Burton Island (AGB 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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H Y, Y --,.-. W. ,,....W,., C. Approximately 40 percent of all tonnage flown to the inland stations consists of fuel. The Navy is constantly trying to find ways of cutting down on this requirement: by reducing consumption on the spot, by preventing leaks, by tightening inventory, and by planning flights carefully to consume fewer flying hours in support of scientific programs. Yet to supply the new .Plateau Sta- tion, for instance, three 25,000-gallon fuel bladders had to be placed near the skiway at the South Pole. For the latest program in the Pensacola Mountains, the largest summer scientific party ever put into thefield in Antarc- tica, fuel had to be flown 1,200 miles from McMurdo. Sometimes it is so cold that the hoses break when they are coiled, like dry spaghetti. The bladders themselves are ordinarily used, in a normal climate, less than a year. On the ice, through necessity, they often serve for several years. They have a way of developing leaks, unseen, beneath the snow. Nevertheless, the bladders were, and are, a brilliant improvisation in a place where ordinary means of fuel storage did not exist. Above: The 55-gallon drums are part of the emergency cache at McMurdo. There are 73,410 of them. The tank holds 250,000 gallons, and a number of these huge wu- fers surround the station, high on the hillsides. They are readily convertible from Diesel Fuel Arctic, which is used for heating, to JP4, which powers the turbo-prop Her- cules. At rightare some of the Diesel-electric generators that provide power for the station.

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At left is Chief John Gannon, standing on an elevator of stainless steel, which is suspended by a l5-ton crane over a pool of brilliant water. He is removing one of the con- trol rod actuators in the heart of the nuclear reactor at McMurdo. The actual fuel elements are contained in the walls of about 740 stainless steel tubes, half an inch in diameter. ln case the power rises tooquickly, the reactor has llperiod protection from an automatic monitoring system, At ll0 percent, an alarm sounds, at ll5 the control rods are inserted at six inches per minute, at T20 the rods are put all the way down, in about 380 milli- seconds. Far below the surface of the water is a dolly that carries a hot or spent core into an adiacent tank where it can be stored until it cools off. These are two of the rare photo- graphs, by an outsider, of the reactor with the cover off. Before he could enter the Primary Building, the photog- rapher had to dress completely in white, put on special shoes, and carry a radiation-counter like a fountain pen. When he came out, he was inspected by a sensitive ma- chine. Rarely does a man go over one-sixth of his allowed quarterly dose, said Chief Jim Robertson, the senior electrician. The core, which is no larger than a single oil drum, replaces millions of gallons of Diesel fuel. lt lasts two years. 3g!' M3dn.... H 7