Rhodes writes that the cadmium solution had opponents. It would require months of work to get back to a workable pile, post contamination. This would have poisoned the 9 9nths pure graphite, it would have to be rebaked.<p>One slip... and the whole things busted.
i recall hearing these old stories back in the navy nuclear power school in the 1970s...i was a navy nuclear reactor operator back then...Electronics Tech Reactor Operator...as I recall no one was really sure about the derivation of the name of the SCRAM procedure...but there were stories of course...that's what sailors do--pass down stories of times past...