There are so many Hyman Rickover stories! Here’s one surfaced by an American journalist less than twenty years ago, referring to an event seven decades ago:
In 1953, he was under pressure from Adm. Rickover to make a presidential photo opportunity run flawlessly: President Dwight D. Eisenhower was to wave a wand (actually a neutron detector) in Denver, triggering a phone hookup to start a bulldozer that would break ground for an atomic-power station in Shippingport. “If that thing buries itself on the ground or the engine stalls, you’re going to be last year’s toast,” Adm. Rickover told Mr. Simpson, recalls Ted Rockwell.
Hughes, Robert J. 2007. “Harnessing the power of nuclear energy for civilians, submarines.” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 20.
