b'P ROVING THE P RINCIPLEthe facility just east of the Chem PlantsAtomic Energy Merit Badgemain process building and south of thestorage tanks. 40The most common construction sceneT he 1960s expansion of nuclear power led the Boy Scouts of America to intro- was the placing of concrete for thickduce the Atomic Energy Merit Badge to acquaint scouts with a nuclear ener- shielding walls around the processgy career. This was the 104th merit badge in the series of Boy Scout badges, cellsall of which were below grade.approved in 1963. Members of the American Nuclear Society expected to assist The engineers could not avoid locatingwhen scout troops asked for help. three hot pipes directly beneath anThe badge was a symbol of the lithium atom on a yellow background enclosed in access corridor where people would bea green circle. working. At least one pipe would con-tain calcinehighly radioactiveon itsTo earn the badge, the scout had to discuss the meaning of terms such as way to a storage bin. So they madealpha particle, curie, fallout, dosimeter, neutron activation, and shielding tunnels out of Navy gunRoentgen. He also had to select five scientists from a list of ten barrels, another successfulscrounge courtesy of the oldand explain their discoveries. Proving Ground. 41Required projects included making three-dimensional Learning to operate themodels of isotopes, explaining the difference between fluidized bed requiredatomic weight and atomic number, and drawing the stan- considerable experimen-dard radiation hazard symbol. tation, much of whichA choice of optional projects might involve the scout in mak- was conducted at theing and using a Geiger counter, building a model of a nuclear Chemical Engineering Lab atreactor, visiting a medical office using X-rays, making a cloud cham- Central Facilities. In 1961ber, visiting an industrial plant where radioisotopes were being used, or compar- Phillips began two years of colding the progress of irradiated seeds next to non-irradiated seeds by growing both operations, running simulated wasteto maturity and noting any differences. through the plant. The trials illuminateddeficiencies in the equipment or theThe AEC sent Idaho Senator Len Jordan two hundred booklets about the badge to process, all of which the engineers haddistribute to his Boy Scout and Explorer Scout constituents. 43 to adjust. At the same time, the safetyteams imagined how malfunctions orhuman failures might put people injeopardy. For example, what wouldhappen if the plant had to shut downwith calcine still sitting in the calcinervessel? Would decay heat cause thevessel to overheat? Answers to ques-tions like this produced more engi-neered adjustments, moreinstrumentation, redundant equipment,and refinement of operatingprocedures. 42170'