[John Rogers]

As Sammy asked "How many...….", well I did refueling (1A and 1B) on the Enterprise CVA(N) 65 in 1969, USS Bainbridge CGN 25, USS Truxtun CGN 35 and TWICE at the D1G training plant West of Saratoga Springs NY. In all cases I got to do the final inspection before the gasket was laid onto the pressure vessel to insure the 4 "scratches" were clear across the whole surface and then the cover would be lowered into place. In those D1G type reactor cores the fuel was put in, one fuel assembly + rod at a time until the core was complete. Then cover installed, omega seal welded then nuts and washers installed and torqued.


A scary thing was stretching those studs some amount (forget how much) then turning the nut xx degrees and keep doing until xxx torque. They would make all sorts of noises.
At the second refueling in NY one of G.E.'s warehouse guys marked a crate wrong and half way through fuel insertion things jammed badly. We had a couple days of investigation then pulling the wrong fuel cell into wet storage and the correct items installed!


My Oncologist thinks the radiation I received might have a lot to do with the cancer I have been fighting now for a year? 16 REM's worth is quite a lot I guess even though the Navy said the quarterly doses were okay?