Alvin Radkowsky
Encyclopedia
Alvin Radkowsky was a nuclear physicist and chief scientist at U.S. Navy nuclear propulsion division. His work in the 1950s led to major advances in nuclear-ship technology and civilian use of nuclear power
.
. He studied electrical engineering
at the City College of New York
(B.S., 1935), and physics
at George Washington University
(M.S., 1941; advisor was Dr. Edward Teller
), and at Catholic University
(Ph.D.
1947; Thesis: "Temperature dependence of electron energy levels in solids") He married Annette Eisenberg in 1951. (Daughter, Gilah Chukat. Six grandchildren. Brother, Lawrence Radkowsky.) He moved to Israel
in 1972, and lived in Ramat Chen. Radkowsky was an Orthodox Jew
, and wrote several articles on miracles and science..
Radkowsky worked on nuclear reactors at the Argonne National Laboratory
, in the 1930s, and also worked for the Singer sewing machine firm. He was a civilian nuclear physicist in the US Navy from 1938 to 1972, where he was chief scientist of the Bureau of Ships' nuclear propulsion division, and in which role he worked closely with Admiral Hyman G. Rickover
. Radkowsky was also chief scientist in the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (now Dept. of Energy), Office of Naval Reactors from 1950 to 1972. He taught nuclear engineering
at Tel Aviv University
(1972–1994), and at Ben Gurion University (1994–2002).
In 1992, Radkowsky started what is now Thorium Power Inc. Thorium
fueled reactors allow nations the capability to generate energy while preventing them from using spent fuels to produce nuclear weapon
s. He is reported to have said "If we don't put a stop to conventional uranium cores, nuclear terror will ensue." Thorium Power participated in the design of the thorium reactors to burn plutonium from old nuclear weapons. It is now being tested at the Kurchatov Institute
in Moscow. The fuel RTF (Radkowsky Thorium Fuel) is named after him.
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
.
Biography
Radkowsky was a native of Elizabeth, New JerseyElizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...
. He studied electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
at the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
(B.S., 1935), and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
(M.S., 1941; advisor was Dr. Edward Teller
Edward Teller
Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist, known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb," even though he did not care for the title. Teller made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy , and surface physics...
), and at Catholic University
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
(Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
1947; Thesis: "Temperature dependence of electron energy levels in solids") He married Annette Eisenberg in 1951. (Daughter, Gilah Chukat. Six grandchildren. Brother, Lawrence Radkowsky.) He moved to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in 1972, and lived in Ramat Chen. Radkowsky was an Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
, and wrote several articles on miracles and science..
Radkowsky worked on nuclear reactors at the Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is the first science and engineering research national laboratory in the United States, receiving this designation on July 1, 1946. It is the largest national laboratory by size and scope in the Midwest...
, in the 1930s, and also worked for the Singer sewing machine firm. He was a civilian nuclear physicist in the US Navy from 1938 to 1972, where he was chief scientist of the Bureau of Ships' nuclear propulsion division, and in which role he worked closely with Admiral Hyman G. Rickover
Hyman G. Rickover
Hyman George Rickover was a four-star admiral of the United States Navy who directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of Naval Reactors...
. Radkowsky was also chief scientist in the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (now Dept. of Energy), Office of Naval Reactors from 1950 to 1972. He taught nuclear engineering
Nuclear engineering
Nuclear engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the application of the breakdown as well as the fusion of atomic nuclei and/or the application of other sub-atomic physics, based on the principles of nuclear physics...
at Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
(1972–1994), and at Ben Gurion University (1994–2002).
In 1992, Radkowsky started what is now Thorium Power Inc. Thorium
Thorium
Thorium is a natural radioactive chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. It was discovered in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder....
fueled reactors allow nations the capability to generate energy while preventing them from using spent fuels to produce nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s. He is reported to have said "If we don't put a stop to conventional uranium cores, nuclear terror will ensue." Thorium Power participated in the design of the thorium reactors to burn plutonium from old nuclear weapons. It is now being tested at the Kurchatov Institute
Kurchatov Institute
The Kurchatov Institute is Russia's leading research and development institution in the field of nuclear energy. In the Soviet Union it was known as I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy , abbreviated KIAE . It is named after Igor Kurchatov....
in Moscow. The fuel RTF (Radkowsky Thorium Fuel) is named after him.
