Hyman Rickover was a larger-than-life (if elf-sized) character in the early history of nuclear reactors, and I feature him in the book. But I can’t include every Rickover drama – there were too many! Engineer Salomon Levy worked for General Electric in the 50s. GE’s nuclear laboratory, government-funded Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, was building an experimental submarine. . .
“What’s your book about?” I’m asked. “The history of nuclear power reactors,” I answer, or at least I used to answer. These days I might not even admit to being a writer. I enjoy debating the history I explore but the trouble is, nearly everyone ignores the word “history” and responds in one of two ways. Pro-nuclear advocates clamour for this. . .
Mikhail Gorbachev features only briefly in my narrative but he looms as large across the canvas of the Cold War as any other human being. Just released, William Taubman’s biography, Gorbachev: His Life and Times, is a tour de force. Taubman is the go-to biographer of Nikita Khrushchev, now I have no hesitation in recommending his Gorbachev rendering. Not only is it comprehensive and. . .
Early 1949, four years after the end of the World War, seven years after the first reactor went live. Atomic energy is locked behind barbed wires – it’s for making bombs. American utilities – the private or public firms that generate electricity for ordinary Americans – are naturally fascinated by the prospect of harnessing this new technology, but they know little more. . .
It’s the winter of 1954 and Walter Zinn at Argonne is, among other things, inventing the boiling water reactor, which will eventually be the second most popular around the world. As usual, he’s doing it on a shoestring, or more precisely, one of his favourite offsiders, Harold “Butch” Lichtenberger, is building it. Here’s Norman Hilberry, Zinn’s 2IC, writing to Lichtenberger: Dear Harold, Wally. . .
Mecklin’s Reuters article is essential reading. My research on North Korea’s attainment of nuke capability fully supports Mecklin’s thesis that the so-called crisis is “a media puppet show put on by Chairman Kim and President Trump for their own public relations purposes.”
Lewis Strauss headed America’s Atomic Energy Commission for three years from 1953 and it is fair to say few have influenced the history of nuclear power as much as he did. Although a complex character, generally the weight of history judges him as a negative force. On January 21, 1954, the First Lady, Mamie Eisenhower, launched the first nuclear submarine (though the reactor isn’t yet on board at. . .
In the August, 1956 issue of Nucleonics, the nuclear power industry’s US trade journal, I found this jotting: On December 7, 1954, Con Edison notified AEC that it was launching talks with various manufacturers in the nucleonics field. From several proposals made to it, the company selected a pressurized-water enriched-uranium thorium-converter reactor. I haven’t teased out this design strand but. . .
It’s February 1954 and English atomic mandarin John Cockcroft is trying to talk his UK Atomic Energy Executive colleagues into more European collaboration: “Plans are now being prepared by several European countries for the construction of new reactors. We are receiving a number of requests and ought now to develop a consistent policy.” Cockcroft’s instinctive and deep desire for nuclear. . .
In early 1952, Argonne’s head, Walter Zinn writes to his key administrative offsider, Joseph Boyce: “This is to place on record your responsibilities in connection with the training of Belgian scientists in unclassified reactor technology.” Boyce swings into action, setting up a full-time training program for five Belgian engineers, four physicists and a chemist (a later trade journal article. . .