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34 Expelled From U.S. Navy for Cheating Scandal at Nuke Training Site

34 Expelled From U.S. Navy for Cheating Scandal at Nuke Training Site
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At least 34 sailors are being kicked out of the U.S. 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 on Wednesday.


34 Expelled From U.S. Navy for Cheating Scandal at Nuke Training SiteThe 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.

Furthermore, an extensive investigation ordered by director of naval reactors, Adm. John M. Richardson, and led by Rear Adm. Kenneth M. Perry found that an electronic master file of "engineering watch supervisor" tests and answers was illegally removed from a Navy computer "sometime before 2007." Investigators failed to identify who took it or exactly when.

Although the cheating is believed to have been confined to a single unit at Charleston and apparently was not known to commanding officers, the misconduct had been happening since at least 2007, according to Richardson. The exact start of the cheating was not pinpointed.

"There was never any question" that the reactors were being operated safely, he said in an AP interview, yet the cheating was a stunning violation of Navy ethics.

Moreover, Richardson said he was "loaded for bear" at the outset of the investigation, unconvinced the cheating was confined to a single training unit. However, he now believes that it had not spread, and that this was one reason that the ring managed to operate so long without being discovered.

Additionally, the Navy investigation concluded that commanders were not directly at fault.

The scandal rocked the Navy, but details until now had remained under wraps as senior Navy officials sought to determine the scope of the cheating - including whether it was happening elsewhere.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

 

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