Navy kicks out at least 34 in nuclear program cheating ring

WASHINGTON – At least 34 sailors are being kicked out of the Navy for their roles in a cheating ring that operated undetected for at least seven years at a nuclear power training site, and 10 others are under criminal investigation, the admiral in charge of the Navy’s nuclear reactors program told the Associated Press.

The number of accused and the duration of cheating are greater than was known when the Navy announced in February that it had discovered cheating on qualification exams by an estimated 20 to 30 sailors seeking to be certified as instructors at the nuclear training unit at Charleston, South Carolina. Students there are trained in nuclear reactor operations to prepare for service on any of the Navy’s 83 nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.

Neither the instructors nor the students are involved in handling nuclear weapons.

In addition to the 34 enlisted sailors who were removed from the nuclear power program and are being administratively discharged from the Navy, two more who were implicated as “minimal” participants had their noncriminal punishment suspended due to their “strong potential for rehabilitation.”

Also, 32 sailors were implicated by investigators but later exonerated by Richardson, and he gave one officer a verbal warning. The Navy investigation also concluded that commanders were not directly at fault. “It was not the result of ‘wishful blindness,’ ” it said.

The 68 implicated sailors are in addition to the 10 who Richardson said are believed to have been “at the center” of the cheating ring and remain under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.