Today, many efforts are in progress to develop and commercialize fission and fusion reactors in a wide variety of configurations. It's interesting to note that many of these underwent significant development many decades ago. Inspired in part by recently-digitized archival film and documentation, this talk will go back in time to highlight some of the more interesting but nearly forgotten power reactor development activities of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. It will cover early fission reactor experiments, Air Force Reactors, Naval Reactors, Army Reactors, some pioneering fusion work, the AEC's Power Demonstration Reactor Program, and many interesting tidbits along the way. Connections will be made between these old efforts and today's. Overall, you'll learn more about the magnitude of previous efforts, and get some tips about finding the details in the archives. The talk is mostly focused on fission, but fusion will also be discussed.
 

Bio:  Nick Touran, Ph.D., P.E., is a nuclear engineer with expertise in advanced fission reactor design, reactor development, and the history of nuclear power. After studying at the University of Michigan, he spent 15 years at TerraPower in Seattle working on core design, business support, software development, and configuration management. He has also been active in public education around nuclear since 2006 as the founder of whatisnuclear.com. He has spoken at many schools, events, and on podcasts. He has coordinated the digitization of numerous archival films, and was featured on NPR's Science Friday.