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Alvin Martin Weinberg (; April 20, 1915 – October 18, 2006) was an American nuclear physicist who was the administrator at
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research an ...
(ORNL) during and after the
Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
. He came to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in 1945 and remained there until his death in 2006. He was the first to use the term "
Faustian bargain Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroad ...
" to describe nuclear energy. A graduate of the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
, which awarded him his doctorate in mathematical
biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...
in 1939, Weinberg joined the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory in September 1941. The following year he became part of
Eugene Wigner Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner ( hu, Wigner Jenő Pál, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his co ...
's Theoretical Group, whose task was to design the
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...
s that would convert
uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
into plutonium. Weinberg replaced Wigner as director of research at ORNL in 1948, and became director of the laboratory in 1955. Under his direction it worked on the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program, and pioneered many innovative reactor designs, including the pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and
boiling water reactor A boiling water reactor (BWR) is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is a design different from a Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nu ...
s (BWRs), which have since become the dominant reactor types in commercial nuclear power plants, and
Aqueous Homogeneous Reactor Aqueous homogeneous reactors (AHR) are a type of nuclear reactor in which soluble nuclear salts (usually uranium sulfate or uranium nitrate) are dissolved in water. The fuel is mixed with the coolant and the moderator, thus the name "homogeneo ...
designs. In 1960, Weinberg was appointed to the
President's Science Advisory Committee The President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC) was created on November 21, 1957, by President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a direct response to the Soviet launching of the Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 satellites. PSAC was an upgrad ...
in the
Eisenhower administration Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure as the 34th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1953, and ended on January 20, 1961. Eisenhower, a Republican from Kansas, took office following a landslide victory ...
and later served on it in the
Kennedy administration John F. Kennedy's tenure as the 35th president of the United States, began with his inauguration on January 20, 1961, and ended with his assassination on November 22, 1963. A Democrat from Massachusetts, he took office following the 1960 ...
. After leaving the ORNL in 1973, he was named director of the Office of Energy Research and Development in Washington, D.C., in 1974. The following year he founded and became the first director of the Institute for Energy Analysis at
Oak Ridge Associated Universities Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) is a consortium of American universities headquartered in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with offices in Arlington, Virginia, Arvada, Colorado, Belcamp, Maryland, Cincinnati, Ohio and staff at other locations acro ...
(ORAU).


Early years in Chicago

Alvin Martin Weinberg was born April 20, 1915, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jacob Weinberg and Emma Levinson Weinberg, two Russian Jewish emigrants who met in 1905 on board the boat carrying them to the United States. He had an older sister, Fay Goleman, who was born on November 30, 1910. She later became a
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
professor at the University of the Pacific (her son is
Daniel Goleman Daniel Goleman (born March 7, 1946) is an author, psychologist, and science journalist. For twelve years, he wrote for ''The New York Times'', reporting on the brain and behavioral sciences. His 1995 book ''Emotional Intelligence'' was on ''Th ...
). He attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in Chicago. Weinberg entered the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
, from which he received his
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
(B.S.) degree in physics in 1935, and his
Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...
(M.S.) in physics the following year. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in mathematical
biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...
in 1939, writing his thesis on ''Mathematical foundations for a theory of biophysical periodicity'', under the supervision of Carl Eckart. Weinberg later lamented that, in restricting his thesis to
linear system In systems theory, a linear system is a mathematical model of a system based on the use of a linear operator. Linear systems typically exhibit features and properties that are much simpler than the nonlinear case. As a mathematical abstractio ...
s, he had overlooked interesting nonlinear systems that
Ilya Prigogine Viscount Ilya Romanovich Prigogine (; russian: Илья́ Рома́нович Приго́жин; 28 May 2003) was a physical chemist and Nobel laureate noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility. B ...
later received the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
for studying. While at Chicago, Weinberg was hired by the family of Margaret Despres, a student at the University of Chicago, to tutor her in mathematics. They were married on June 14, 1940. They had two sons, David Robert Weinberg and Richard J. Weinberg.


