b'P ROVING THE P RINCIPLER i c kover onRes p o n s i b i l i t yR esponsibility is a unique concept:It can only reside and inhere in asingle individual. You may shareit with others, but your portion isnot diminished. You may delegate it,but it is still with you. You may dis-claim it, but you cannot divest your-self of it. Even if you do notrecognize it or admit its presence,you cannot escape it. If responsibili-ty is rightfully yours, no evasion orNaval Reactor Facilities ignorance or passing the blame canThe S5G prototype floating in its basin. shift the burden to someone else.Unless you can point your finger atthe person who is responsible whenS5G, like S1W, was built in a huge box reactorswere exposed to his philoso- something goes wrong, then youof a building, its roof presenting an phy of safety. The men in a nuclear- have never had anyone reallyinscrutable flat surface to satellite cam- powered submarine had no avenue of responsible. 19eras passing overhead. The reactor went escape in the event of an accident.critical for the first time in September Therefore, safety engineering and train- Admiral Hyman Rickover1965. The hull section floated in a ing had to guarantee that accidentsbasin of water. Operators inside the would not happen. Every feature of thehull used equipment to make the hull machine, beginning with its design, hadrock back and forth, adding more real- to be completely free of error. Safetyism to the simulation. In this setting, lay in the perfection of parts, compo-the Navy developed a method of circu- nents, and assemblies. Ultimately, thelating the reactors cooling water with- most important safeguard was humanout using a pump and exploiting the competencetrained, tested, reliable. 18principle that warm water rises. USSNarwhalwas the first boat equipped This approach contrasted somewhatwith the system. At high speeds, pumps with the general philosophy employedwere still needed, so the controller by the AEC in creating the reactor test-could move the coolant either by so- ing station in a remote location. If acci- Naval Reactor Facilitiescalled forced or natural methods. 17 dents were to occur, then a combination S1W on the day of Admiral Rickovers death, of isolation and engineering safeguards July 8, 1986.Rickover made sure that the thousands would reduce the consequences. Later,of Navy trainees who came through the when the AEC began to license com-program at Idahoand the contractors mercial reactors, its approach to thewho designed and built the Navys publics safety continued to rely on9 2'