At 17, Art Palmer wanted adventure.
He walked into an Army recruiter’s office hoping to jump out of airplanes. Instead, he walked next door, listened to a Navy pitch about nuclear submarines and signed on.
“I didn’t know enough to differentiate,” Palmer said with a laugh. “I was just looking for anything exciting.”
That decision launched a 52-year career in radiation protection: one defined less by adrenaline and more by discipline, precision and safety.
Palmer trained as a radiochemist in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear program, working aboard nuclear submarines before leaving the service and entering college. While studying physics, he answered a newspaper ad seeking radiation safety technicians, an opportunity that led him to the cleanup and recovery effort at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
At first, he expected chaos.
“Because it was a reactor accident, I thought it would be a headache,” he said. “What it turned out to be was a tremendous learning experience where I got to be a fly on the wall watching some of the best radiation experts in the world.”
For 11 years, Palmer supported radiation control and later the restart of the undamaged reactor unit at Three Mile Island, working alongside leading experts in the field. The experience shaped his philosophy: excitement in nuclear work is not something you seek — it is something you prevent.
Today, as a health physicist with USACE Baltimore District, Radiological Health Physics Regional Center of Expertise, Palmer focuses on ensuring that radiation controls are effective long before problems arise.
“The big picture is protecting worker and public health and safety, with a focus on radioactive materials,” he said.
His work includes reviewing plans and regulatory documents to ensure compliance with Army and federal standards, then traveling to project sites to confirm that procedures are implemented correctly and cleanup objectives are met.
“In the office we’re looking at the paper and the data,” he said. “In the field, we’re looking at how well the plans actually worked.”
It may not be the adventure he once imagined, but for Palmer, the real thrill comes from making sure nothing unexpected happens at all.