Alvin Radkowsky (30 June 1915 - 17 February 2002) 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. [1]
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Dr. Radkowsky was a native of Elizabeth, New Jersey. 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 [2]), and at Catholic University (Ph.D. 1947; Thesis: "Temperature dependence of electron energy levels in solids" [3]) 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. Dr. Radkowsky was an Orthodox Jew, and wrote several articles on miracles and science. [4].
He 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. He 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, he started what is now Thorium Power Inc.[5] Thorium fueled reactors allow nations the capability to generate energy while preventing them from using spent fuels to produce nuclear weapons. Dr. Radkowsky 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 for him [6].
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