--- title: "Jimmy Carter Once Lowered Himself Into a Nuclear Reactor After a Partial Meltdown" description: "Nearly 75 years ago, a youthful Jimmy Carter was brought in during the world's first nuclear reactor meltdown to lead a toxic cleanup crew." date: "2025-01-11" modified: "2025-01-11" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/jimmy-carter-nuclear-reactor" categories: - "Energy" - "Nuclear Fusion" - "Renewable Energy" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "jimmy carter" - "nuclear meltdown" - "nuclear reactor" - "the digest" --- # Jimmy Carter Once Lowered Himself Into a Nuclear Reactor After a Partial Meltdown ![]() *\Image: Diana Walker/Getty Images\* ## Under-Reacting As his national funeral unfolds, you've probably heard tales of the good deeds of former president Jimmy Carter. One story that's gotten surprisingly little attention, though: nearly three-quarters of a century ago, a youthful Carter was brought in during [the world's first nuclear reactor meltdown]() to lead a toxic cleanup crew, where he led the charge into the hazardous scene. As [*Fox 5 Atlanta* recounts](), the Georgia-born late president — who died on December 29 at the ripe old age of 100 — was just 28 years old when he was brought in to help clean up nuclear waste at an NRX research reactor in Chalk River, Canada. During a cold December day in 1952, the reactor located just a few hours away from the Canadian capital of Ottawa suffered a partial meltdown when some of its fuel rods burst, *Fox 5* notes. As a result, more than a million gallons of radioactive water flooded to the facility's basement — and somebody with expertise was needed to clean it up. As it turned out, Carter was the man for the job. ## Bottom of Everything After working as a Naval submarine officer, the young military man had just begun his tenure at the US Atomic Energy Commission when the meltdown occurred. As he [told *CNN* back in 2011](), Carter was at the time "one of the few people in the world who had clearance to go into a nuclear power plant." Carter and a team of 22 men were sent in to do the cleanup, and the officer who'd grown up on a peanut farm outside of Atlanta was himself lowered into the depths of the Canadian reactor. Despite the danger, the late president told *CNN*'s Arthur Milnes that the incident was "a very exciting time for me." Still, exposure to the waste had lasting effects on Carter. "We were fairly well instructed then on what nuclear power was, but for about six months after that I had radioactivity in my urine," he told *CNN*. "They let us get probably a thousand times more radiation than they would now. It was in the early stages, and they didn't know." The cleanup was a success, and the Chalk River reactor was reopened two years later. Carter's career in the military, however, ended less than a year after the incident in 1953, when he was honorably discharged from the Navy and began running his family's peanut farm. **More on disasters:** [*NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab Evacuated as Los Angeles Burns*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()