Samuel Untermyer II, (25 November 1912 – 26 January 2001) was an American

nuclear scientist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

. He was the son of notable

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

jurist Irwin Untermyer and grandson of attorney

Samuel Untermyer Samuel J. Untermyer (March 6, 1858 – March 16, 1940) was a prominent American lawyer and civic leader. He is also remembered for bequeathing his Yonkers, New York estate, now known as Untermyer Park, to the people of New York State. Life S ...

. Samuel Untermyer II theorized that steam bubble formation in a

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 ...

core would not produce unstable reactions, but would instead result in an inherently stable and self-controlling reactor design. This was eventually proved in the

BORAX experiments The BORAX Experiments were a series of safety experiments on boiling water nuclear reactors conducted by Argonne National Laboratory in the 1950s and 1960s at the National Reactor Testing Station in eastern Idaho.

, which led to the design of the

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 ...

. In recognition of his fundamental development work on water-cooled reactors, 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: ...

now has an award named after him for work in this field. Untermyer was awarded the Newcomen Medal in 1980.

External links

Samuel Untermyer II Award
page at American Nuclear Society

(The New York Times)
"Boiling Water Reactor Simulator with Passive Safety Systems - IAEA"
On page 14 there is a brief summary of Samuel Untermyer's work at Argonne National Laboratory on the BORAX experiments; (PDF, 11 MB).
Chapter on Untermyer and the BORAX experiments
in the Idaho National Laboratory's histor
''Proving the Principle''
1912 births 2001 deaths American nuclear physicists American people of German-Jewish descent Jewish American scientists 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American Jews {{US-engineer-stub