Decommissioned: After the War 1946-1969

Historical Exhibit

by Stacey Carter

DECOMMISSIONED: The History of Hunters Point Shipyard was curated by Stacey Carter at Building 101 at the HP shipyard, June 5 - August 2, 2025

Former USS Independence: Used in the 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll (Operation Crossroads), the Independence became radioactive and was later studied at Hunters Point. Shown here on public display for Navy Day, 1947.

Photo: courtesy: NARA – SF, Pacific Region

Hunters Point at the Crossroads

As radioactive ships from Pacific nuclear tests returned to San Francisco, Hunters Point became a hidden front of the atomic age. Behind guarded gates and layers of secrecy, the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) conducted classified research on nuclear decontamination, weapons effects, and radiological safety—leaving a legacy still unfolding today.

Operation Crossroads detonation at Bikini Atoll, 1946.

Radioactive fleet at Hunters Point

After Crossroads, six vessels that were too damaged to travel under their own power, Independence, Gasconade, Crittendon, Skate, Skipjack, and Hughes, were towed back to Hunters Point where they became experimental objects for testing decontamination methods. Through trial and error, the radiation safety personnel settled on using a combination of wet sandblasting and acid solutions to decontaminate the remaining ships.

The shipyard personnel also examined other radiological problems that the ships presented including burning 610,000 gallons of fuel oil that became contaminated during Crossroads.

Because of the expertise developed at the shipyard, Hunters Point became the Navy’s primary facility for monitoring ships from Crossroads, decontaminating 12 additional vessels and 61 support vessels by 1948. In all 79 contaminated ships from Operation Crossroads came to Hunters Point Shipyard for decontamination.

Sandlasting a ship's hull at Hunters Point.

Decontaminating the Radioactive Fleet

In 1946, the U.S. Navy conducted Operation Crossroads—a pair of atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands—to study the effects of nuclear explosions on warships. The first test was an airburst (Shot Able); the second, an underwater blast (Shot Baker), caused severe radioactive contamination to a fleet of target and support vessels.

In the aftermath, Hunters Point Shipyard was chosen as the Navy’s primary West Coast decontamination facility. The Navy towed six of the most contaminated ships—including the aircraft carrier USS Independence and two submarines—to Hunters Point for experimentation and cleaning. Some carried radioactively contaminated fuel oil, which was burned in boiler facilities at Hunters Point.

The work at Hunters Point revealed the Navy’s lack of preparedness to manage large-scale nuclear contamination. In response, the Navy established the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) on site in 1948. HPS became a national center for decontamination research, radiation safety testing, and Cold War-era nuclear studies—shaping its long, complex, and often hidden radiological legacy.