. tells Japan submarine leaked radiation over 2 years. Navy says Houston began leaking radiation in June 2006—now reporting the radiation leakage was below detectable measurement limits used by the submarine.
• Japan warned of possible nuclear leak from US sub
• USS Houston (SSN 713), US Military Website

-----notes-----

1. Radioactive decay can be of three types, alpha; beta; and gamma and is measured using three different terms:

• Curie is concerned with the number of decays per unit time.
• Rad is concerned with the amount of energy (radiation) absorbed in 1 gram of matter from radiation.
• Rem is concerned with the amount of energy (radiation) absorbed, modified by the ability of the radiation to cause biological damage.

American submariners are routinely monitored, while on their submarine, for the number of "Rems" their body is absorbing per period of time.