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Navy tries to ease worry over sub nuke leak

The Navy continued trying to tamp down worry across the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday by telling people there was no risk from the radiation leaked for months by a nuclear-powered attack submarine.

The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine Houston, commissioned in 1982, began discharging small amounts of radioactive water around five months ago, according to reports, prompting worries about the boat’s port calls in Guam, Japan and its return to port in Pearl Harbor, where the leak was discovered in late July.

A preliminary environmental survey found no elevated radiation levels in the waters off Guam attributable to a visit in May and June from the Houston, according to a letter from the Navy to Guam Gov. Felix Camacho.

Likewise, commanders in Japan were trying to calm public worries over the port visit of another nuclear-powered Los Angeles-class attack sub, the La Jolla, just a few days after Japanese authorities revealed the Navy had alerted them about the Houston’s leak. According to local news reports, government officials in Japan were upset that they learned about the radiation worries from a report on CNN, rather than having been told by the U.S. Navy or the Japanese foreign ministry.

The La Jolla’s visit to Naval Base Sasebo had already been scheduled as part of its Western Pacific deployment.

Anti-military activists on Guam demonstrated outside the naval station and a local legislator introduced a bill that would require continuous radioactive monitoring in the island’s port.

In Japan, anti-nuclear activists — already upset that the nuclear-powered carrier George Washington is arriving this fall as the new forward-deployed 7th Fleet carrier — cited the case of the Houston as another reason to worry about the presence of nuclear-powered ships.

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