USS LONG BEACH (CGN 9)

Written By:  Andrew Eide

In 1974, while serving on Active Duty in the United States Navy, I was assigned to the Staff of the Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Group ONE. When we made a deployment with our ships assigned to our Group Staff, we would “embark” on one of the ships. By the term “embarking” it means we are guests on the ship and not part of the ship’s crew.

One of the ships we embarked upon during our service in the Vietnam was the USS LONG BEACH (CGN 9) which was one of the nuclear powered ships the United States Navy had at that time.

The USS LONG BEACH was the first nuclear powered surface warship in the world and the first large combatant ship of the United States Navy with its main battery of weapons consisting entirely of guided missiles.

The USS LONG BEACH was commissioned on September 9, 1961, which means when I was on board the ship with Cruiser-Destroyer Group ONE the ship was already 13 years old. The LONG BEACH was finally decommissioned on May 1, 1995, after having served the United States Navy for nearly 34 years.

USS LONG BEACH, the third ship in the Navy to bear the name, was the first nuclear powered surface warship in the world and the first large combatant in the US Navy with its main battery consisting entirely of guided missiles. She was also the first American cruiser since the end of World War II built entirely new from the keel up, and, when completed, boasted the highest bridge in the world. She was also the last warship to be fitted with teakwood decks.

I will relate two interesting incidents we had while serving on board the USS LONG BEACH (CGN 9).

The first is since the ship had a very large boxy superstructure this made the ship top-heavy. Even when anchored in the harbor in Hong Kong the ship would rock heavily, side-to-side, up to 20 degrees at a time. When underway the rocking of the ship was even more pronounced with 30 degrees being common.

The Admiral in charge of Cruiser-Destroyer Group ONE where I served was Admiral James D. Watkins who later became the Chief of Naval Personnel. During our time on board the LONG BEACH they were to undergo a major Nuclear Engineering inspection for continued certification of their propulsion plant.

During this inspection one of the things the Engineers needed to accomplish was to switch from Reactor Number 1 to Reactor Number 2 while underway. The concept is that you are to coordinate between the two Reactors to ensure that you take one Reactor off-line at the same instant you place the other Reactor on-line. The inspectors are under strict regulations that if you scram the Reactor, which basically means an EMERGENCY SHUT-DOWN procedures which causes the Reactor to shut down quickly without causing damage or release of radiation. The inspection criteria is if you scram the Reactor you immediately fail the inspection.

Well the Engineers scrammed the Reactor and we sat dead in the water for several hours until they could get both Reactors up and running and back online. Did the ship fail the Engineering Inspection? Nah! We had Vice Admiral James D. Watkins, who was the Commander of Cruiser-Destroyer Group ONE on board, and he didn’t allow that to happen to the LONG BEACH as his specialty in the United States Navy is Nuclear power.

San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant

Written By:  Andrew Eide

There is a nuclear power plant in San Onofre, California, that is easily visible from Interstate 5.

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has three generating units simply called Unit 1, Unit 2, and Unit 3. Unit 1 operated from 1968 to 1992 and Unit 2 started operation in 1983 and Unit 3 began operating in 1984. Although upgrades were made in 2009 and 2010 San Onofre was ordered to shut down. It was closed in Southern California Edison ceased all operations at San Onofre and official decommissioning procedures were put into place. The main reason for the shut down and decommissioning is that the plant was found to have premature wear on over 3,000 tubes in the replacement steam generators installed in 2010 and 2011. The California Senate Environment and Public Works Committee stated these defects are “unsafe and posted a danger to the eight million people living within 50 miles of the plant.”

However to close this blog I would like to make you laugh. When I first saw the San Onofre Nuclear Power Generation Plant my first thought was that the twin domes, with a point on top in the middle of the domes, reminded me of breasts.

Now that you have a smile on your face check back on our family blog as I have an upcoming article on one of the Nuclear powered ships I served on while on Active Duty in the United States Navy.

Nuclear Power

Written By:  Andrew Eide

Nuclear reactors are in use around the world mostly for the purpose of generating energy at a power plant.

Using general terms we can state that nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions that release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most frequently is then used in to transform water into steam to be sent through steam turbines to produce electricity in a nuclear power plant.

The term nuclear reactions includes nuclear fission, nuclear decay, and nuclear fusion. Currently the nuclear fission of elements in the actinide series of the Periodic Table produce the vast majority of nuclear energy in the direct service of humankind, with nuclear decay processes, primarily in the form of geothermal energy, and radioisotope thermoelectric generators, in niche used making up the rest.

The biggest problem I have is there is a group of people who adamantly hate the use of fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, to produce energy for us to use as they claim the pollution is too great. But then, when we build nuclear power plants, which are way cheaper to run and product way less pollution, these same people have a problem with the lower costs and less pollution.

I am for nuclear generated power to reduce costs with less pollution but I cannot wrap my mind around people who want lower costs and less pollution being against this form of energy also.