Heatherfield smiled. ‘He’s already done me proud,’ he said.
‘Good. Well, he has a way with the girls in the ticket agencies; so if you want to see My Fair Lady he’s your man. Then there’s Alec Manson, across the table. He’s our research man here — quite separate from the Marsdowne establishment. As you will see, an enormous variety of work is done at the labs downstairs — anything, in fact, from testing new fluorescent materials for television screens to giving a free opinion to industrial organizations on such matters as the design of reactors, X-ray photography, “programming” — that is the word, isn’t it? — for electronic computers — even such things as radioactive gadgets for checking the “register” in printing machines. Everything of ours, in fact, that is not actually done at Marsdowne.
‘Marsdowne itself is entirely run by Jack Seff, on my right here, and is our main research establishment — the equivalent of the atomic Energy Authority’s establishment at Harwell.’
‘What is its function, then? Surely not to duplicate what they do?’
‘No. You might describe it as a ‘pure research link’ with private industry. Just as Alec examines their practical problems in the lab here, so Jack Seff helps them with basic development. Of course, the two things are very closely knit; so Jack and Alec spend a good deal of time together — in fact, Manson is up at Marsdowne two weeks in every four, and vice versa. All our heavy plant is at Marsdowne; and although it isn’t as well-equipped as Harwell, it is very advanced in certain fields.’
Heatherfield phrased his next question rather carefully. ‘Is it at Marsdowne,’ he said, ‘where most of the radioactive materials originate — I mean, those for which your department are responsible?’
Seff answered this himself. This time he seemed to be perfectly at his ease. ‘That is so,’ he affirmed. ‘The whole process of the acquiring, storing, disposal and everything else of radioactive materials is entirely my responsibility.’
There was a short, slightly tense, silence for a few seconds. The Director looked at Seff with just a faint suggestion of a smile. ‘Not forgetting,’ he added pointedly, ‘that the ultimate responsibility is mine.’
For a moment even Mr Rupert appeared to hesitate, sensing the atmosphere. Surprisingly, Manson said: ‘You should understand, Mr Heatherfield, that though responsibilities are necessarily clearly defined, we all work so closely as a team that we sometimes exchange our jobs. Last week, for instance, I personally transported, in a lead-lined truck, enough cobalt-60 to kill everyone in this room if it were to be placed in the centre of the table without any shielding. If anything had gone wrong, I would undoubtedly have taken part of the blame; but Seff would have had to take the responsibility for handing it over to me in the first place.’ He stared out of the window after this little speech.
If the Director was surprised at the generosity of this point, coming as it did from Manson, he did not show it. ‘A legitimate point, I think,’ he said. ‘But do not let us forget that at this meeting considerations of facts are of much greater significance than those of culpability. Therefore the fact that you did transport the isotope would have been more interesting to us if anything had gone wrong — which it did not — than why you did it, or whether it was your job to do it. I want to make that very clear from the start. All through this meeting, however long it goes on, I want you all to think in that objective way. Sorry, Frank; please go on.’
‘ ’T’sall right, old boy. Glad the point was made. You will no doubt be beginning to see, Mr Heatherfield, that we work very much as a team here.’
‘Yes, indeed,’ said Heatherfield. He was impressed.
‘Now, who’s left? Oh yes: the large person you see on the Director’s left is Arlen Gatt. In a way he’s like the doctor; we call him in when we get into trouble — though up to now, I’m glad to say. there has only been one real failure. But you’ll hear all about Project 3 later, no doubt. At Marsdowne Seff works to extremely wide margins, by which I mean, for example, that he keeps the radiation level down to something like fifteen per cent of the maximum safe figure. Now, he doesn’t wait for that to rise even to within a mashie shot of the danger-point before he takes action. In fact, if it goes up to thirty per cent, he shuts down and full emergency safety measures go into action. In this event Gatt drops everything and goes up there to keep an eye on things.’
Gatt took over, looking at Seff appraisingly for an instant before he directed his attention towards Heatherfield. ‘You see, this is very necessary, not because Jack can’t handle it himself but because if anything comes unstuck he automatically has his hands full. Otherwise valuable data he could obtain in the event of such a minor crisis — and the threat, by the way, is seldom to personnel but rather to valuable equipment — would have to go by the board. You can learn just as much — or more — from a situation that has got partially out of control than you can when all is serene. But you mustn’t be distracted by side-issues to the experiment in hand. When a reactor gets overheated or an experiment goes wrong, Seff is more interested in the why and the wherefore than in the crisis itself. As a matter of fact, I think Jack rather enjoys it when the mighty atom starts playing hell; it’s an exciting business when you come to grips with the unknown. Is that right, Jack?’
Seff said: ‘Certainly, we like to have fun and games.’ He permitted himself a dry smile. ‘That’s not to say I let it happen deliberately — it’s too expensive on plant. I’ve lost more metering equipment that way! But the phrase “partially out of control” needs defining. Usually it means simply that the intended result has not been obtained.’
‘What’s the worst you can get?’ asked Heatherfield. ‘An explosion?’
Gatt smiled. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, but that’s quite impossible! The sort of thing that can happen is what occurred at Windscale — due to an unexpected effect of Wigner Growth in that particular case — and of course they had some real bad luck there.’ He unscrewed the lid of a small bottle of white tablets, and downed two of them with a glass of water. ‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘like Gilbert Harding, I’m ‘never without ’em’. The Pile,’ he continued, ‘begins to get really hot; and like any other boiler, it starts sending ash up the chimney. The trouble is the ash is radioactive; and if your traps are designed for a certain maximum and can’t handle any more — well, the smoke’s got to come out somewhere. In any case, that sort of thing can only happen in an open-circuit pile — a different sort of set-up altogether from ours.’ He smiled wryly. ‘Not that we haven’t had our own little diversions.’
Heatherfield persisted. ‘But supposing the mechanism working the rods got stuck, what then?’ He’d got them all smiling now. Except Gatt. He suddenly seemed to have got very interested in his blotter.
Seff answered the question, his hollow cheeks relaxing into a wry grin. ‘You certainly are anticipating the worst, aren’t you? Well, you’d have to do something pretty drastic, or all hell would be let loose. Otherwise you’d have a bloody great fire on your hands and radioactive ash would be scattered all over the countryside. If that happened, you’d probably have to evacuate a pretty wide area. But it wouldn’t turn into a bomb, if that’s what you’re driving at! Have I answered your question?’