Ernest Graves
wanted to do. Since he had been, for five years, in the very job that I was in, he spent
a lot of time doing my job for me.
I think perhaps this was the deciding factor in my decision to go back to the Corps. My
choice was between going back to a job where I would be much more my own boss or
staying on and being Starbird's principal assistant in this nuclear business.
As fond as I was of him personally, and as supportive as he had been of me throughout
my military career, I didn't get the kind of professional satisfaction out of working
under his close supervision that I had when I was more on my own. After all, I was 51
years old at that point. I wanted to be more my own boss than the situation in ERDA
allowed.
I went through this transition with him from the Atomic Energy Commission to the
Energy Research and Development Administration. I learned a lot from that and I
contributed a lot. He relied heavily on me. I don't want to imply that he didn't give me
a lot of opportunity. I made some very extensive presentations on the military program
to help establish its position in this new agency. He relied on me for this.
Whenever anything came along, he wanted me there to do it. But he gave me a lot of
guidance along the way.
Q:
A little too much?
A:
Well, it was a strain. During this period there was a nuclear incident at the Browns
Ferry power plant, that belonged to the Tennessee Valley Authority. It consisted of
three boiling water reactors. One was finished, one was fairly far along, and one was
just beginning. There was a separate containment vessel for each. The one reactor that
was finished was operating at high power.
The electricians were working on some cable connections. Where these cables passed
through the reactor containment vessel, they had to be sealed. This is hard to believe,
but the workmen down there testing for any leaks in the seals were using a candle. The
sealant was flammable, and it caught fire. This fire damaged the control cables to the
reactor.
There was a period when the control room didn't know what the condition of the
reactor was. Most of these reactors, the boiling water reactors and the pressurized
water reactors, have a negative temperature coefficient. This means that, as the
temperature goes up, the changes in the reactor tend to reduce the rate of the nuclear
reaction. This is one reason I think most of the scares about nuclear power are
exaggerated. Generally speaking, as conditions become more dangerous, or potentially
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