b'C HAPTER T HIRTEENT H E T R I U M P H O F P O L I T I C A L G RA V I TYO V E R N U C L EA R F L I G H TIf everything had worked out perfectly, it still would have been a bum airplane. Charles Wilson, Secretary of DefenseW This was done at Test Grid No. III out Roast No. 1.[The fuel reached a tem -on Lincoln Boulevard.The Y axis wasperature of 2,250 degrees F., but afterhen IDO HPs a few miles east of NRF.and highly the fire burned two hours, the elementunderstood that the NRTS was going to instrumented.was essentially intact.]be home base for a nuclear-poweredairplane, they researched the hazards Movie cameras were operating [when] The second time, they used an inductionthis might bring to the desert. Test air- they set the thing on fire. Basically, furnace to supply higher heat to the fuelcraft, they found, crashed most typical- there was no release. That was Wienerelement. This time, success.elease A rly on takeoff or landing. What would [was attained. The fuel melted withinhappen to the nuclear fuel in a crash ninety seconds.] When I returned toinvolving fire, and what kind of emer- NRF, the security guard told me we hadgency response would be needed? In an alarm on the portal monitor. I asso -1957 Dr. Victor Beard, IDO director of ciated it with the Wiener Roast release.Health and Safety at the time, organized I took a sample from our continuous aira pair of Fuel Element Burn Tests, soon monitor. It turned out to be cesium-137.dubbed by the participants as Operation At eight p.m. I called Beard at homeWiener Roast. John Horan, Beards suc- and told him the cloud came over thecessor, was then working at the NRF NRF. He said, Impossible.and observed the tests. He recalled howBeard obtained a well-aged MTR fuel The cloud had gone out on the grid.element for an experiment. The weather changed, a shear hadcome in and it went back over NRF. ItThe key idea was to burn it. For the was barely detectable over background,first test, a pool of [jet fuel] was used INEEL 57-1305 so there were no health concerns.1(500 gallons, I think) and part of an Operation Wiener Roastaluminum fuselage.The element was Elsewhere at the NRTS, preparationssuspended directly over the center of for the project were somewhat morethe fuel and then [the fuel was] ignited. prosaic. Bill Johnston had informed1 1 6'