b'C HAPTER T WEL VER EA CT O R S B E G ET R EA CT O R SYou couldnt move forty bright people to Idaho and expect them to quitthinking for themselves or stop being bright. Deslonde deBoisblancB IDO decided to consolidate and place employees numbered 1,700 by thisall these activities under the responsi- time, and the consolidation affected aill Johnston got an bility of Phillips.thousand of them. Dr. Doan assuredoffer he chose not to refuse. After twen- them that Phillips would fill jobty years with the government, he went The Argonne and Navy programs were assignments.as far as practicable fromto Duluth, Minnesota, in 1954 to work under the aegis of AEC offices in applications by present employees.for the Taconite Contracting Chicago or Pittsburgh, and if the IDO The IDO announced that the change, toCorporation. Taconite was preparing to take effect in October 1953, would savebuild a pelletizer plant, an undertaking the government $250,000 a year. Thusof such size that the company needed to streamlined, the NRTS was ready forbuild a town to go with it. The con- the changes coming in 1954. 2struction phase at the NRTS had by nomeans ended, but the organizationThe industrial leaders in the electricalitself was well rooted and on the verge utility business were impatient to devel-of shifting into an expansive opera- op a nuclear power industry. The spec-tional mode. Some of Johnstons col- tacular success of the NRTSs first fourleagues felt that he left because he had projects had awakened considerabledone what he came to do and that his optimism that nuclear energy, with fed-background, after all, was civil engi- eral support of nuclear research, wouldneering. Others added that the offersomeday mature into a commercialwas extraordinarily sweet. 1 proposition. Largely because of militaryrequirements for nuclear applications,Johnston had spent a good part of his such research funds were plentiful.energies in 1953 simplifying the man- Companies that wished to enter theagement of the testing station. The IDO moved to consolidate them under its nuclear field had many opportunities tohad set up a technical library, document own jurisdiction, it did not succeed. The do so.control systems, and a print shop. Chem Plant was an IDO project, how-Procurement, warehousing, and mainte- ever, and fell into the Phillips net. President Dwight D. Eisenhower domi-nance systems were in place. The Lost Chem Plant employees noticed that nated the formulation of nuclear mili-Rivers Transportation Company ran the Phillipsbenefits were better than tary policy during the 1950s. Trumanbuses under an IDO contract. Instead of American Cyanamids, and the transi- before him had felt that atomicmanaging these functions itself, the tion went fairly smoothly. NRTS weapons would help keep peace, and1 0 6'