#acceptable limits

acceptable limits

Mr. Ellis: Welcome to our humble abode. 50,000 acres using 10% of the nation's electricity, and it doesn't exist on any map. We have three schools, two movie theatres. We impost 30,000 pounds of mayonnaise a month. You know how many sandwiches that is?   Helen: Mr. Ellis, how much product do you think you'll turn out by the end of the year?  Mr. Ellis: And of course, our most precious resource, these talented young ladies. Most of them came straight from high school to serve their nation. Pretty little patriots aren't they?  Charlie: What's the evacuation protocol in case of radiologic accident?  Mr. Ellis: Expect they can find the front door.  Theodore: We received the War Department's R-23 directive a month ago. [to Mr. Ellis] I put it on your desk.  Mr. Ellis: And I'm sure I told you to circulate the directive to the girls, Theodore. We've been a little busy preparing for tomorrow's festivities. Are you excited to make your mark in history?  Helen: Actually, I'm going to load the last uranium rod.  Mr. Ellis: I have no doubt you know how to work a rod, young lady, but instructions are that Mr. Donaldson is to initiate the reaction.  Helen: We'll see about that. Mr. Ellis: Of course you can hand off the honors to your lovely wife or whoever she is.  Charlie: As soon as we get back home, Mrs. Donaldson and I are filing for divorce.  ----- Mr. Ellis: Meet to X-10 reactor, 600,000 pounds of graphite. She's dressed and ready for her cotillion.  Helen: All reactors should be female.  Mr. Ellis: Mm, this is Bill Tupper, our operations chief.  Charlie: How are you?  Bill: In twelve hours she'll start spinning uranium straw into plutonium gold.  Charlie: No, she won't. The reactor's not going critical tomorrow.  Helen: Oh, Jews are born pessimists. That's why I'm loading the last rod.  Charlie: No one's loading anything until we tour the whole facility, make sure it's safe.  Bill: We have 140 buildings, you'll be here till Easter.  Theodore: We have technical schematics you could look at.  Mr. Ellis: Theodore.  Theodore: They diagram every vulnerability on the site. More comprehensive than any physical tour.  Mr. Ellis: Safety's a priority, but the army's deadlines are gospel around here.  Bill: You're here to grease the wheels, not gum up the works.  Charlie: What I'm here to do is make sure you don't set the atmosphere on fire.  Helen: He's overreacting, it's just a formality.  Mr. Ellis: Look, I understand you've been sent here by some high mucky-muck.  Charlie: That mucky-muck hired the guy who hired the guy who hired your boss. His name is Robert Oppenheimer. Let's see those schematics.  -----  Charlie: Uranium-235 is highly unstable, store too much in the one place, you can set off a chain reaction.  Mr. Ellis: Which is why we split it so there's never more than twelve kilograms in any given building. This isn't rocket science.  Charlie: So how do you transport it?  Bill: Uranium enters the reactor through this valve at a rate of twenty four milligrams per second. Charlie: What if a valve fails? If Uranium accumulates in the pipes, you could end up... Mr. Ellis: All the valves are redundant, like this conversation.  Bill: Plant's designed so if any one valve gets clogged, another one comes to the rescue.  Charlie: What about this one? There's no redundancy there.  Mr. Ellis: That's not a valve, that's a window.  Theodore: You've got a busy day, Mr. Ellis. If it would be helpful, I can walk our guests through the plans.  Mr. Ellis: Compartmentalisation, Theodore, I don't think Washington would like that, but I could use some coffee.  Charlie: This is where the separation takes place?  Bill: The calutron starts here.  Charlie: Uh-huh.  ----- Helen: Clear vats 14 and 15 from building 90-207. They're what? Eights and a half feet from 206? Who the hell drew these? Some third rate architect from the Corps of Engineers?  Charlie: What are you, a draftsman? Helen: Draftswoman. This rendering is off by six inches.  Bill: Add up 206, 207, and 208 and we're still under the safety limits.  Helen: Yeah, for fast neutrons. But we're talking about green water.  Mr. Ellis: Green water?  Helen: Uranium dissolved in liquid form. The neutrons slow down and become one hundred times more effective.  Bill: So what?  Helen: One hundred times more fissionable.  All these building will go up in smoke. You need to clear every one of them.  Bill: Four thousand vats spread over one hundred acres? It'll take a week. Mr. Ellis: [to Charlie] I need a word, alone.  Charlie: Don't look at me, you heard my wife.  ---- Mr. Ellis: Oh, if it isn't the happy honeymooners. You'll be pleased to hear we just got a clean bill of health on the storage room in building 9.  Charlie: Good start. Mr. Ellis: And we began loading rods an hour ago.  Charlie: I can see that. Mr. Ellis: The reactor will be fully operational within a day.  Helen: We gave you a list of twenty-two major hazards to resolve before we go critical.  Mr. Ellis: And the army intends to give your list the consideration is deserves.  Helen: When? Mr. Ellis: Just as soon as we're critical. Now, if you'll excuse me. I've got a three hundred tonne block of graphite to attend to.  Charlie: Oh whose authority? Bill: General Leslie Groves.  Mr. Ellis: He's the mucky-muck who hired Robert Oppenheimer. Rest up. Tomorrow's a big day for all of us.  ---