Noted accomplishments
- Invented and refined methods to fuel a nuclear reactor that limited expensive reactor replacements.
- Key inventions in both naval propulsion and commercial nuclear power plants.
- Developed a process he called "burnable poison" using boron and other elements to control and prolong the reactions in naval reactor cores.
- Headed a design team that built the first full-scale civilian nuclear power, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station plant (Shippingport, PennsylvaniaShippingport, PennsylvaniaShippingport is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, along the Ohio River. The population was 237 at the 2000 census.-Nuclear power plant:...
).
Awards
- U.S. Navy's Distinguished Civilian Service Award.
- U.S. Navy's Meritorious Civilian Service Award.
- Elected in 1991 to the National Academy of EngineeringNational Academy of EngineeringThe National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
. - Fellow of the American Physical SocietyAmerican Physical SocietyThe American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
. - Fellow of the American Nuclear SocietyAmerican Nuclear SocietyThe American Nuclear Society is an international, not-for-profit 501 scientific and educational organization with a membership of approximately 11,000 scientists, engineers, educators, students, and other associate members. Approximately 900 members live outside the United States in 40 countries....
. - ANS Alvin M. Weinberg Medal for outstanding international technical and policy leadership in nuclear science and technology, 2001.
See also
- Alvin M. WeinbergAlvin M. WeinbergAlvin Martin Weinberg was an American nuclear physicist who was the administrator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory during and after the Manhattan Project period. He came to Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 1945 and remained there until his death in 2006.-Early years in Chicago: Alvin Weinberg was born...
- Modern day Orthodox Jewish views on evolution
- Prominent Orthodox physicists:
- Nathan AviezerNathan AviezerNathan Aviezer is an American-Israeli physicist who writes on creationism, evolution and cosmology from an Orthodox Jewish perspective. He is a Professor of Physics and former Chairman of the Physics Department of Bar-Ilan University.-Biography:...
- Herman BranoverHerman BranoverHerman Branover is Russian Israeli physicist and Jewish educator. He is best known in the Jewish world as an inspiring author, translator, publisher, and educator. Branover is known in the world scientific community as the leading pioneer of the field of magnetohydrodynamics...
- Cyril DombCyril DombCyril Domb is a physicist best known for his lecturing and writing on the theory of phase transitions and critical phenomena of fluids. He is also known in the Orthodox Jewish world for his writings on Science and Judaism...
- Aryeh KaplanAryeh KaplanAryeh Moshe Eliyahu Kaplan was a noted American Orthodox rabbi and author known for his "intimate knowledge of both physics and kabbalah." He was lauded as an original thinker and prolific writer, from studies of the Torah, Talmud and mysticism to introductory pamphlets on Jewish beliefs and...
- Yehuda (Leo) LeviYehuda (Leo) LeviYehuda Levi was Rector and Professor of Electro-optics at the Jerusalem College of Technology. He is best known as the author of several books on Science and Judaism, and Judaism in contemporary society, as well as on physics.-Biography:...
- Gerald SchroederGerald SchroederGerald L. Schroeder is an Orthodox Jewish physicist, author and lecturer at Aish HaTorah's Discovery Seminar, Essentials and Fellowships programs and Executive Learning Center, who focuses on what he perceives to be an inherent relationship between science and spirituality.-Education:Schroeder...
- Nathan Aviezer
External links
- Obituary, washingtonpost.com
- Obituary, nytimes.com
- thoriumpower.com
- The non-proliferative commercial Radkowsky thorium fuel concept. M.J. Higatsberger, Institute for Experimental Physics, University of ViennaUniversity of ViennaThe University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
. - http://web.bgu.ac.il/NR/rdonlyres/B48D80A9-1059-42B4-96AA-4E985C29F325/5421/Presentation3.jpgPicture of Alvin Radkowsky on left receiving an award from Adm. Hyman G. RickoverHyman G. RickoverHyman George Rickover was a four-star admiral of the United States Navy who directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of Naval Reactors...
.]
