“What does John want us to do?” I asked.
“Just what we’re doing,” Ed replied, “I’m thinking there are more Navy ships out there than just the submarines, and they don’t want anyone to know.”
“You think the President knows about the other Navy ships?” I asked.
“I’m sure he does,” Ed replied, “but after the Navy submarines didn’t do anything regarding the President’s orders and Saltzman’s arrival here with John, I think it’s a whole new ball game.”
The greatest problem we now had was the radiation from the country’s 104 commercial nuclear reactors, spread out over 64 power plant sites. John’s survey results indicated that 54 of the reactor vessels sustained no structural damage that could be seen from the outside, and another 40 had sustained minor damage. That left 10 reactors with an unknown amount of internal damage.
Once Ralph had electrical power in his factory, construction of the next generator moved rapidly. A tall lanky man strolled into Ralph’s shop.
“Guys, this is Hank Ashton,” Ralph said. “He was the supervisor at the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant complex just west of here. He’s been out to the plant. There is no direct damage to the reactor building. The three reactors were all shut down when the meteor storm started. The radiation is coming from the rods in the cooling pools, which boiled dry after the auxiliary generators either ran out of fuel or were damaged by meteorites. He thinks if we can power up the cooling pumps, we can stop the radiation and recover the power plants.
“How much electrical power will that take?” I asked.
“Twenty kilowatts,” Hank replied.
I looked at Ralph.
“Already under construction,” Ralph replied. “John’s on board. All of the nuclear power plants have the same kind of cooling system for the fuel rods. If we can recover one plant, we can recover them all.”
“And stop the radiation hazard to the people,” I replied.
“Exactly,” Hank said.
“How high is the radiation at the plant?”
“With a full radiation suit, fifteen minutes maximum one time exposure,” Hank replied.
“Is that enough time to hook up wires to the cooling pumps?” I asked.
“Depending on the damage inside the building, it should work. Worst case, we have three or four people lined up and we work in shifts.”
“And how far away from the building will we have to be without radiation suits?” I asked.
“Quarter of a mile,” Hank said, “depending on the wind direction.”
“Swell,” I said, “now all we have to do is come up with a half mile of wire.”
“You have any idea how much wire is lying on the ground out there after the meteor storm?” Ralph asked. “Half a mile is nothin’.”
“So how many radiation suits do we have?” I asked.
“Well,” Hank said, “that’s the rub. The radiation suits are all stored at the power plant.”
“And someone has to expose himselve to lethal radiation in order to get the suits?” I asked.
“That’s kind of the deal,” Hank said. “We actually have several volunteers.”
“You checked all of the first responder facilities for a suit?” I asked.
“Yep,” Hank said, “no suits.”
“Any universities with nuclear energy departments?” I asked.
Hank had a startled look on his face. “There’s one,” he said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Ralph?” I said.
“I’m on it,” he replied. “It’ll take a couple of days to get there and back on a bicycle, if it hasn’t been destroyed in the fire.”
CHAPTER 29
The guy we sent out to the university hadn’t returned by the time the generator was ready. We slowly moved the generator out to the Palo Verde site. Even with a bicycle pulling the modified trailer it took two days to make the journey. We set up on the north side of the power plant and uncoiled the wire. Hank had a whole crew of people there to help. Dave Saltzman stood back observing. He was an officer on a nuclear submarine. He had to know what Jason was facing.
Jason, the volunteer picked to go into the radiation and retrieve the suits, sat on a rock, staring at the ground. I had learned he was only twenty two years old and had lost his entire family and his fiancé in the meteor storm. He had been suffering from severe depression ever since. He didn’t really want to die, but going on was such a struggle that he had decided that doing something heroic to save others might just make all the emotional pain and struggling worthwhile.
“If I run the whole time, will that make a difference?” Jason asked.
Hank shook his head. “Sixty seconds at the radiation levels inside the plant and you’re over the lethal limit.”
“How long before I start getting sick?”
Hank fidgeted and glanced around before looking Jason straight in the eyes. “Eight to twelve hours.”
“So I could walk in and out and still be able to carry the suits?”
“Yes,” Hank said. “You won’t feel anything at first.”
Jason took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. “And when I get sick, what then?”
Hank lowered his head. “We’ll do everything we can to help,” he said, “but it’s not a good way to die.”
“Okay,” Jason said, “I’ll see you in a little while.”
He stood up and started walking toward the plant. I had that anxious feeling in my heart again. Something was happening. I thought it was over the fact that someone was giving up his life to help a larger cause, but that didn’t feel right, either. I looked at the road. There, in the distance, something was moving. It was too far away to make out exactly what it was, but something inside me knew. Jason was about to open the door to the plant. He had his hand on the door handle when he looked back at us one last time.
“Jason!” I yelled. I waved my arm, motioning him to come back.
“What is it?” he asked as he got back to us.
“Just wait,” I said. “Something’s changing; I can feel it.”
Jason looked at me and then over to Hank. Hank shrugged his shoulders. I turned to the road and pointed.
We watched as a bicycle rider slowly came into view. He was waving one arm in the air as he rode. “Am I in time?” he asked as he arrived. “I rode all of yesterday and all night long to get here. Has anyone gone in there yet?”
“No,” I replied. “Jason, here, was just on his way in when I stopped him.”
“Good,” he said breathing hard. “We found a suit. It was buried in the collapsed building. It took us three days of digging to find it.” He dug the suit out of his backpack. “Here.”
Jason looked at the suit with tears in his eyes. “Thanks, man.” Jason said as he took the suit.
Hank checked the suit out. “It’s an older model,” he said, “it’ll be good for only about five minutes inside the plant, but that should be enough time for Jason to get in and out.”
Jason turned to me. “How did you know?” he asked.
“Just a hunch,” I said.
Jason looked at me for a long moment. “Right,” he said. “Thank you.”
Hank helped Jason into the suit and Jason walked quickly into the plant.
Three minutes later, he emerged carrying a dozen radiation suits.
Hank’s crew suited up and started pulling the wire toward the plant. They were inside less than ten minutes when they emerged, trotting back to our position.
“We’re all hooked up and the switches are all on,” the crew leader reported.
We attached the wires to the generator and started to rotate the crank. The generator started to spin on its own. Hank measured the voltage and current coming off the generator.
“Looks good,” he said. “It’s going to take two hours to fill the pool. I’ll go in and take some measurements of the radiation then.”