The Admiral of the Atom
city-journal.org
city-journal.org
Had he suggested I operated aircraft carrier reactors, I might have accepted it. If I melted down the reactor at least there would be some possibility of survival by swimming through the burning jet fuel.
In testimony to Congress on why naval nuclear propulsion had succeeded in achieving a record of zero reactor-accidents as opposed to the one recent accident at Three Mile Island:
"Over the years, many people have asked me how I run the Naval Reactors Program, so that they might find some benefit for their own work. I am always chagrined at the tendency of people to expect that I have a simple, easy gimmick that makes my program function. Any successful program functions as an integrated whole of many factors. Trying to select one aspect as the key one will not work. Each element depends on all the others."
From testimony to Congress:
"I do not believe that nuclear power is worth it if it creates radiation. Then you might ask me why do I have nuclear powered ships. That is a necessary evil. I would sink them all. I am not proud of the part I played in it. I did it because it was necessary for the safety of this country. That's why I am such a great exponent of stopping this whole nonsense of war. Unfortunately limits — attempts to limit war have always failed. The lesson of history is when a war starts every nation will ultimately use whatever weapon it has available." Further remarking: "Every time you produce radiation, you produce something that has a certain half-life, in some cases for billions of years. I think the human race is going to wreck itself, and it is important that we get control of this horrible force and try to eliminate it." (Economics of Defense Policy: Hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, 97th Cong., 2nd sess., Pt. 1 (1982))
On education:
"I suggest that this is a good time to think soberly about our responsibilities to our descendants - those who will ring out the Fossil Fuel Age. Our greatest responsibility, as parents and as citizens, is to give America's youngsters the best possible education. We need the best teachers and enough of them to prepare our young people for a future immeasurably more complex than the present, and calling for ever larger numbers of competent and highly trained men and women."
He had a great deal of admiration for Admiral Rickover. It's a complete surprise to me that Rickover is regarded as a jerk.
Liquid sodium-cooled reactors can be a lot more efficient than water-cooled reactors because you can get the liquid sodium a lot hotter. The efficiency of heat engines is determined largely by the difference between the hot part and the cold part.
So a Congressional committee invited the Admiral in to explain why the Navy didn't build submarines with sodium-cooled reactors. He responded by dropping a piece of sodium into a glass of water.
(Sodium burns on contact with water.)
Despite being a government employee himself, my father hated government employees with a furious passion.
We had a saying about civilian "managers" (what we'd now refer to as PHBs), attributed to Rickover: There but for the grace of God goes God.
Rickover's history is well documented; there are at least three book-length biographies of the man. The one by Polmar and Allen is probably the most honest.