In addition to the solid slugs produced in Plant 6, hollow fuel element production was started about January 1, 1956. Hollow slug blanks were produced oversize on a 2⅝" RB-6 Acme-Gridley machine and were centerless ground before the drilling operation. The oversize slug blank was then loaded into a magazine loader on a 1⅝" Acme and thence through a four-step drilling operation making a hole halfway through the blank. The blank was then reversed and again placed in the magazine loader. After a four-step drilling sequence produces a hole all the way through the blank, a reamer was passed through this hole in the final position. The oversize Outer Diameter was turned concentric with the finished Inner Diameter on an automatic Sundstrand lathe. Subsequent operations were the same as those for the solid slug.