Metallurgical Laboratory

Weinberg taught courses at
Wright Junior College Wilbur Wright College, formerly known as Wright Junior College, is a public community college in Chicago. Part of the City Colleges of Chicago system, it offers two-year associate's degrees, as well as occupational training in IT, manufacturing, ...
. He applied for and received a
National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...
fellowship to study under
Kenneth S. Cole Kenneth Stewart Cole (July 10, 1900 – April 18, 1984) was an American biophysicist described by his peers as "a pioneer in the application of physical science to biology". Cole was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1967. Biography He wa ...
at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, but never took it up, as Cole came to Chicago to work on the
Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
as a radiation biologist. Weinberg was recruited to work at its Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago in September 1941 by Eckart and Samuel Allison, who needed someone to work on the latter's
neutron capture Neutron capture is a nuclear reaction in which an atomic nucleus and one or more neutrons collide and merge to form a heavier nucleus. Since neutrons have no electric charge, they can enter a nucleus more easily than positively charged protons, ...
calculations. In early 1942, Arthur Compton concentrated the Manhattan Project's various teams working on
plutonium Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...
at the University of Chicago. This brought in many top scientists including
Herbert Anderson Herbert Anderson (March 30, 1917 – June 11, 1994) was an American character actor from Oakland, California, probably best remembered for his role as Henry Mitchell, the father, on the CBS television sitcom '' Dennis the Menace.'' Back ...
, Bernard Feld, Enrico Fermi,
Leó Szilárd Leo Szilard (; hu, Szilárd Leó, pronounced ; born Leó Spitz; February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964) was a Hungarian-German-American physicist and inventor. He conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, patented the idea of a nuclear ...
and Walter Zinn from Columbia, and Edward Creutz,
Gilbert Plass Gilbert Norman Plass (March 22, 1920 – March 1, 2004) was a Canadian physicist who in the 1950s made predictions about the increase in global atmospheric carbon dioxide () levels in the 20th century and its effect on the average temperature of ...
,
Eugene Wigner Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner ( hu, Wigner Jenő Pál, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his co ...
and John Wheeler from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
. Weinberg became a protégé of Wigner. Wigner led the Theoretical Group at the Metallurgical Laboratory that included Alvin Weinberg, Katharine Way, Gale Young and Edward Creutz. The group's task was to design the production
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...
s that would convert
uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
into plutonium. At the time, reactors existed only on paper, and no reactor had yet gone critical. In July 1942, Wigner chose a conservative 100 MW design, with a
graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on lar ...
neutron moderator and water cooling. The choice of water as a coolant was controversial at the time. Water was known to absorb
neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons beh ...
s, thereby reducing the efficiency of the reactor, but Wigner was confident that his group's calculations were correct and that water would work, while the technical difficulties involved in using
helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
or
liquid metal A liquid metal is a metal or a metal alloy which is liquid at or near room temperature. The only stable liquid elemental metal at room temperature is mercury (Hg), which is molten above −38.8 °C (234.3 K, −37.9 °F). Three more ...
as a coolants would delay the project. After the
United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...
took over the Manhattan Project, it gave responsibility for the detailed design and construction of the reactors to DuPont. There was friction between the company and Wigner and his team. Major differences between Wigner's reactor design and DuPont's included increasing the number of process tubes from 1,500 in a circular array to 2,004 in a square array, and cutting the power from 500 MW to 250 MW. As it turned out, the design decision by DuPont to give the reactor additional tubes came in handy when
neutron poison In applications such as nuclear reactors, a neutron poison (also called a neutron absorber or a nuclear poison) is a substance with a large neutron absorption cross-section. In such applications, absorbing neutrons is normally an undesirable eff ...
ing became a problem for the
B Reactor The B Reactor at the Hanford Site, near Richland, Washington, was the first large-scale nuclear reactor ever built. The project was a key part of the Manhattan Project, the United States nuclear weapons development program during World War II. I ...
at the
Hanford Site The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including SiteW a ...
. The extra tubes allowed a greater fuel load to overcome the poisoning. Without them the reactor would have had to be run at low power until enough of the boron impurities in the graphite had been burned up to allow it to reach full power, which would have delayed full operation by up to a year. As the reactors at Hanford came online, the Metallurgical Laboratory turned its attention back to theoretical designs. The discovery of spontaneous fission in reactor-bred plutonium due to contamination by
plutonium-240 Plutonium-240 ( or Pu-240) is an isotope of plutonium formed when plutonium-239 captures a neutron. The detection of its spontaneous fission led to its discovery in 1944 at Los Alamos and had important consequences for the Manhattan Project. 240 ...
led Wigner to propose switching to breeding
uranium-233 Uranium-233 (233U or U-233) is a fissile isotope of uranium that is bred from thorium-232 as part of the thorium fuel cycle. Uranium-233 was investigated for use in nuclear weapons and as a reactor fuel. It has been used successfully in exp ...
from
thorium Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is silvery and tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft and malleable and has a high ...
, but the challenge was met by the
Los Alamos Laboratory The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Ro ...
developing an
implosion-type nuclear weapon Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types: * pure fission weapons, the simplest and least technically ...
design. Wigner was also intrigued by the possibility of doing away with much of the complexities of a reactor by having the uranium in solution or a slurry in heavy water. The Metallurgical Laboratory attempted to find a way of doing this. Amongst the competing designs, Weinberg proposed the
pressurized water reactor A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary coolant (water) i ...
, which ultimately became the most common design. This was only one of the many possibilities discussed by Weinberg and his colleagues at Chicago and Oak Ridge. Later, he wrote:
In these early days we explored all sorts of power reactors, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of each type. The number of possibilities was enormous, since there are many possibilities for each component of a reactor—fuel, coolant, moderator. The fissile material may be 233U, 235U, or 239Pu; the coolant may be: water, heavy water, gas, or liquid metal; the moderator may be: water, heavy water, beryllium, graphite—or, in a fast- neutron reactor, no moderator. I have calculated that, if one counted all the combinations of fuel, coolant, and moderator, one could identify about a thousand distinct reactors. Thus, at the very beginning of nuclear power, we had to choose which possibilities to pursue, which to ignore.
The ultimate success of the pressurized water reactor, he wrote, was due less to any superior characteristics of water, but rather to the decision to power the prototype of the Mark I submarine thermal reactor with a pressurized version of the Materials Testing Reactor at Oak Ridge. Once pressurized water was established, other possibilities became too expensive to pursue, but Weinberg remained interested in other possibilities. According to
Freeman Dyson Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was an English-American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, mathematical formulation of quantum m ...
, he was the only nuclear pioneer who supported the wide universe of reactor designs.


