Arthur H. Snell

History and accomplishments of the Oak Ridge graphite reactor

At 4:00 A.M. on November 4, 1943, Louis Slotin knocked on the doors of the Oak Ridge houses of M. D. Whitaker and R. L. Doan, directors of the Clinton Laboratories of the Manhattan District. Through the night, uranium slugs had been continuously loaded into the closely‐guarded Graphite Reactor at “Site X” in the rolling hills of East Tennessee, and Whitaker and Doan had left strict instructions that criticality should not be achieved until after they had arrived at work the following morning. However, the critical mass had been overestimated, and the enthusiasm of Henry Newson, Lyle Borst, and Slotin had perhaps been underestimated; at any rate, criticality came sooner than expected, and Slotin found it necessary to jump into a car, drive into town, and rouse the bosses from their beds for a dusty but starlit drive of fifteen miles to the reactor site.

Nuclear reactors and the university

Perhaps a few of you were present at the 1954 Symposium on University Reactors, sponsored by the present august institutions and by the Subcommittee on University Reactors of the National Research Council. If so, you will remember the spirit of the time—university reactors were the thing; the one at North Carolina had been started with ceremony and success, and several others were planned, funded, and under design. In the new auditorium at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with the support and blessing of the Atomic Energy Commission, enthusiasm was in full flower. In this atmosphere, there appeared a character named Dr. Diddle. Diddle was a fictitious soul—a physics department head who had been given funds for a nuclear machine, the first in his university, and from his conversation there came the chilling suggestion that perhaps a reactor might not be the best choice. Diddles doubts may have had the effect of a damp blanket upon that conference for a few minutes; but, if so, the fires of enthusiasm qu...

Reactors or other nuclear machines

Please consider with me, if you will, the problem presented by Professor Diddle. Professor Diddle is, of course, a fictitious person; he is chairman of the physics department of the equally fictitious East Yaphank University. East Yaphank U at present has no nuclear machines, but the physics department wants to start some experimental nuclear physics, and Professor Diddle has appeared asking for advice as to what kind of a machine they should acquire. There seems to be no preconceived determining factor in the choice; that is, there is no betatron man on the staff and nobody who particularly wants a cyclotron or reactor. The feeling in the department is neutral.