THE ATOMIC HISTORY OF HUNTERS POINT

Aerial Photo — Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Parcel C Historic District (Navy, 2022)

The Greatest Story Never Told captures the history of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Historic Parcel C where the fissile product Plutonium — 239 was detected by air monitors sited around a radiation staging area across the street from residences, dog parks and food trucks a year ago in November of 2024.

“On July 28, 1849, the Hunter brothers arrived in South San Francisco on the Clipper ship Memnon. The family built a mansion and dairy farm along Griffith and Oakdale Avenue in modern day Hunters Point…at the site of federally subsidized Oakdale public housing, one block north of the Crisp Road entry to what would, by 1955, become the United States Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory Complex.” [https://ahimsaportersumchaimd.medium.com/the-greatest-story-never-told-47e1e59015a8]

“The first Pacific Coast dry dock was constructed in 1867 when New York real estate investors and brothers — Phillip Schuyler Hunter, Robert Eugene Hunter and John Hunters — gained the deed of title to a portion of a four thousand acre land grant awarded to Jose’ Cornelio Bernal during the California Gold Rush in 1849. By 1870 the Hunters Point dry docks were hailed “The World’s Greatest Shipping Yard.”

Hunters Point Dry Docks Circa 1971

WELCOMING THE GREAT WHITE FLEET — San Francisco Sunday Call — April 26, 1908. Library of Congress

“Roosevelt’s idea was to show the United States was a power to be reckoned with” — Richard Abrams — Professor of History, UC Berkeley”

“In 1920, a Congressional hearing on Pacific Coast Naval Bases was held in San Francisco City Hall. Representatives including Mayor Rolph and City Engineer O’Shaughnessy made the case to make a permanent naval base at Hunters Point. The need to increase naval shipbuilding and repair facilities became even more pressing as the country entered World War II. The Navy brought the property from private owners in 1940 and named it the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. It quickly became the major shipyard of the west coast and many workers moved into the area. [https://www.abandonedspaces.com/industry/san-francisco-naval-shipyard-where-the-key-components-of-the-first-atomic-bomb-were-loaded-onto-uss-indianapolis.html]

Navy fraud, negligence, concealment and delay in publicly noticing Parcel C air monitoring reports escalates into a dark web of deceit while the National Response Center investigates the detection of Plutonium 239 — a product of nuclear fission — detected in concentrations twice as high as allowable by a system of air monitors along the perimeter of a Radiation Staging Yard….across the street from Shipyard homes, condos, parks and food trucks:

SF Hunters Point Report on Navy’s Plan on Radioactive Building Demolitions with Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai [https://youtu.be/Ku2aAYf2dTl?si=sPY2JNSJ1R-SKkrv]

Photo verified by the Navy Inspector Generals Office submitted as a formal complaint in March 2024. Taken from Hillpoint Park during filming of the PBS/NOVA science documentary Critical Condition: Health in Black America on March 12, 2024 - overlooking historic Drydock 4 and Federal Superfund Parcel C, where Plutonium — 239 was detected in a system of air monitors surrounding a Radiation Staging Area (RSY) situated along Blandy Street and Spear Avenue.

Evident in the photo are mounds of radioactive soil being screened and staged for disposal in a RSY left uncovered over the weekend across the street from human and ecological receptors on residential Parcel A-1 and food service trucks parked along metal chain fences lacking dust barriers or legally Prop 65 warning signs notifying workers, food handlers and the public of potential exposure to radioactive and carcinogenic heavy metals on the State of California Proposition 65 list.

Four Parcel C Air Monitoring Station and Real Time Dust Monitors captured exceedences in contaminants and radionuclides of concern including Pu-239 and PM 10. The exceedences were detected on November 7, 2024 when a Navy contractor was grinding asphalt on the site using a diesel powered heavy vehicle. Air monitors captured Plutonium — 239 in concentrations 8.16 times 10–15 picocuries per milliliter — twice the level established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The location of MSC01 (Upwind) along Spear Avenue and across the street from the Parcel C Radiation Staging Yard along Drydock 4 on Parcel C makes it the likely location where the sample was obtained.

Parcel C Air Sampling Data concealed on the Navy Administrative website for the period inclusive of November 2024 documents no exceedence in Plutonium — 239 and states No Action Level Exceedence occurred for Plutonium — 239. An excess in PM 10 is documented without notification to State or Local Health Agencies.

“You dropped a bomb on me…Baby!”

