finally joined in September of 1950, a layman might have thought the job was done except for minor details. This was far from the truth.

When such a line is laid, even far lesser lines, there is an inevitable large amount of refuse such as pieces of welding rods left inside. Clearing a 30 and 31 inch pipe more than 1,000 miles long is no mean project. Here is how it was accomplished, and here for the first time the Atomic Energy Commission was called upon to aid in putting a pipe line into business.

Line-scrapers, or pipe-pigs as the pipe liners call them, were run through the line to clear out the sand and bits of metal. But this is a tricky operation. The pipe liners like to keep track of just where the pipe-pigs are at any given time, especially as often happens one gets stuck in the pipe. From the AEC Tapline procured on a loan basis capsules of irradiated cobalt (cobalt 60) and these were placed in the pigs. Thus pipe line walkers with Geiger counters were able to spot the pigs at any time and make definite reports on their progress.

Atomic energy was also used to detect flaws in the welding. About one out of every 20 welds was photographed by gamma rays from radium

Tank farm under construction at Sidon terminal end