Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS), located in Bremerton, Washington on Puget Sound, is the Pacific Fleet’s primary ship repair, overhaul, and modernization facility and one of the Navy’s four major naval shipyards. PSNS provided drydock overhaul, nuclear refueling, surface ship overhaul, and major repair services for Pacific Fleet carriers, surface combatants, and submarines throughout WWII and the Cold War — with a military and civilian workforce working in and on ships with extensive asbestos-containing materials in their engineering spaces and structure.

Ship Overhaul and Asbestos Exposure

PSNS overhaul work on Pacific Fleet ships created the primary asbestos exposure pathway for the shipyard workforce:

  • Nuclear carrier and submarine overhaul — PSNS has been the primary facility for nuclear carrier refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of Pacific Fleet nuclear carriers and for nuclear submarine overhaul, with workers entering nuclear engineering spaces during overhaul to perform insulation replacement, piping maintenance, and structural work in areas with secondary steam system insulation
  • Surface ship overhaul insulation removal — PSNS overhaul of conventionally-powered surface ships — carriers, cruisers, destroyers — required removal and replacement of asbestos insulation from steam piping, boiler casings, and turbine casings in the ships’ engineering spaces during drydock overhaul periods. Shipyard insulators performing asbestos removal work in confined shipboard engineering spaces generated high concentrations of airborne asbestos during insulation removal operations
  • Battleship reactivation work — PSNS performed overhaul and reactivation work on Iowa class battleships during the Reagan-era reactivation program, with workers entering the original 1944-era asbestos-insulated fire rooms and engineering spaces during reactivation maintenance

Shipyard Dry Docks and Infrastructure

PSNS’s dry dock facilities have operated since 1891, and the shipyard’s building infrastructure includes structures from the early 20th century:

  • Early 20th century shop buildings — PSNS machine shops, pipe shops, and industrial buildings dating to the early 1900s through WWII used asbestos-containing construction materials in building mechanical systems and industrial shop infrastructure
  • Shipyard steam and utility systems — PSNS’s industrial steam distribution serving the shipyard’s shops and drydock facilities used asbestos-insulated pipe in the utility distribution system

VA Claims for PSNS Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure from shipyard work in Navy service. Military personnel assigned to PSNS billets who worked in or near shipboard asbestos-containing materials during ship overhaul — including nuclear and conventional ship overhaul and the Iowa class battleship reactivation — and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.