Watch “The Gap Band — You Dropped A Bomb On Me (Official Music Video on YouTube): https://youtu.be/17/17lkdqoLt44?si=HzF7k9WrROqYTTbT

FAT MAN and the Atomic Cluster at Hunters Point

Replica of the original Fat Man plutonium bomb that contaminates the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

Fat Man was a plutonium-based implosion type nuclear bomb designed and producted by Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico from 1945–1949. It’s core components are a 6.2 kg plutonium — 239 sphere at the center, surrounded by a layer of uranium-238 and 32 shaped explosive blocks that, when detonated, created an inward shockwave that compresses plutonium to trigger a nuclear fission explosion. The explosive yield of Fat Man was 21 kilotons — the equivalent explosive power of 2000 tons of TNT.

According to the aerial photo depicted on the cover of the Draft Final Hunters Point Shipyard Historical Radiological Assessment, multiple ships exposed to two 21 KT Fat Man Plutonium bombs during Operation’s Crossroads atomic weapons testing conducted in the Bikini Atoll in July 1946 were docked along the northern piers and drydocks of the base.

The Parcel F Feasibility Study documents the detection of Pu-239 in the submarine area of Parcel B — where shipyard artists are being actively exposed — in concentrations 60 time greater than background. All radiological data, maps and investigation findings were deleted from the Navy’s Parcel F Record of Decision released in September 2024.

Parcel F Table 4–1 Statistical Summary of Radionuclides Detected in Sediment at Parcel F — Pu-239 detected in maximum concentrations at Submarine area of Parcel B where artists studios are sited. The submarine area was where Trident and Polaris submarines were docked.

According to Committee to Bridge the Gap’s 2018 publication, The Great Majority of Hunters Point Sites Were Never Sampled for Radioactive Contamination:

“In addition to not measuring 90% of radionuclides of concern, 90% of the measurements that were made on soil samples didn’t measure two of the four radionuclides admitted by the Navy to be key at HPS: Strontium — 90 and Plutonium-239. The soil samples were mainly measured for gamma emitters. — Strontium — 90 and Plutonium — 239 are beta and alpha emitters.”

Daniel Hirsch — Committeetobridgethegap.org

While the exact number of vessels returned to HPNS is disputed, the historical record suggests up to 100 Pu-239 exposed vessels were ultimately hauled back from the Marshall Islands to Hunters Point.

The bomb-scarred radioactive hulk of the World War II Aircraft carrier USs Independence was docked along the historic Gun Mole Pier beneath the towering Gantry Crane at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. It operated as a floating radiation laboratory from 1946–1951 [https://westsideobserver.com/23/6-Hunters-Point-continuous-to-poison-san-franciscan.php]

“The shipyard became the Navy’s primary facility for decontamination research, and the Independence was used as a floating laboratory to study the effects of radiation from 1946–1951.”

The most significant, in the region now under scrutiny, is the USS Independence, a World War II aircraft carrier docked aside the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Gun Mole Pier for five years after being used as a target ship in two 21 kt Fat Man plutonium bomb detonations during the July 1946 Operations Crossroads atomic tests conducted in the Marshall Islands.

USS Independence docked along the northern border of the Gun Mole Pier immediately south of Superfund Parcel C— where Navy air monitors detected an exceedence in Pu-239 and PM 10 particulates in November of 2024 and did not notify the public, city officials or State and local health agencies.

Video of the USS Independence’s smoking radioactive hulk hauled back to Hunters Point and docked from 1946 to 1951 - southeast of historic Parcel C — appears in the PBS/NOVA documentary Critical Condition: Health in Black America that premiered on October 28, 2025 at the Ruth Williams Opera House. [https://www.pbs.org/video/critical-condition-health-in-black-america-tdsccm/

Historic photo overlooking Spear Avenue at the intersection of modern day Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Federal Superfund Parcels C and D & G. The mighty Hunters Point Gantry Crane is situated on the Gun Mole Pier immediately south of Drydock 4 on Parcel C.

The Hunters Point Gantry Crane situated on the Gun Mole Pier — photo captured on September 20, 2025 — A region the Nuclear Regulatory Commission designates “the loading point for nuclear waste.” The base of the Gun Mole Pier on the photo right is covered by Radiation Staging Areas or RSY’s. The green blue covering atop the RSY is called “Gorilla snot” — a chemical adhesive used to keep radioactive soils from dispersing.

What’s in the Air: Parcel C ???

Oh, what a tangled web we weave! The Navy is slowly but surely unraveling in a deep dark web of deceit as it struggles to explain the delay in reporting the detection of the fission product Pu-239 in high concentrations captured by a system of air monitors situated in the region of a Radiation Staging Yard along the northern border of Drydock 4. Ironically, Drydock 4 has been the site of criminal activity by Navy contractors leading to Federal Injunctions that shut down Triple A Machine Shop in 1986 and Astoria Metals in 2000.

