Operation CROSSROADS was a two-detonation atmospheric nuclear test series that occurred at Bikini Atoll in July 1946.
As a destroyer, FLUSSER performed patrol duties and served as the harbor entrance control vessel several times during CROSSROADS
At 9:00 a.m. on July 1 when the first CROSSROADS event, Test ABLE (air detonation), occurred, FLUSSER was operating 23 miles east of ground zero. At 6:27 p.m. that evening the ship anchored in the lagoon. Test ABLE is known to have caused only minor radiological contamination to the the lagoon and virtually no contamination to the non-target ships such as FLUSSER.
At 9:20 a.m. on July 2, FLUSSER got underway to transport a radiological safety party to Oruk (also known as Oroken and Ourkaen) Island on the southwestern edge of Bikini Atoll. The ship returned to its Bikini Lagoon anchorage later that afternoon, anchoring at 3:53 p.m.
Except for a rehearsal exercise on July 18 and 19 FLUSSER remained in the vicinity of Bikini Atoll performing routine activities, including duties as harbor entrance control vessel, until July 24. On that date it got underway for Kwajalein arriving there the following morning. Kwajalein is 155 miles southeast of Bikini.
At the time of the second CROSSROADS event, Test BAKER (shallow underwater detonation on July 25), FLUSSER was anchored at Kwajalein.
At 7:27 a.m. on July 26 the ship returned to Bikini. It left to return to Kwajalein at 6:00 p.m. that evening. On July 28, FLUSSER again reentered Bikini for a period of ten hours. It then left for Kwajalein, returning to Bikini at 9:12 a.m. on July 30. These three trips involved transporting passengers and mail.
FLUSSER changed anchorages several times during the next month but remained in Bikini until August 25. On that date it left for Kwajalein. The ship returned to Bikini on September 1. Three days later it departed for Pearl Harbor via Kwajalein, arriving at Pearl Harbor on September 14. On September 16, the FLUSSER deck log notes that a radiological inspection party boarded the ship. The results of this inspection were not recorded.
FLUSSER was one of the operating ships in CROSSROADS whose involvement caused it to be temporarily listed as radiologically suspect. A degree of contamination did occur to virtually all of the non-target ships which remained in Bikini Lagoon for over ten days after Test BAKER. This was largely caused by low level radioactive contamination of the lagoon waters following Test BAKER and was confined to the exterior hull at or below the waterline and the internal salt water piping systems. However, in order to prevent contamination of the drinking water, CROSSROADS ships were instructed to scrape off marine growth near the waterline, not to steam evaporators in excess of 80% and not to dismantle the evaporators without a radiation monitor being present.
FLUSSER received its radiological operational clearance by November 22, 1946 after decontamination at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.
A careful search of CROSSROADS dosimetry data reveals that out of a total of 116 crewmembers and an undetermined number of passengers, only 12 film badges were issued to a percentage of the crew originally assigned to some of the ships. Film badges were generally issued to those personnel who reboarded target ships or worked in other contaminated areas. All 12 badged men aboard FLUSSER received doses of zero rem gamma. The highest recorded cumulative exposure for an individual at the operation was 4.01 rem gamma. This exposure is within present national occupational radiation exposure guidelines which permit 5.0 rem per year.