Navy crew members mop the flight deck March 23 to remove radioactive contamination from the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan off the Japanese coast.

From: Marine Corps Times

… “I don’t know of any aircraft carrier that’s ever been contaminated like this,” he said.

Powell, the radiation officer, said that he only got two hours of sleep from Sunday until Wednesday. By then, things had calmed down significantly.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the ship has lowered its vigilance. Visitors coming aboard even nine days later were thoroughly checked, as are crews still coming back from relief missions.

The mass cleanup of the ship’s surface Wednesday was considered largely successful, although commanding officer Capt. Thom Burke, in an announcement over the vessel’s public address system the next day, said that some “hot spots” remained.

more