President Jimmy Carter and James Schlesinger, the first U.S. Secretary of Energy, at a meeting in Oak Ridge in 1978.

President Jimmy Carter, center, with Al Gore, at left, who later became vice president, at the K-25 site.

President Jimmy Carter, center, waves, as Al Gore, background, looks on.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Jimmy Carter was coming, and there was work to be done.

   It was May 18, 1978. In just four days, the 39th U.S. president would arrive at the K-25 site in Oak Ridge, becoming the first — and only — president ever to visit the historic government facility that played a vital role in America’s World War II victory.

   Dwight Potter, then a 28-year-old instrument mechanic, and his co-workers were assembled for an urgent task. The president was scheduled to stop at a display cell in Building K-33 that showed how the uranium enrichment process worked.

   Unfortunately, the building’s temperature could easily reach 100 degrees due to heat generated by the plant’s gaseous diffusion equipment.

   It was just too hot for a presidential visit, but there was a solution.

   “In four days, our team built an air conditioned enclosure for the display cell,” Potter said. “A lot of craftsmen worked together to get the job done quickly. I was running wiring for the audio system. As soon as a stretch or wiring was installed, the carpenters would come behind us nailing boards, and the painters were right behind them.”

   For extra security, all the entrance doors were welded shut, leaving only one roll-up door open where the President’s limousine could drive into the building.

   They finished the job on time, and the problem was solved.

   Did Potter see the president?

   “I saw him come flying through there in his presidential limousine,” he said. “They were moving fast when they pulled up to Portal 2. (Former U.S. Sen.) Jim Sasser was in the car with him, and they were both waving.”

   The president was in the building less than 30 minutes before moving on to the next stop.  

   “It was a lot of work for a 30-minute visit,” Potter says. “But after that, the display cell was air conditioned and continued to be used for dignitary visits. Later visitors had President Carter to thank for the cool air.”

   Two years later, Potter was again involved in a key initiative, this time as K-25 technical and operational specialists devised a $1.5 billion program to increase the productivity of the government’s gaseous diffusion plants. The upgrades involved not only barrier efficiency improvements, but also improvements in converters, compressors and coolers.

   Known formally as the Cascade Improvement and Cascade Up-Rating (CIP/CUP) Programs — pronounced by those around the plant as “Sip/Cup” — these efforts successfully increased production and decreased costs at plants in Oak Ridge and Paducah, Ky., finishing ahead of schedule in 1980 and under authorized budget limits.

   Potter, who worked at the Coca Cola Bottling plant in Rockwood and at Roane State Community College before his Oak Ridge career, received instrument mechanic training while working on the job at K-25.

   “I went through the K-25 training program onsite,” he recalls. “It was a three-year program. I worked 40 hours a week, and every Wednesday I spent a half day in class. I worked side by side with a senior instrument mechanic who taught me what he knew. Every six months, they moved me to a different building so I would be well-rounded.”

   Potter worked in the older enrichment buildings with more primitive pneumatic instruments that operated on air pressure. They were later replaced with state-of-the-art electronic instruments requiring updated training.

   “The enrichment process had to be dependable, so we spent a lot of time on routine maintenance,” Potter remembers. “They would take an entire cell off line, and we would have to calibrate every instrument in that cell. It kept us busy.”

   In 1985, DOE announced that Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion operations would shut down and be placed in standby after 40 years of operations. Research and development work on the advanced gas centrifuge program would be terminated. Atomic vapor laser isotope separation would become the enrichment process of the future.

   “It was a sad day, but we still had work to do,” Potter recalls. “After the shutdown, the company picked guys familiar with the enrichment process to find instrumentation to take to the other gaseous diffusion plants at Portsmouth (Ohio) and Paducah.”

   Reflecting on his 35 years at K-25, Potter was quick to say, “It was the best job I ever had.”

   It wasn’t the end of the story for the Potter family at the former K-25 site. Potter’s niece is employed by URS | CH2M Oak Ridge (UCOR), the contractor working to clean and transfer the site to enable a new chapter of development and economic opportunity in the region.