Inside the Tahila Tom Bower was preparing to dive.
They had located the source of nuclear radiation leaking into the Columbia River. It was entering from some sort of subterranean river that fed into the Columbia through a large opening. The question was, given that Trinidad was more than forty miles from the Hanford Site, where was the nuclear waste coming from, and more importantly, why had it only just started to leak into the river now.
Genevieve stared at Tom. Her face set hard. “Tell me again, why do you need to dive into a nuclear waste filled river?”
Tom said, “Because the tunnel’s too long for an ROV to do the job.”
“Right. Aren’t you worried about the radiation levels?”
“No.” Tom paused. “Yes. But it should be all right. I mean, nuclear divers do this sort of stuff for years. It should be fine. Besides, there’s still only relatively low levels of spent nuclear material inside the subterranean river.”
“As opposed to?”
Tom said, “Nuclear divers, who work in nuclear power plants, water cooling towers, and spent nuclear fuel pools. They’re often compared to the SCUBA equivalent of HAZMAT workers, with the difference being their exposure to radiation instead of air borne contaminant.”
“How do they make it safe?” Guinevere asked.
“Their dive suits are specifically built for it.”
“And the Tahila carries these?”
“Yeah. Two of them to be exact.”
Genevieve said, “Great. Where’s the second suit. I’ll go get set up now.”
Tom frowned. “No way. You’re not diving with me.”
“Why not?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I’m about to dive into a subterranean tunnel leaking spent nuclear waste.”
The muscles of Genevieve’s face hardened. Her piercing blue eyes met his. “I thought you said it’s safe!”
“I lied! There’s nothing safe about diving in nuclear radiation… I don’t care how often nuclear divers do it.”
That sealed it for Genevieve. She called out to Veyron. “Hey Veyron, can you find me the second nuclear dive suit. I’m going with Tom to make sure he doesn’t do anything especially stupid.”
Veyron walked into the dive room. He exchanged a glance with Tom, trying to determine who he was more frightened of in this situation, but said nothing.
Tom broke first. “It’s okay, Veyron. You’d better get the second nuclear dive suit. I’ve seen Genevieve like this. I’m not going to be able to talk her out of it.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Tom zipped up the outer section of his nuclear dive suit. It was made of vulcanized rubber, which was designed to limit the exposure to nuclear contamination, was easily cleaned, and mostly waterproof. The suit was composed of three separate compartments. The first was basically a dry suit. The second a water-cooling suit, designed to maintain a survivable temperature inside — more useful in the hot waters of a nuclear power plant — and the third layer is the heavy protection layer.
At this point, Veyron and Elise helped Tom and Genevieve don their two layers of rubber gloves, which attached to the hard cuffs on the dry suit. This allowed the diver to have dexterity while limiting the amount of contamination to their hands, especially if the outer layer happens to rip. Next, their external antenna was attached to their diving harness. The antenna was designed to automatically transmit to the dive room on board the Tahila, where Veyron and Elise could verify all dosimetry and make sure that neither of them was inadvertently becoming radioactive in the process.
Last was their heavy Desco air hat. It was the diving helmet of choice for nuclear divers, because its positive pressure free flow, and smooth cleanable surface, worked safely in the radioactive environment.
Tom and Genevieve waited while Veyron checked each of them individually.
Veyron said, “All right. You’re both good to go. I’ve set up the sea scooters. You have ninety minutes of propulsion and four hours of air supply. I don’t need to tell either of you that you don’t want to surpass either of those times while you’re down there. It’s one thing to go cave diving, but it’s a whole other world of crazy to add in nuclear radiation while you’re at it.”
Tom said, “I know the risks.”
Veyron turned to Genevieve. “What about you?”
Genevieve made a defiant smile. “I know the risks. That’s why I’m here. To make sure Tom doesn’t get himself killed in the process.”
Veyron nodded. “All right. I’ll monitor your radiation levels from up here, and let you know if you’re getting into trouble. Good luck.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Tom and Genevieve sank to a depth of forty feet.
Their powerful headlights sent parallel beams of almost blue light through the clear waters of the Columbia River, like some sort of futuristic spacecraft.
He stared at the entrance of the subterranean river. It was roughly ten feet high, but twenty wide, and started at a depth of forty feet. According to early assessments taken by the Tahila, it drained into the Columbia River at a rate of just half a knot per hour. Slow, but not insignificant, given that they now had to swim against that current.
Tom asked, “How are you doing, Genevieve?”
“Never better,” she replied. “You never cease to take me to some lovely places, you know that?”
He squeezed her hand through the thick rubber gloves. “Genevieve…”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for coming.”
“You’re welcome.” She smiled. Even through the hard-coated faceplate of the Desco air hat, Genevieve was visually stunning. Her intensely blue eyes radiated like stars. Her face set with determination, confidence, and unwavering strength. “Let’s go do this thing.”
“Agreed.”
Tom set the buoyancy to neutral on his RS1 military grade sea scooter. It was basically an underwater motorcycle, only instead of being driven by a turning rear wheel, it used a forward positioned electric propulsion blade.
Attached to the sea scooter was an AMP 100.
The AMP-100 provides real-time, remote radiation monitoring for gamma and X-ray. Local readout of the hand-held meter functions as a portable survey instrument. It was also very useful for acquiring dose rates on items that might be found on the bottom. Due to the possibility of irradiated items, this will tell the diver if that item can be picked up or just pushed off to the side.
He checked the reading. The device measured radiation in Rads.
The reading was 200.
It was a low radiation level, high enough to cause symptoms on exposure to humans but far from being immediately lethal.
Tom switched on the main power to the sea scooter. Its dashboard lit up. Positioned at the front of the sea scooter was a sonar array, which projected a detailed bathymetric map of the seafloor and surrounding submerged tunnels ahead. It also self-projected a reciprocal course, in the event that they become lost underground and underwater.
He used his right thumb to depress the speed rate button, and the little propeller began to spin with a whine.
Genevieve gave him a ten second head start and then followed from behind.
Tom’s headlight, positioned at the front of the sea scooter next to the sonar transducer, flicked light off the walls of the tunnel. It was as dark as any cave Tom had ever explored, but the water was clear, its visibility perfect.
The cave system turned left, before rising upward, where the subterranean river had once punched a hole through the softer limestone.
Inside the new section, the passage became narrow. No longer ten feet by twenty feet, the subterranean river took on the specific image of a narrow tunnel. It was big enough to drive the sea scooter, but they would have trouble turning it around if they needed to. It would be doable, but difficult in the narrow confines.