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Railroad
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KHot Materials
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Radiation Effects
Laboratory
Etowah River
Nuclear Support
PAGE 2A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. MARCH 2. 2023
Documents, web sites tell the rise and fall of the
nuclear airplane lab in Dawson Forest
House
Laboratory
Overhead map of the site. While the remains of some
buildings are still visible it is fenced off with strong warnings
about entering.
photo/from book Atomic Adventures
A man operates the controls from the underground main floor.
By Chris Keldt
Contributing Writer
During the Cold War,
Lockheed Martin partnered
with the Air Force to build a
remote secret laboratory in
the middle of a 10,000-plus
acre wilderness in Dawson
County, near the Amicalola
River, a few miles east of
Pickens County on Highway
53.
The land was purchased
by Lockheed from a local
landowner named Roscoe
Tucker who had acquired
large tracts of land in the
1930s. In 1957, Lockheed
deeded the land to the gov
ernment and together they
built a nuclear testing facility.
The Georgia Nuclear Aircraft
Laboratory (GNAL), also
known as Air Force Post 67
(AFP-67), was bom.
Originally, the site was in
tended on testing the feasibil
ity of a nuclear-powered
aircraft. It was the only site in
the United States designed to
test the effects of radiation in
the open air. In order to ac
complish this, several im
pressive buildings and
support facilities were built.
According to acclaimed
nuclear engineer and author
James Mahaffey, in his book
Atomic Adventures (hereafter
referred to as A.A.)(1),
among them was the Radia
tion Effects Facility (REF), a
stainless steel shell that sur
rounded an underground 10
Megawatt reactor. The reac
tor was located inside a 30-
foot-deep vertical concrete
shaft filled with cooling
water. In the Reactor Build
ing, items could be irradiated
with up to 2,000,000 curies
of gamma radiation.
There was an under
ground operations room 30
feet southwest of the reactor.
The top floor of the building
was five feet below ground.
In order to access the opera
tions room, one would travel
a 660-foot-long tunnel under
ground in a moving cart. The
operations building was 88' x
100' and three levels high.
In the underground build
ings, pumps were installed to
keep water from flooding the
rooms because of the water
table.
A 2.5-mile-long railroad
track would allow aluminum
cars to transport materials
from the REF over the
Etowah River to the hot cell
building. The hot cell build
ing was a separate stainless-
steel building with an interior
concrete building that housed
four hot cells. The concrete
walls were six-feet thick.
Tests were done here on
items assembled on a series
of rail cars manipulated by
mechanical arms and viewed
through protective glass.
Near the entrance of the
facility, the Nuclear Support
Facility (NSF) - Administra
tion and laboratory buildings
were housed. Just northeast
of the admin buildings was a
gravity-fed water cooling
tower. To the northwest of
the admin complex, was a
meteorological tower.
Also present was a 320-
foot aircraft warning tower.
In the far Northeast comer
of the GNAL property, the
town, Maryland for their par
quet flooring.
There are semi-conflict-
ing accounts on "who" pro
vided the flooring.
Gammapar is an early brand
of gamma-induced flooring
that is thought to be the prod
uct provider. Lockheed Mar
tin referred to their product
as "Lockwood". Regardless
of who provided the flooring,
the AEC headquarters, as
well as the original flooring
of the Kansas City Interna
tional Airport, both had
Gammapar (gamma parquet)
floors installed in the early
70s. Nydree Flooring (3)
In 1970, Lockheed de
cided it was no longer prof
itable to be involved in their
Dawson County site. In April
1971, they started disman
tling the facilities, and rail
road tracks, and even
dynamiting the trestles. The
land was sold to the City of
Atlanta in 1972 in plans to
build a second airport. Those
plans have since fallen apart,
as have plans to build a
2,000-acre lake and reservoir.
In 1975, the City of At
lanta tasked the DNR with
watching over the Dawson
Forest City of Atlanta Tract.
Since 1977, testing of the
property for radiation has
routinely happened. Today,
the background radiation of
the site is harmless.
Today, the remains of
many of the former founda
tions and buildings may still
be seen. Of the over 10,000
acres of the tract, only 3 acres
are fenced in and have re
stricted access.
While on-site, I found a
laminated message warning
trespassers against entering
restricted areas. Regardless
many of the fenced areas had
newly added sections to re
pair recent vandalism.
Footnote: I was very sur
prised to learn that Wemher
Von Braun, the former Nazi
photo/purchased by author
Aerial view of Ga. Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory during
its operation at nearby Dawson Forest.
photo/ Ga. EPD
Regular monitoring for radiation at the site of the nu
clear reactor has continued since it closed in 1977.
rocket scientist: Father of
space travel, Father of
Rocket Science, and Father
of the American Lunar Pro
gram, had visited the site in
1963 (A.A. pg.67).
After World War II, Von
Braun immigrated to the
United States along with
1,600 other scientists as part
of Operation Paper Clip. He
was the Chief Architect of
the Saturn V rocket that pro
pelled the Apollo spacecraft
to the moon. Wikipedia page
on W.V.B. (4)
References
(1) Atomic Adventures,
James Mahaffey (2017)
(2) National Historic Regis
ter of Places, Atomic Energy
Commission, Germantown,
MD
https://npgallery.nps.gov/Get
Asset/a723cd44-147f-467d-
9f88-4f2d53fa530a
(3) Nydree Flooring
https://www.designguide.co
m/profileDetail.aspx?lid=58
736
(4) Wemher Von Braun
Wikipedia page
photo/GSU Digital Collection
Testing the effects of radiation on trees in the early
1960s.
Shield Defense Facility
(SDF) was where a hanging
reactor was supposed to be. It
was purchased but never in
stalled. There were also two
pump houses, one on the
eastern flank of the Etowah,
and the other on the north
western side of the Etowah
near the SDF.
The test area of the prop
erty was surrounded by a
fence that marked the
perimeter of where one
would die had they scaled it
during a test. Hence it was
known as the lethal fence.
Testing quickly revealed
that a nuclear-powered air
craft would not be feasible.
Apart from the complications
that may be caused by a crash
or downed plane, other issues
occurred when a plane was
near high radiation levels.
Among them, the tires
would turn to liquid, the hy
draulic fluid would become a
chewing gum-like substance,
and solid-state electronic cir
cuitry would fail.
Tests were also carried out
on the environment. In one
such test, every living thing
within 1,000 feet of the reac
tor died. In another, they dis
covered that small animals
would become what the sci
entists would describe as "in
stant taxidermy."
All of the bacteria on the
animals would die (along
with the animal), thereby
slowing down the decompo
sition process. The largest
animal tested was a mule. It
died instantly.
In 1961, at the advice of
the Secretary of Defense,
The Kennedy Administration
killed the program and Lock
heed began looking for other
contracts to justify keeping
the site active.
By 1964, Lockheed was
doing contract work conduct
ing tests on irradiated super
conductors. Not long after, in
1965, the radiation-induced
polymerization of wood
products became popular.
Lockheed began infusing
wood with plastics by irradi
ating them with gamma rays.
The guys at Lockheed called
it "Lockwood" (A.A. p.67)
and sent a shipment to the
Atomic Energy Commission
Headquarters in German-
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