Features on an historic photo of USS Independence CVL 22 are captured in a three-dimensional (3D) low-resolution sonar image of the shipwreck in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. (NOAA, Boeing, and Coda Octopus)
FOX News/Live Science: Secret atomic role of WWII-era aircraft carrier revealed
A team of underwater archaeologists has pieced together information from declassified government documents and a shipwrecked World War II-era naval vessel to understand the secret role played by one of the most historic U.S. aircraft carriers: the USS Independence.
The Independence (CVL 22) was one of 90 vessels assigned to Operation Crossroads — the atomic bomb tests conducted at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands — but it was deliberately sunk, or scuttled, in 1951 and little was known about its career after the atomic bomb tests.
After discovering the location of the Independence shipwreck last year, researchers were able to compare sonar images of the wreck with declassified documents to uncover the carrier's use as a radiological laboratory and nuclear waste receptacle from 1946 to 1950.[See Images of the USS Independence Shipwreck and Dive Mission]
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WNU Editor: It is probably not a radiological hazard, but the fact that it survived a massive nuclear explosion while only 1,700 feet away from ground zero is interesting.
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