b'C H A P T E R 15T H E S L-1 R EA CT O Rthree standard metal caskets from Idaho available and offered to clean up the sionals managed to find jobs with thisFalls and had them delivered to one of building, decontaminate the site, and project.the NRTS shops. Craftsmen lined them investigate. GE physicist Jay Kunze saidwith lead. Extra lead wrap shielded later that the GE scientists considered the The SL-1 was a mess. It hadnt beenbody parts still heavily contaminated. SL-1 job to be a choice assignment. cleaned up at all. To clean it up, peopleAside from protecting people who BORAX and SPERT had failed to blow had to make short trips inside and dowould handle the caskets, the caskets up. SL-1 should have been inherently limited tasks within a couple of minuteshad to meet radiological shipping stan- safe. What had gone wrong? They wel- and then get out. Even though you suit -dards set by the Interstate Commerce comed a chance to solve the puzzle. But ed up, those couple of minutes wouldCommission. Preparations complete, the cleanup had to come first. Kunze expose you to your quarterly dose ofthe respective military services took c on i radiation, and you couldnt go back int nu e d: possession of the for three months orbodies and flew do any other workthem to the destina- that could potentiallytions requested by expose you. Hundredsthe families. A of people at GE,health physicist including those aboutaccompanied each to be transferred andto provide any nec- many workers fromessary advice and other locations at theconsultation. 27 Site [and fromDugway], volunteeredThe retrieval of the to take their quarterlythird body ended radiation dose doingwhat came to be clean-up at the reac -known as Phase tor. For many clean-One of the SL-1 up tasks, that was ther e cove r y. Phase only way of handling Two lasted from INEEL 61-667 it. I dont rememberJanuary 10 through late April, the time it The stretcher rig. Crews practiced before the rig was anyone being particularly fearful of thetook for CE to be certain that the reactor inserted into the reactor building to collect the body risk. 28was stable. No one entered the silo dur- of the third man.ing those months. Operators dangled The time keepers were the HPs, whoremotely controlled closed-circuit televi- stood half-way down the stairway andsion and other equipment inside the When IDO first asked GE if it could usebanged on metal when someonesreactor from the boom of a crane. CE the Hot Shop to analyze the reactor, GEvacuum-cleaning stint was over. Byfinally concluded that the core no longer said, Its not available. But after the November, the passage of time andcontained any moderating water and that cancellation, the word was, The Hot removal of debris had reduced radiationthe reactor could not go critical again. Shop is available! GE had about five levels. It was time to remove the reac-hundred people at the Site, eighty per - Anticipating that the forty-miletor.That done, it was time to clean up the cent of whom were due to be terminat -truck ride to the TAN Hot Shop mightsite and see if the reactor core could ed, most of those to be transfered tor disturb some of the evidence, the GEreveal the cause of the accident. Af t e r other GE sites as a result of the cancelteam-went underneath the reactor and President Kennedy canceled the nuclear lation of the Aircraft Nuclear drilled several holes in the bottom ofairplane project in March, GE had people Propulsion Project. All of the profes - the pressure vessel. Through a special1 4 7'