In a communication to San Francisco Health Department Officials on Friday, November 7, 2024, Michael Pound — Navy BRAC Environmental Coordinator now denies this actionable exceedence in PM 10 ever occurred:

![Both Upwind air monitors at Parcel C are in the vicinity of Parcel A residences — MSC01 and PC Upwind Air Monitor and within feet of the RSY on Blandy at Spear Avenue — Michael Pound- BRAC Environmental Coordinator now denies this exceedence occurred! Presto Chango

Both Upwind air monitors at Parcel C are in the vicinity of Parcel A residences — MSC01 and PC Upwind Air Monitor and within feet of the RSY on Blandy at Spear Avenue — Michael Pound- BRAC Environmental Coordinator now denies this exceedence occurred! [Presto Chango

“Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds” — Robert Oppenheimer — Director Manhattan Project — From Chapter 11, Verse 32 of the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita

The Department of Homeland Security conducted an aerial survey of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in August 2012 using a Bell 412 helicopter rigged with NAI gamma radiation detectors hovering at a survey altitude 300 feet overhead. Gamma counts in the region of the Parcel E-2 Industrial Landfill were detected as high as 7700 cps. In the region of Parcel’s D, G and C, gross gamma counts as high as 5500 cps or 3.0 uR/hr

**THE BOMB IN OUR BODIES — THE NUCLEAR CLUSTER @ HUNTERS POINT**

[https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-bomb-in-our-bodies/id6695759291]

AHIMSA MEANS NO KILLING — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa

Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, MD — Founder, CEO & Principal Investigator — Hunters Point Biomonitoring Foundation from the nationally distributed documentary The Real Thirst Trap — Environmental Injustice and the Crisis Affecting Black America [https://youtu.be/OMF8lvucRr4?si=NkyqRQKkDfb0RWxp]

Ahimsa is a Hindu word that means no killing. As long as the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program continues to detect chemicals and radionuclides of concern in the body burdens of current and childhood residents within the half mile perimeter of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Federal Superfund Site, the Navy and its cronies will remain trapped and entangled in a network of lies and mistrust.

![Is Hunters Point sick? Meet the doctor screening residents for toxics in S.F.’s biggest development battle https://wwwsfchronicle.com/health/article/Is-Hunters-Point-sick-Meet-the-doctor-screening-16749502.php

Is Hunters Point sick? Meet the doctor screening residents for toxics in S.F.’s biggest development battle [https://wwwsfchronicle.com/health/article/Is-Hunters-Point-sick-Meet-the-doctor-screening-16749502.php

The Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program Calls For Immediate Implementation of a Seven Point Plan:

1. Immediate Moratorium on excavations and demolitions at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Federal Superfund site until lawful fortifications and Propositon 65 notifications on chain metal fence lines are installed along city streets and transit corridors.
2. A Legal Injunction filed to prohibit the Navy and its contractors from operating Radiation Staging Areas adjacent to human receptors as documented in NRC compliants filed against the RSY located at Blandy Street & Spear Avenue…across the street from residential Parcel A-1.
3. A Legal Injunction filed to prohibit the Navy from Federal Superfund violations in allowing minors and elementary aged students in radiologically impacted,excavated and remediated areas of the base.
4. DOJ investigation into BRAC Environmental Coordinator Michael Pounds patterns of data manipulation, deletion, falsification and concealment evident in suspicious activity documented at Parcel G in Strontium-90, Pu-239 and PM 10 exceedences reported in 2021 and 2024.
5. A deep advanced AI investigation of suspicious basewide air, soil, landfill gas and building data posted on the BRAC Administrative web site: [www.bracpmo.navy.mil/hpns]
6. Immediate Reinstatement of the Hunters Point Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board federally subsidized by the Base Realignment & Closure Act with full transparency and seating of community stakeholders, federal and state environmental regulators, health agency officials and the NAVY BRAC team with an elected Community Co-Chair. Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) Implementation Guidelines/US EPA: [https://www.epa.gov/fedfac/restoration-advisory-board-rab-implementation-guidelines]
7. Federally subsidized voluntary relocation for residents living within the half mile perimeter of the Federal Superfund site at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard where ArcGIS cancer and chemical clusters detected by the Hunters Point Community Toxic Registry and powered by ESRI document extreme exposure and associated adverse health effects:

Hunters Point Community Toxic Registry: https://arcg.is/OKWu9v

Western fence line Hunters Point Naval Shipyard facing east toward the Gantry Crane. To the photo right is Drydock 4 at the southern border of Parcel C.