Idkinfo, et al:

USS SCORPION (SSN-589) had no experimental torpedoes aboard when she made her final
dive.......

"Within the contorted and disembodied torpedo room are two W-34 nuclear warheads
and their plutonium cores. It is believed that the plutonium cores, if they had broken open, would simply lie inside the torpedo room or sink into the seafloor
ooze. If undisturbed, they would pose little radiation hazard. Plutonium, for
all its power as a bomb material, also is an insidiously subtle carcinogen. Its
particles cannot penetrate the skin externally, but if ingested or inhaled, sickness and death will follow."


Source: "SILENT STEEL: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS SCORPION" by Stephen Johnson - cc2006 - ISBN-13-978-0-471-26737-9

Later,

ROBERT M.