The date was January 1978; The Cold War was in full

swing. A secret spy satellite developed by the Soviets orbited high above US territory. Unbeknownst to most in the States, USSR officials began to worry about this satellite, decaying in orbit, because it has a nasty secret onboard. Cosmos 954, interestingly enough, had a full blown nuclear reactor onboard containing 31.1 Kg of HEU as well as its full compliment of fission products. As its orbit decayed, NORAD was informed that what they were tracking for reentry was a USSR satellite containing enough radioactivity to significantly contaminate the area wherever it happened to come down.

While many may know of the story of the radioactive Russian satellite, what may not be as well known, is that owning to the fact it was used for reconnaissance of “strategic targets”, if it would have reentered only a few orbits earlier, it would have contaminated New York City with a large plume of contamination. Thankfully it came down in a relatively remote area of Canada, and soon after the first Canadians saw the yellow streaks in the sky, the US and Canada were starting to assemble, to ascertain what damage had been done and what could be done to clean it up.

The name of the team was Operation Morning Light, and they pooled their talents from many fields. Geoscientists skilled in airborne detection from Canada combined their knowledge with weapons scientists skilled in Broken Arrow response from the Nevada Test Site. They would soon find out that, contrary to the Soviet’s statement that all fragments had burned up on reentry, the ground was littered with hot fragments everywhere. While most where only millimeters in size a few where fairly substantial. One small piece registered over 500 R/HR, not a negligible dose rate, and with time could cause a lethal dose. It was necessary to use special handling and packaging techniques, but even with all the ingenuity, only small fraction of the total activity was recovered, due to the fact most of the pieces where very, very small. What remains of the satellite today? While admittedly many of the isotopes responsible for the high dose rate have since decayed below background levels, many still remain, and fragments may be recoverable!

 

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