A Biography of Dr. John M. Googin - Y-12 National Security ...

FYI
as was desired. This precipitate acts as an ion exchange
medium for both anions and cations and
carried more of the ich would feed the chlorination
step. The concentrated nitric acid and ammonium
hydroxide used came in by the tank-car load.
This need for further purification was handled by
the use of the peroxide precipitation from nitric acid
solution with piped-in hydrogen peroxide and ammonium
hydroxide. The ammonium precipitation step
served to raise the possible concentration of uranium
to high values and this served to compensate
for some of the problems with a quantitative precipitation
of the peroxide. As originally done, the uranium
peroxide was impossible to filter, and the
recovery was done with a horizontal centrifuge with
a washing beach, the wet cake being discharged into
a dryer-calciner system to make the uranium trioxide
powder for chlorination. The acid centrifugate was
polished in wine-style filters and discharged to the
creek with the copper and nickel that remained, and
lots more ammonium nitrate. Hydrogen peroxide at
30% was received by the tank-car load like the other
chemicals. There were some corrosion problems
where the aluminum pipe of the peroxide storage
tanks joined the stainless steel of the piping, that had
to be solved with electrically insulating joints.
All of these steps were done in what is now the
foundry in Building 9202, and the author worked in
an impromptu laboratory on a storage balcony that
overlooked the operating floor from the top of the
highest reactor floor. All the heat of the summer and
the process rose up to there. There was the row of
half a dozen of the high-speed centrifuges just below
the lab floor that roared day and night. The dryercalciner
system kept hot air rising toward the roof.
FYI 40
Yellow uranium oxide dust settled over everything,
because the very fine oxide powder made from the
peroxide was hard to hold in the calciner. This
author’s desk received 50 mg of uranium oxide per
square decimeter per day. The uranium throughput
was hundreds of pounds per day and the need was
soon to be for thousands.
Parts of the plant made of 304 stainless steel
were corroding away at the welds. One of the first
jobs was to set up corrosion tests of samples of
welded stainless steels, to find out which of the
commercially available ones would be best for replacement
of the one originally used, and for the new
facilities. It soon became apparent that the carbide
precipitates in the heat affected zone of the welds
was a large part of the problem, and that the low
carbon version of 316 was the obvious choice above
321 and 347 for the future stainless steel applications.
All of the chemical operators in the bulk treatment
department were women. They were all local
people from East Tennessee and adjacent states. The
ladies selected to handle the heavy centrifuge bowls
on a routine basis were big and strong. All of the
forepeople were men. Some of the better-educated
women were tried as forepeople. In every case this
created conflict in the ranks of the other women. It
was found that the ladies would work together
under a man and even try to make him look good, if
he was not too able—but nice. Under the press of
wartime, little time could be taken to improve the
situation. A number of better educated women were
made into laboratory technicians and some were
assigned to work with this author from time to time.