RE: Why a "pig"?

["Eugene Forrer" <eforrer@brc1.tdh.state.tx.us>]

The guy with the ax at chicago when they were running the first 
reactor was called the Super Critical Reactor Axe Man.  Hence SCRAM.

> If I recall correctly, SCRAM came from the early reactor 
> shutdown
> mechanisms. (Was it Fermi?) The shutdown operators were 
> stationed at the
> control rod lifting mechanisms which were simply ropes attached 
> to the
> rods. When the word came over to drop the rods, they would take 
> axes and
> chop the ropes to shutdown the reactor. After they chopped the 
> ropes,
> they were told to SCRAM out of the area.  At least that is the 
> story I
> was told. 
 
Eugene Forrer
Texas Department of Health
Bureau of Radiation Control