Margaret (SP fan) Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Erasmus B Dragon" --
> As a member of the GGRM who spent some time at
> the museum's Hunter''s Point Naval Shipyard site,
> I am
> very interested in this subject. Do you have any
> details
> and reliable sources you can cite to further
> enlighten us
> about the dangers people who spent some time at
> Hunters
> Point Naval Shipyard were exposed to? BTW, this
> includes
> the many artists who had studios in various
> buildings there.
>
> I had also heard that the big FileSafe building
> had fairly high
> levels of some kind of radiation in it. Does
> anyone know if
> this is true?
>
> I am looking forward to any good info anyone can
> supply on
> this important subject.

Start Here:
EPA SUPERFUND SITE OVERVIEW, HUNTERS POINT NAVAL SHIPYARD

"From 1945 until 1974, the Navy predominantly used the shipyard as a naval submarine and ship repair facility. At the height of operations, approximately 8,000 civilian workers were employed at the Shipyard. In addition to serving as a repair facility, the Shipyard was also the site of the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) from 1948 to 1969. The purposes of the NRDL included radiological decontamination of ships exposed to atomic weapons testing as well as research and experiments on radiological decontamination, the effect of radiation on living organisms, and the effects of radiation on materials."

"At many locations throughout the Shipyard, groundwater, bay sediments, and soil are contaminated with petroleum fuels, pesticides, heavy metals (such as lead and zinc), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene, vinyl chloride and carbon tetrachloride. Much of the soil at the Shipyard originated from grading and flattening the nearby hills containing rock and soil known as Serpentinite. Serpentinite rock contains naturally occurring asbestos and metals such as iron, nickel, zinc, and manganese. Likely due to the activities of the NRDL, radionuclides such as Radium-226, Cesium-137, and Strontium-90 have been detected in low concentrations in soil and inside stormdrains at the Shipyard.

Risks primarily arise when people accidentally ingest or come in direct contact with contaminated soils, dust, sediments, surface water, or groundwater. Another important risk comes from VOCs gases evaporating from underground VOC-contaminated soil and groundwater. These VOC gases can migrate and accumulate inside buildings where they can be inhaled."

I would consider the above an understatement and only the tip of the iceberg.
FWIW 'Little Boy', the atomic bomb dropped on Japan was loaded onto a ship here among others... Several early nuclear reactor operated ships were decommissioned here also.