b'C HAPTER T WENT Y - T HREET H E E N D O W M E N T O F U RA N I U MThe growth in the worlds inventory of plutonium can be brought to a halt and then reversed.Till, Chang, and Hannum, 1997A the mission of the reactor would Savannah, the nations first and onlyinclude repeated LOCA experiments, nuclear-powered merchant ship.s Site employees the designers had to re-engineer a com- Launched in 1961, it had been decom-began to get used to their new name in plex water-management system and a missioned and was about to be1974, the national reactor safety testing special holding tank (the blowdown scrapped. Other LOFT parts came fromprogram, which included LOFT, PBF, vessel) so that the reactor could lose as far away as a United States Air ForceSemiscale, and other INEL projects, its cooling water without flooding the base in Vietnam. Site craft shops pro-finally emerged from the policy chaos reactor chamber or causing other dam- ceeded to modify and polish the hand-of the previous ten years. Early in her age to the test facility. Solving this me-downs for the LOFT plant. 2term as AEC chair, DixyLee Ray had created a Another implication ofnew Division of Reactor repeated experimentsSafety Research in the was that the reactorAEC. She removed safe- might require detailedty research from the con- examination after eachtrol of Milton Shaw. test. This could be doneShaw then left the AEC. in the TAN Hot Shop.Around the Site (and at The engineers decidedother AEC facilities), to recycle the samethis development pro- equipment and use theduced either general same method that therejoicing or, among ANP had used to movethose who had admired its reactor experimentshis tenacity and hard- back and forth. Thenosed management four-rail track and theapproach, a sense of INEEL 73-3710 shielded locomotiveregret. 1 LOFT reactor being moved into containment vessel. were pressed once more into service. Ifthe reactor was to leave the contain-Allocations for safety research ment building, the building would needimproved immediately, and the LOFT problem had created extra costs. When a very large, very heavy door. Beforeprogram picked up steam. During the rigorous specifications resulted in no each test the door would have to belean years, the Phillips and Aerojet bids from vendors for main coolant well-sealed to retain potential contami-teams had barely kept the project grind- pumps and valves, LOFT project engi- nation inside the building. The 200-toning forward. Once it became clear that neers scrounged these items from NS door had been installed in November222'