As we continue to draw from Bill Wilcox's history of Y-12, I remind you that "An Overview of the History of Y-12, 1942-1992," is available at the American Museum of Science and Energy's Discovery Shop and online at www.secretcitystore.com. Bill drew on a number of retirees from Y-12 who provided first-hand details about the evolution of Y-12. It is one of my most heavily used resources.

Bill states in his overview that in 1967, "A massive Y-12 capital improvement project that became known as ’68-2A," was being planned and included in the Congressional Budget for 1968. Seven new weapons systems were being introduced and Y-12 was being asked to produce components for all of them. This was signaling the huge ramp up on the Cold War that resulted in new far reaching weapons and eventually in multiple warheads atop single missiles.

From this capital improvement program came the building of Beta 2 E (Building 9204-2Extension), Alpha 5N (Building 9201-5 North) and Alpha 5 W (Building 9201-5 West). The story is often told that there was a prohibition against building any "new" buildings during this time, so the decision was made and approved to just add on to existing structures. In the case of Beta 2E, a connection to Beta 2 was made through building an overpass over First Street. In the case of Alpha 5N, it was connected to Alpha 5W through a tunnel dug underneath First Street.

In this same year, 1967, John Googin, Y-12 senior staff consultant, known already as "The Y-12 Scientist," was awarded the E.O. Lawrence Memorial Award that included a check for $5,000, a citation and a gold medal. (I was recently visited by a daughter of Googin, who has the medal).

The award, approved by the President, was for his "outstanding contributions in the technological developments of processes for hafnium-zirconium and lithium isotope (COLEX) separations." Of course, these two achievements by Googin produced pure zirconium used for cladding the uranium 235 fuel in the nuclear power reactors for the U.S. Navy and the lithium 6 for the secondaries in the thermonuclear weapons.

Bill also states, "A new carbon-based insulation material with very unique physical properties has been developed in Y-12 laboratories." This new material was named for Rudy Paluzelle, its inventor. This unique material has had many applications at Y-12 over the years. I have a plaque with three samples of Palurite displayed on it, which is exhibited in the Y-12 History Center.

In September 1967, the first Open House was held. It was limited to the Building 9737 Electrical and Electronics Department spaces, but was open to all Y-12 families and the public. It was held in conjunction with Oak Ridge's 25th Birthday Celebration.

The design and fabrication of a special container that came to be known as the "Moon Box" or "Rock Box," but was officially named the Apollo Lunar Sample Return Container was begun in 1967. The Lunar Vacuum Receiving Module System was built and assembled in Houston. This facility was designed to replicate as close as possible the atmosphere on the lunar surface and to prevent any contamination from the earth.

Much larger and more accurate turning machines than ever seen at Y-12 were procured in 1968 to accommodate the weapons components needed for the ever increasing size of missiles and numerous varieties of secondaries. Excello was provided $4 million to design and build the massive machines. They would not all be delivered until 1972.

In 1970, the final 67 tons of the 14,700 tons of silver borrowed from the U.S. Treasury and used at Y-12 for electrical conductors was returned. For years, letters had been exchanged where the treasury asked for their silver and Y-12 management cited the importance of the effort for which the silver was being used as reason to keep the material. What was being done was the separation of stable isotopes in Building 9731.

The large Excello machines with their special air-bearing spindles (a technology developed at Y-12 and turned over to the machine builders) were put to use. One example is the Spartan Missile, which was an anti-ballistic missile with a thermonuclear warhead developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This weapon required some large components.

These machines were located in temperature-controlled shops and used laser feedback systems. The computerized controls replacing numerical tapes were the latest and most advanced General Electric units. Eventually, most all machine tools at Y-12 would be fitted with the workhorse computer controls, the "GE 2000."

I can remember when we kept a dedicated crew busy full time for many months upgrading machines by putting the new controls on them. As one shop was completed, we would move the crew to another location. By using the same people to do all the upgrades, we were able to see significant gains in efficiencies.

These large-scale upgrades have happened repeatedly at Y-12 over the years and have been one of the key elements that has allowed us to maintain state-of-the-art capabilities. Upgrades to the infrastructure have been a part of the history as well, but not nearly as often as the upgrades to the machinery. Y-12's machine shops have continued to be leaders in precision machining over the years.

Using diamond-knife tools on specially equipped machines-surfaces were being cut so flat and smooth that the mirror finishes were better than any surfaces previously obtainable. This was attributable to the combined use of air-bearing spindles, temperature controlled environments, automatic tool setting and computer-controlled tool control.

The advances being made in the early 1970s and into the 1980s placed Y-12 at the leading edge of machining technology worldwide. In the Manhattan Project buildings were modern machine tools unlike any other. They were often one-of-a-kind designs for special purposes. Y-12's reputation continued to grow throughout the nuclear weapons complex and the "Can Do" attitude only grew stronger.