Work at Oak Ridge

In 1945, Wigner accepted a position as the director of research at the Clinton Laboratories in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which then had a staff of about 800. He took with him his protégés Gale Young, Katherine Way and Weinberg. Weinberg, who was the first to arrive at Oak Ridge in May 1945, became head of the Physics Division in 1946. But after the Atomic Energy Commission took over responsibility for the laboratory's operations from the Manhattan Project at the start of 1947, Wigner, feeling unsuited to a managerial role in the new environment, left Oak Ridge at the end of summer in 1947 and returned to Princeton University. The administration of the Clinton Laboratories passed from
Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...
to the University of Chicago in May 1947, and then to
Union Carbide Union Carbide Corporation is an American chemical corporation wholly owned subsidiary (since February 6, 2001) by Dow Chemical Company. Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers befo ...
in December 1947. The Atomic Energy Commission's influential General Advisory Committee, chaired by
J. Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is oft ...
, recommended that all work on reactors be concentrated at the Argonne National Laboratory, the successor to the Metallurgical Laboratory, near Chicago. There was also competition for staff and resources from the newly established
Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base and Japanese internment c ...
near New York. Morale was low, and no one could be found to take on the job of director of research at the laboratory, renamed the
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research an ...
(ORNL) in January 1948. At least six people turned down the job before Union Carbide's acting Director, Nelson (Bunny) Rucker, asked Weinberg to become Director of Research in March 1948. Weinberg was subsequently appointed director in 1955. He often sat in the front row at ORNL division information meetings and he would ask the first, often very penetrating, question after each scientific talk. For young scientists giving their first presentation, the experience could be frightening, but it was also exciting and stimulating. When asked how he found the time to attend every meeting, Weinberg replied jokingly, "We didn't have a DOE in those days."


