Navy Nuclear Power Program

[jhooper3581]

What college helped the Navy to start and use the Nuclear Power Program (the college is not part of the Navy)?

[Jester]

MIT

[Gamecock]

MIT

That is correct.

MIT set up a graduate program in nuclear engineering in 1949 that was approved by Rickover himself.

Before that, initial training took place at Oak Ridge.

Cheers,
GC

[co60slr]

What college helped the Navy to start and use the Nuclear Power Program (the college is not part of the Navy)?

Is it Columbia?

"In 1946 a project was begun at the Manhattan Project's nuclear-power focused Clinton Laboratory (now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory) to develop a nuclear electric generating plant. The United States Navy decided to send eight men to this project, including three civilians and one senior and four junior naval officers. Realizing the potential that nuclear energy held for the Navy, Rickover applied.

Although he was not initially selected, through the intercession of his wartime boss, Admiral Earle Mills, who became the head of the Navy's Bureau of Ships that same year, Rickover was finally sent to Oak Ridge as the deputy manager of the entire project, granting him access to all facilities, projects and reports.

Following efforts by physicists Ross Gunn, Philip Abelson and others in the Manhattan Project, he became an early convert to the idea of nuclear marine propulsion and more specifically, naval nuclear propulsion. Rickover worked with Alvin M. Weinberg, the Oak Ridge director of research, both to establish the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology and to begin the design of the pressurized water reactor for submarine propulsion."

[Gamecock]

"In 1946 a project was begun at the Manhattan Project's nuclear-power focused Clinton Laboratory (now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory) to develop a nuclear electric generating plant. The United States Navy decided to send eight men to this project, including three civilians and one senior and four junior naval officers. Realizing the potential that nuclear energy held for the Navy, Rickover applied.

Although he was not initially selected, through the intercession of his wartime boss, Admiral Earle Mills, who became the head of the Navy's Bureau of Ships that same year, Rickover was finally sent to Oak Ridge as the deputy manager of the entire project, granting him access to all facilities, projects and reports.

Following efforts by physicists Ross Gunn, Philip Abelson and others in the Manhattan Project, he became an early convert to the idea of nuclear marine propulsion and more specifically, naval nuclear propulsion. Rickover worked with Alvin M. Weinberg, the Oak Ridge director of research, both to establish the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology and to begin the design of the pressurized water reactor for submarine propulsion."

The question was....What college.....

Oak Ridge was not a college.

The correct answer is MIT.

Cheers,
GC

PS:  You should properly cite the book from which you copied the above quote.

[co60slr]

The question was....What college.....

Oak Ridge was not a college.

The correct answer is MIT.

Cheers,
GC

PS:  You should properly cite the book from which you copied the above quote.

The complete question by the poster was actually: What college helped the Navy start their Nuclear Program?   Perhaps I read too much into the question as "what college led the research and innovation that helped pave the way to the birth of the NNPP". 

While Rickover may have helped MIT set up THEIR program in 1949, I don't recall ever reading that MIT (exclusively?) helped Rickover at Oak Ridge in 1946, which is when/where the NNPP was started.  So, what is your source that MIT helped Rickover? 

All I could find in the MIT history archives was this:  http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/histories-offices/nuceng.html.  While I don't read the words "Rickover" or "Navy" in there anywhere, "Atomic Energy Commission" and the word "classified" is used enough for it to be implied perhaps.  Furthermore, the MIT history archives concede that the general nuclear project was "staffed by scientists from many institutions".

[Gamecock]

Source:  The Rickover Effect

"MIT agreed to set up a master's degree program in nuclear engineering for selected graduates of the regular program, and a curriculum was drawn up and agreed to by Rickover, to begin in June, 1949.  This program was the source of many of the officers who filled important positions in Rickover's program during its crucial early years...Rigorous training programs had been setup at Oak Ridge and MIT..."

The original/basic training was given at Oak Ridge, similar to our pipeline, with advanced coursework specifically at MIT (a university). 

Great book btw...

I agree....

The Oak Ridge school is now the Bettis Reactor Engineers School (BRES).

[jowlman]

I remember way back when, my recruiter telling me that MIT developed the curriculum for power school. Then again we all know what bastions of truth recruiters are.....