Supplying the nuclear arsenal: Production reactor technology, management, and policy, 1942--1992

doi:https://doi.org/10.2172/140911

Title: Supplying the nuclear arsenal: Production reactor technology, management, and policy, 1942--1992

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Abstract

This book focuses on the lineage of America`s production reactors, those three at Hanford and their descendants, the reactors behind America`s nuclear weapons. The work will take only occasional sideways glances at the collateral lines of descent, the reactor cousins designed for experimental purposes, ship propulsion, and electric power generation. Over the decades from 1942 through 1992, fourteen American production reactors made enough plutonium to fuel a formidable arsenal of more than twenty thousand weapons. In the last years of that period, planners, nuclear engineers, and managers struggled over designs for the next generation of production reactors. The story of fourteen individual machines and of the planning effort to replace them might appear relatively narrow. Yet these machines lay at the heart of the nation`s nuclear weapons complex. The story of these machines is the story of arming the winning weapon, supplying the nuclear arms race. This book is intended to capture the history of the first fourteen production reactors, and associated design work, in the face of the end of the Cold War.

Authors:: Carlisle, R P; Zenzen, J M

Publication Date:: 1994-01-01

Research Org.:: History Associates, Inc., Rockville, MD (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)

OSTI Identifier:: 140911

Report Number(s):: DOE/NP/00092-T1
ON: DE94008661; TRN: 94:003966

DOE Contract Number:: AC02-91NP00092

Resource Type:: Technical Report

Resource Relation:: Other Information: PBD: Jan 1994

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 22 NUCLEAR REACTOR TECHNOLOGY; PRODUCTION REACTORS; HISTORICAL ASPECTS; USA

Citation Formats


                    Carlisle, R P, and Zenzen, J M. Supplying the nuclear arsenal: Production reactor technology, management, and policy, 1942--1992.  United States: N. p., 1994. 
        Web.  doi:10.2172/140911.

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                    Carlisle, R P, & Zenzen, J M. Supplying the nuclear arsenal: Production reactor technology, management, and policy, 1942--1992.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.2172/140911

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                    Carlisle, R P, and Zenzen, J M. Sat .  
        "Supplying the nuclear arsenal: Production reactor technology, management, and policy, 1942--1992".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.2172/140911.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/140911.

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@article{osti_140911,

  title        = {Supplying the nuclear arsenal: Production reactor technology, management, and policy, 1942--1992},

  author       = {Carlisle, R P and Zenzen, J M},

  abstractNote = {This book focuses on the lineage of America`s production reactors, those three at Hanford and their descendants, the reactors behind America`s nuclear weapons. The work will take only occasional sideways glances at the collateral lines of descent, the reactor cousins designed for experimental purposes, ship propulsion, and electric power generation. Over the decades from 1942 through 1992, fourteen American production reactors made enough plutonium to fuel a formidable arsenal of more than twenty thousand weapons. In the last years of that period, planners, nuclear engineers, and managers struggled over designs for the next generation of production reactors. The story of fourteen individual machines and of the planning effort to replace them might appear relatively narrow. Yet these machines lay at the heart of the nation`s nuclear weapons complex. The story of these machines is the story of arming the winning weapon, supplying the nuclear arms race. This book is intended to capture the history of the first fourteen production reactors, and associated design work, in the face of the end of the Cold War.},

  doi          = {10.2172/140911},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/140911},
  journal      = {},
number       = ,

  volume       = ,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {1994},

  month        = {1}

}

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