Reactor development

The Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) project was ORNL's biggest program, using 25% of ORNL's budget. The ANP project's military goal was to produce a nuclear-powered aircraft (a bomber) to overcome the range limitations of jet-fueled aircraft at that time. That the project had little chance of success was not overlooked, but it provided employment and allowed ORNL to stay in the reactor development business. ORNL successfully built and operated a prototype of an aircraft reactor power plant by creating the world's first molten salt fueled and cooled reactor called the
Aircraft Reactor Experiment The Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE) was an experimental nuclear reactor designed to test the feasibility of fluid-fuel, high-temperature, high-power-density reactors for the propulsion of supersonic aircraft. It operated between November 8-12, ...
(ARE) in 1954, which set a record high temperature of operation of . Due to the radiation hazard posed to aircrew, and people on the ground in the event of a crash, new developments in
ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within the ...
technology, aerial refueling and longer range jet bombers, President Kennedy canceled the program in June 1961. Weinberg had the
Materials Testing Reactor A materials test reactor (MTR) is a high power research nuclear reactor. Examples Materials testing reactors include: * The Materials Testing Reactor (MTR), an early reactor that operated in Idaho from 1952-1970. * Dounreay Materials Testing Re ...
converted into a mock-up of a real reactor called the Low Intensity Test Reactor (LITR) or "Poor Man's Pile". Experiments at the LITR led to the design of both pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and
boiling water reactor A boiling water reactor (BWR) is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is a design different from a Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nu ...
s (BWRs), which have since become the dominant reactor types in commercial nuclear power plants. Weinberg was attracted to the simplicity and self-controlling features of nuclear reactors that used fluid fuels, such as
Harold Urey Harold Clayton Urey ( ; April 29, 1893 – January 5, 1981) was an American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934 for the discovery of deuterium. He played a significant role in th ...
and Eugene Wigner's proposed
Aqueous Homogeneous Reactor Aqueous homogeneous reactors (AHR) are a type of nuclear reactor in which soluble nuclear salts (usually uranium sulfate or uranium nitrate) are dissolved in water. The fuel is mixed with the coolant and the moderator, thus the name "homogeneo ...
. Therefore, to support the Nuclear Aircraft project in the late 1940s, Weinberg asked ORNL's reactor engineers to design a reactor using liquid instead of solid fuel. This Homogeneous Reactor Experiment (HRE) was affectionately dubbed "Alvin's 3P reactor" because it required a pot, a pipe, and a pump. The HRE went into operation in 1950 and, at the criticality party, Weinberg brought the appropriate spirits: "When piles go critical in Chicago, we celebrate with wine. When piles go critical in Tennessee, we celebrate with
Jack Daniel's Jack Daniel's is a brand of Tennessee whiskey. It is produced in Lynchburg, Tennessee, by the Jack Daniel Distillery, which has been owned by the Brown–Forman Corporation since 1956. Packaged in square bottles, Jack Daniel's "Black Label" ...
." The HRE operated for 105 days before it was closed down. Despite its leaks and corrosion, valuable information was gained from its operation and it proved a simple and safe reactor to control. During the time the HRE was online, Senators
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
and Albert Gore, Sr. visited ORNL and were hosted by Weinberg.


Molten salt reactors

Under Weinberg, ORNL shifted its focus to a civilian version of the meltdown-proof
Molten Salt Reactor A molten salt reactor (MSR) is a class of nuclear fission reactor in which the primary nuclear reactor coolant and/or the fuel is a molten salt mixture. Only two MSRs have ever operated, both research reactors in the United States. The 1950's ...
(MSR) away from the military's "daft" idea of nuclear-powered aircraft. The
Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment The Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) was an experimental molten salt reactor research reactor at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). This technology was researched through the 1960s, the reactor was constructed by 1964, it went critica ...
(MSRE) set a record for continuous operation and was the first to use Thorium irradiated to produce uranium-233 as fuel. It also used
plutonium-239 Plutonium-239 (239Pu or Pu-239) is an isotope of plutonium. Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 is also used for that purpose. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three mai ...
and the standard, naturally occurring
uranium-235 Uranium-235 (235U or U-235) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that exi ...
. The MSR was known as the "chemist's reactor" because it was proposed mainly by chemists (ORNL's Ray Briant and Ed Bettis (an engineer) and NEPA's Vince Calkins), and because it used a chemical solution of melted
salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
s containing the
actinide The actinide () or actinoid () series encompasses the 15 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers from 89 to 103, actinium through lawrencium. The actinide series derives its name from the first element in the series, actinium. The info ...
s (uranium, thorium, and/or plutonium) in a carrier salt, most often composed of
beryllium Beryllium is a chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with other elements to form m ...
(BeF2) and
lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid ...
(LiF) (isotopically depleted in
Lithium-6 Naturally occurring lithium (3Li) is composed of two stable isotopes, lithium-6 and lithium-7, with the latter being far more abundant on Earth. Both of the natural isotopes have an unexpectedly low nuclear binding energy per nucleon ( for ...
to prevent excessive neutron capture or tritium production) –
FLiBe FLiBe is a molten salt made from a mixture of lithium fluoride (LiF) and beryllium fluoride (BeF2). It is both a nuclear reactor coolant and solvent for fertile or fissile material. It served both purposes in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experim ...
. The MSR also afforded the opportunity to change the chemistry of the molten salt while the reactor was operating to remove fission products and add new fuel or change the fuel, all of which is called "online processing".


