b'P ROVING THE P RINCIPLElearned that their equipment had to In March 1962 the AEC awarded ished in the 1970s and 1980s. Severalwork in sub-zero temperatures. The Certificates for Heroism and other books listed nuclear accidents, near-IDO continued to concern itself with recognitions to thirty-two SL-1 partici- accidents, and mishaps, describingemergency planning, developing tech- pants at a ceremony at the Idaho Falls them in language aimed to outrage orniques and equipment to reduce person- High School Little Theater. Among frighten the reader. The accounts ofnel exposures and save equipment them were the military men, the nurse SL-1 were often inaccurate, andlosses in accident responses. 18 Hazel Leisen, doctors Voelz and authors sometimes gave more-trivialSpickard, and the many others from events equal weight. The accidentIn connection with its continued work IDO, Phillips, and other contractors became part of a litany of eventson emergency planning, the NRTS who had performed special acts of ser- employed in these attempts to erodebecame identified as the major vice or attempted a rescue at great risk pubic confidence in the safety ofsourceonly source, in factof expe- to themselves. 21 nuclear power. 22 rience with the execu-tion of emergency For the NRTS peopleplans. C. Wayne Bills, involved, the experi-one of the IDO man- ences of the crisis andagers of the recovery, the recovery were thesaid later: kind that permanentlyetched themselves inI averaged a call a the memory. Nearly amonth on SL-1 for over thousand people weretwenty years. Nuclear involved in the crisisaccidents are rare! and clean-up. PeopleYears later, after the at the periphery ofaccident at Three Mile events heard storiesIsland, they quickly and retold them. Overlooked for decontami - the years, the storiesnation, photography, gave the SL-1 acci-dosimetry, environmen - dent a quality of leg-tal monitoring, and INEEL 62-3983 end, and theseother techniques from The SL-1 complex in 1962. The dirt road leads to co-exist with thou-the SL-1 accident and reactor safety the SL-1 burial ground. sands of facts describing the event, theprogram to apply to their recovery. results of the investigation, and the sci-19entific analysis.Twenty-two of the people who hadresponded to the SL-1 alarm received To the surprise of GE and Much of the legend grew up around theradiation exposures in the range of three Westinghouse, the accident failed to question of cause that the investigationto 27 Roentgens total body exposure. have an immediate impact on the pub- could not answer: did one of theThree of them received more than 25 R. l i c s acceptance of nuclear power. cadremen deliberately withdraw theThe exposure guide that had been set up H o w e v e r, the accidents long-term control rod, and if so, why? Or did theby IDOs prior emergency plan allowed impact on the progress of the industry control rod stick, causing over-exertionrescue personnel a 100 R dose to save a might be measured by the frequency and a sudden release? All of the sciencelife and 25 R to save valuable property. 20with which it appeared in nuclear- at the NRTS was unequal to this mostprotest literature, a genre that flour- perplexing question.1 5 6'