PLENTIFUL ENERGY

An anecdote: In the cooperative arrangements between the U.S. and U.K. of
those years, the AEC had a U.S. liaison officer on-site in one or other of the British
nuclear laboratories; a technical representative, I think he may have been called.
The assignment of the one in Britain at the time, Bill Hannum (later in charge of
physics, then breeder safety, for the AEC and DOE, and still later, a colleague of
mine at Argonne on the IFR) was coming to an end. I thought another two-year
spell in Britain might be fun, so I went in to AEC Headquarters to talk about it. I
was interviewed for a full day by the full complement of RDT leadership, except
Shaw himself, who was absent that day. At the end of the day I got back to the man
I started out with, an older man who predated the Shaw period, and who was in
charge of physics at the time. During the day, I had been told with some urgency by
one of Shaw‘s officers that Shaw would expect me to call him ―any time of the day
or night‖ when something went wrong in the British program. My physics contact
was white-haired, professorial, very much an old school gentleman, and he asked
me if I‘d had any special instructions. When I told him this one, he snorted, ―Forget
it, Chuck, the British are our colleagues. You‘re no James Bond.‖ I was spared any
conflicted decision-making, when approval for the U.K. assignment came through,
by the offer I accepted instead of a considerable promotion at my own lab.
Important for obvious reasons, budget cuts to free up money for other DOE
projects and programs came fairly often in the seventies and early eighties. They
probably affected the lab and its staff as much as anything. So there was certainly
change, but the changes were not totally disruptive. Scientists and engineers were
not really that much affected, nor, I think, did they think a great deal about such
things. Their treatment as professionals they took as normal. This attitude speaks to
the success of the lab‘s traditions, I think, in its treatment of its technical staff and
its expectations for them. Their work went on without concern for their jobs.
The central role of Argonne in breeder reactor development, though, was
diminished a lot, and that was what truly mattered. Bearing the responsibility alone
for important programs brings out the best. When Argonne no longer built the
experimental reactors aimed at developing an entire technology with a sense of
urgency, a lot was lost. That is what the IFR program returned to Argonne, at least
in part, and the best of the technical people thrived under those conditions. Every
day brought new excitements. That is the atmosphere in a healthy first-rate
laboratory, doing what it does best.
3.1.3 Argonne in the IFR Years
When the IFR program became established, people knew the goal of their work
and it was a big goal indeed. They could see why their work was important. ―Like
the old days,‖ it was said. Problems had to be solved—now. Others depended on
them. Everyone working on IFR development could say why it mattered, in a single
sentence. They knew what they were part of, why it was important, why they were
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