Biological and environmental studies

Under Weinberg's tenure as director, ORNL's
Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
Division grew to five times the size of the next largest division. This division was charged with understanding how ionizing radiation interacts with living things and to try to find ways to help them survive radiation damage, such as bone marrow transplants. In the 1960s Weinberg also pursued new missions for ORNL, such as using nuclear energy to desalinate seawater. He recruited
Philip Hammond Philip Hammond, Baron Hammond of Runnymede (born 4 December 1955) is a British politician and life peer who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019, Foreign Secretary from 2014 to 2016, and Defence Secretary from 2011 to 2014. ...
from the
Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...
to further this mission and in 1970 started the first big ecology project in the United States: the
National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
 – Research Applied to National Needs Environmental Program.


Leadership

In 1958, Weinberg coauthored the first nuclear reactor textbook, ''The Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors'', with Wigner. The following year, 1959, he was elected president of the
American Nuclear Society The American Nuclear Society (ANS) is an international, not-for-profit organization of scientists, engineers, and industry professionals that promote the field of nuclear engineering and related disciplines. ANS is composed of three communities: ...
and, in 1960, began service on the
President's Science Advisory Committee The President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC) was created on November 21, 1957, by President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a direct response to the Soviet launching of the Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 satellites. PSAC was an upgrad ...
under the
Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
and
Kennedy administration John F. Kennedy's tenure as the 35th president of the United States, began with his inauguration on January 20, 1961, and ended with his assassination on November 22, 1963. A Democrat from Massachusetts, he took office following the 1960 ...
s. Starting in 1945 with Patent #2,736,696, Weinberg, usually with Wigner, filed numerous patents on the
light water reactor The light-water reactor (LWR) is a type of thermal-neutron reactor that uses normal water, as opposed to heavy water, as both its coolant and neutron moderator; furthermore a solid form of fissile elements is used as fuel. Thermal-neutron react ...
(LWR) technology that has provided the United States' primary nuclear reactors. The main LWR types are Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) and Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs), that serve in Naval propulsion and commercial nuclear power. In 1965 he was appointed vice president of Union Carbide's Nuclear Division. In a 1971 paper, Weinberg first used the term "
Faustian bargain Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroad ...
" to describe nuclear energy: Weinberg was fired by the
Nixon administration Richard Nixon's tenure as the 37th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of almost certain impeachment because of the Watergate Scanda ...
from ORNL in 1973 after 18 years as the laboratory's director, because he continued to advocate increased nuclear safety and molten salt reactors (MSRs), instead of the Administration's chosen
Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor A liquid metal cooled nuclear reactor, liquid metal fast reactor or LMFR is an advanced type of nuclear reactor where the primary coolant is a liquid metal. Liquid metal cooled reactors were first adapted for nuclear submarine use and have been s ...
(LMFBR) that the AEC's Director of Reactor Division, Milton Shaw, was appointed to develop. Weinberg's firing effectively halted development of the MSR, as it was virtually unknown by other nuclear laboratories and specialists. There was a brief revival of MSR research at ORNL as part of the Carter administration's nonproliferation interests, culminating in ORNL-TM-7207, "Conceptual Design Characteristics of a Denatured Molten-Salt Reactor with Once-Through Fueling", by Engel, ''et al.'', which is still considered by many to be the "reference design" for commercial molten salt reactors.


