Old Nike Sites safe radioactively?
> Hello Ed, > > Do you know if a resident near an abandoned nike missile site needs to worry > at all about radiation? > > Thank you for your help. > > J In a word – NO, not from Nike related activities or mistakes. You don’t specify a) which Nike site b) which part of a site however, a) There were no nuclear “accidents” at any Nike site. see http://ed-thelen.org/history.html#Accidents (Radiation should be same as “background” at any Nike site unless something odd has happened since closing.) b) There was a radioactive substance in the ATR devices (one per radar system except the HIPAR) i.e. One each in the TTR, MTR, LOPAR, … (They were used to help keep the transmitter power from damaging the first part of the receiver.) There was a strict rule that if you received one, you had to return one. We did not have spares, they did not seem to fail in service. We were told the ATRhad about the same radioactive power as in a home smoke detector, but it was a lot better protected in a tough
