b'C H A P T E R 11T H E C H E M P L A N TThe plant construction started, but the waste evaporator was a development atSo, part of the Chem Plant complexdesign was done in New York City. It KAPL [Knolls Atomic Power included a special fuel-storage buildingwas a conglomeration of problems Laboratory] for their waste evaporator housing basins of water twenty feetbecause most of the Foster Wheeler and was just lifted in total and fabricat -deep. On the Chem Plants 82-acre site,people were not security-cleared. We ed as such. The storage basin was a the basins were located about a third ofhad to do everything unclassified, take-off from the storage basins at a mile south of the main processingresulting in numerous trips back and Hanford, even the buckets and mono -building. A ye ars accumulation of fuelforth between Oak Ridge, Washington,rail system. We bought an absolute was needed for the first production run,and New York. duplicate of the original Hanford so the basin was finished first andcrane.The high priority of the CPP opened for business while the rest of.we had to use existing techniques andoverrode all opposition. the plant was still under construction.10knowledge. The stack [design] was lift - The first shipment arrived ined right out of Hanford specifications The plant was expected to process fuels November 1951. Security was heavy.and installed without change. The with different types of claddingalu- Said Reid, None of the constructionminum, zirconium, stainless steel. Each people could be allowed anywhere neartype called for a different process for- the vicinity. One of the first securitymula, and the fuels of different types guards at the Chem Plant was Mark L.could not be mixed. Therefore, the oper- Sutton (later an Operator Helper), whoators had to accumulate enough of each r ec al led :type to make it worthwhile to run abatch through. This meant that fuel I was often assigned to the ICPPareaarriving at the Chem Plant had to be for patrol and exit/entry control at thestored someplace until enough had accu- guard house or gates. The whole ICPPmulated for a run. area seemed to be a maze of pipetrenches, cement pours, workers toolsand office shacks. The [fuel storagebuilding] was perhaps already com -INEEL 62-5029 plete and had some Hanford J slugfuel elements stored under water in it,but at that time I was not acquaintedwith the intended activities and the1 2 terms describing them.11219 1. Storage basins1 2. Crane building7 3. Canal Above. Storage pool at the Fuel Storage Building. At6 4. Platform5 5. Unloading basins center is a transfer crane with a riding cab. The fuel5 6. Scale3 4 10 7. Monorail track is stored in cadmium-lined racks under 20 feet of8 8. Fuel bucket water. Left. Schematic view shows unloading pools,9. Crane rail10.Roadway canal, and other features of the Fuel StorageBuilding.9 9'