After Oak Ridge


Washington and ORAU

Weinberg was named director of the Office of Energy Research and Development in Washington, D.C., in 1974. The following year he founded and became the first director of Institute for Energy Analysis at
Oak Ridge Associated Universities Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) is a consortium of American universities headquartered in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with offices in Arlington, Virginia, Arvada, Colorado, Belcamp, Maryland, Cincinnati, Ohio and staff at other locations acro ...
(ORAU). This institute focused on evaluating alternatives for meeting future energy requirements. From 1976 to 1984, the Institute for Energy Analysis was a center for study of diverse issues related to
carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
and
global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
. He worked at ORAU until retiring to become an ORAU distinguished fellow in 1985. In 1972 Weinberg published a landmark article in Minerva entitled ''Science and Trans-science'', in which he focused on the interface between science and policy matters, especially governmental policy decisions: In June, 1977, Weinberg testified at a congressional hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Environment and the Atmosphere concerning the impact of increasing carbon dioxide emissions on global average temperatures. He stated that a doubling of global carbon dioxide emissions by 2025, which some scientists predicted would occur, would lead to a two-degree Celsius increase in global average temperature.


Retirement

Weinberg remained active in retirement. In 1992 he was named chairman of the International Friendship Bell Committee, which arranged for the installation of a Japanese bell in Oak Ridge. He also called for strengthening of the International Atomic Energy Agency and systems to defend against
nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
s. His first wife, Margaret, died in 1969. He later married a stock broker, Genevieve DePersio, who died in 2004. His son David died in 2003. Weinberg died at his home in Oak Ridge on October 18, 2006. He was survived by his other son, Richard, and sister Fay Goleman.


Legacy

The Alvin Weinberg Foundation is named for him.


Awards and Honors

* Outstanding Young American of the Year Award (1950–51) * Elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
(1960) * Elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences (1961) *
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award was established in 1959 in honor of a scientist who helped elevate American physics to the status of world leader in the field. E. O. Lawrence was the inventor of the cyclotron, an accelerator of subatomic par ...
(1960) *
Atoms for Peace Award The Atoms for Peace Award was established in 1955 through a grant of $1,000,000 by the Ford Motor Company Fund. An independent nonprofit corporation was set up to administer the award for the development or application of peaceful nuclear technol ...
(1960) * Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...
(1961) * Elected member of the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
(1977) *
Enrico Fermi Award The Enrico Fermi Award is a scientific award conferred by the President of the United States. It is awarded to honor scientists of international stature for their lifetime achievement in the development, use, or production of energy. It was establ ...
(1980)


Books

* ''The Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors'', Alvin M. Weinberg & Eugene P. Wigner, University of Chicago Press, 1958. * ''Reflections on Big Science'', Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1967. * ''The Second Nuclear Era: A New Start for Nuclear Power'', Alvin M. Weinberg ; Russ Manning, editor; New York: Praeger, 1985; . * ''Continuing the Nuclear Dialogue: Selected Essays'', Alvin M. Weinberg ; selected and with introductory comments by Russell M. Ball; La Grange Park, Illinois: American Nuclear Society, 1985; . * ''Strategic Defenses and Arms Control'', Edited by Alvin M. Weinberg, Jack N. Barkenbus. New York: Paragon House, 1988; . * ''Stability and Strategic Defenses'', Edited by Jack N. Barkenbus and Alvin M. Weinberg, Washington, DC: Washington Institute Press, 1989; . * ''Nuclear Reactions: Science and Trans-Science'', American Institute of Physics, 1992; . * ''The First Nuclear Era: The Life and Times of a Technological Fixer'', New York: AIP Press, 1994. . Weinberg's autobiography, covering the period from the early 1940s to the early 1990s.


Notes


References

* * * * *


External links


Alvin Weinberg Memorial1986 Audio Interview with Alvin Weinberg by S. L. Sanger
Voices of the Manhattan Project
Alvin Weinberg Papers (Finding Aid)
University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinberg, Alvin M 1915 births 2006 deaths Scientists from Chicago People from Oak Ridge, Tennessee American people of Russian-Jewish descent American nuclear physicists Oak Ridge National Laboratory people Atoms for Peace Award recipients Manhattan Project people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Enrico Fermi Award recipients Members of the American Philosophical Society Fellows of the American Physical Society