On July 19, 1956, the New York Times included an article that began: “The Atomic Energy Commission announced tonight that current atomic tests in the Pacific had proved it was now possible to minimize the ‘widespread fallout hazard’ from nuclear explosions. Lewis L. Strauss, commission chairman, made the announcement. He
Physicist/engineer James Mahaffey has written a number of books. His main three are Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power (2009); Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters from the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima (2014); and Atomic Adventures: Secret Islands, Forgotten N-Rays,
In Canadian chemist Les Cook’s slightly homespun nuclear memoir, he offers many interesting perspectives. Canadians today may be surprised to learn how the scientific and conceptual engineering contributions to the initiation of the Chalk River project, or to the first two reactors at Chalk River, ZEEP and NRX, all came
W. Bennett Lewis was the British-born third head of the Chalk River nuclear laboratory in Canada. Toward the end of his career, he was shunted sideways, but his influence on matters not only of physics (his specialty) but even engineering was legendary. The choice of fuel-sheath thickness is another prime
Ted (Theodore) Rockwell was one of the many talented nuclear engineers (in the early days they hadn’t received that label yet) who worked for Hyman Rickover during Rickover’s pioneering days. He was not only significant on the technical front, he was also prolific as an author, penning a number of
R. E. Newell (I wish I knew the first name) was the earliest chief engineer of the Chalk River nuclear laboratory in Canada. Like others, he originated from chemical giant ICI in the United Kingdom. He is another of those characters who pop up in the history, only to vanish,
The British World War II atomic effort was named Tube Alloys and it relied heavily on a Technical Committee of just over half a dozen scientists. John Cockcroft was the focus of attention on January 29, 1946, when the 28th meeting of the Technical Committee was held, because Cockcroft was
An unusual 1957 book I came across was by Leonard Bertin. I think he was a journalist. Hardly anyone cites this book, the British nuclear pioneers only mention it once or twice in correspondence, there’s a certain clumsiness about it … yet he extracts some lovely interviews. In particular he
For a time the United Kingdom outstripped even the United States with its nuclear reactor program, even though it began from scratch three years later and with few resources. The British effort was a joint one between the scientists at Harwell—by the 1950s one of the premier nuclear laboratories of
I’ve quoted Frank Close before but here is an evocative picture of Harwell, one of the most significant nuclear laboratories established globally: After the end of the war, in 1946, this site was taken over by “the Atomic,” as Harwell Laboratory was affectionately known. The Atomic had an air of