Page 2 of 21 (STORY-WMOR-02) In Their Own Words Walter Calvin Moore Civilian Engineer Oak Ridge (K-25)
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My Oak Ridge Experience - Walter Calvin Moore - Page 2 of 21 conditioning building was a large building in it’s own right, being 500 feet wide and 1000 feet long. It was partitioned into three areas, accessible only to those who were wearing the proper badge color. One could determine an employee’s “rank” by counting the number of different colors on his identification badge. I was given a one color badge assigned to the cleaning area. The cleaning line consisted of a series of tanks arranged along one side of the building, and large enough to accomodate 20’ lengths of pipe. Each tank had a peripheral exhaust vent which was connected to an exhaust system to prevent accumulation of cleaning vapors beyond acceptable limits in the work space around the tanks and in the rest of the building. They were mounted above the floor at a high enough elevation to permit the installation of pipe connections for filling, draining, and recirculation through a system for recovery of the cleaning solutions or solvents and removal of the dirt and scale which tended to build up in the tanks. On the other side of the working area was a long line of complicated and mysterious looking devices which were there for the purpose of leak testing pipe sections and assemblies. I was told not to ask questions about this side of the operation. The so called “dirty” pipe and subassemblies looked pretty clean to me, but I was told that it was not clean enough for the process application, and the object of the cleaning line was to get it clean enough for me to wipe it with a pair of white gloves without leaving a mark on the gloves. I couldn’t imagine why this was necessary, but my job was to follow every piece of pipe through every step of the operation, to make certain that the correct procedure was followed, and then to wipe it with my white gloves or a white cloth, and if either the pipe was not clean, or the exact procedure specified had not been followed, I was to put a “rejection tag” on it. The time the pipe spent in each tank was considered important. The first cleaning tank contained a degreasing solvent, trichloroethylene, which was kept at a temperature of 190 F. The next contained a phosphate type detergent solution. The succeeding tanks contained hot water, hot chromic acid, dilute hydrochloric acid, ammonium hydroxide solution, .cold water, and finally a hot water rinse, was provided. Occasionally pipe would come through this extensive procedure with a spot or two of scale, especially if it was not nickle plated, and some was not. A spot on the outside was not considered objectionable, but a spot on the inside was supposed to be removed by sending the pipe back to the beginning of the line and repeating the entire procedure. There was an overhead crane with a hoist by means of which the pipe could be moved from tank to tank, men with brushes on long poles stood by to scrub the inside when necessary.
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