Jimmy Carter remembered for his work at the world’s first nuclear meltdown at Chalk River, Ontario

The death of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter at the ripe age of 100 brought out plenty of tributes for a man that accomplished so much after his presidency.

Carter, who grew up on a peanut farm in Georgia and served in the U.S. Navy before turning to politics, died Sunday after spending more than a year in hospice care.

He served one term as the president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and dedicated his life to humanitarian work after his stay in the White House and was a major contributor to Habitat for Humanity.

His post-presidential international diplomatic work also earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

A young Jimmy Carter

But the future president had a major impact in this country and a legacy that led to improvements in nuclear safety long before he entered politics.

The first nuclear reactor outside the U.S. became operational at Chalk River Laboratories in Deep River, Ontario and seven years later, on Dec. 12, 1952, the experimental reactor was also the site of the world’s first nuclear reactor meltdown.

A worker inadvertently opened pneumatic valves during tests on the NRX Reactor and within two minutes – 108 seconds, to be precise – the overheated core ruptured its tubes and 4,500 cubic metres of radioactive water leaked into the facility’s basement.

The radioactive water was dumped in ditches near the Ottawa River and nearly 1,200 people – mostly Atomic Energy staff and Canadian soldiers but also about 150 U.S. Navy personnel – were called in to help with the cleanup in early 1953.

One of those men was Carter, then a 28-year-old Lieutenant who had been working on a nuclear submarine project and was one of only a few with expertise in the new field of nuclear technology.

Carter led a team of two dozen working 90-second shifts (to reduce exposure to radiation) who worked to disassemble the reactor one screw at a time.

Reports that he and his team were actually lowered into the reactor were the stuff of fancy but the future president’s urine was still testing positive to radioactivity six months later and he was warned he might not be able to have children.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter at Niagara Falls in 1996.