Skip to main content

Memorial Tributes Volume 24 (2022) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

WALTER H. ZINN
Pages 396-404

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 397...
... WEINBERG AND ROBERT ZINN WALTER HENRY ZINN was Enrico Fermi's close associate during the Manhattan Project and after World War II became the leading US figure in the earliest development of nuclear energy. So pervasive was his stamp on the field that a proper memorial to Walter Zinn must be nothing short of an account of the origins of nuclear energy and of his influence on its development.
From page 398...
... In those exciting days nuclear physicists were asking how many neutrons were emitted by a uranium nucleus undergoing fission induced by a neutron. If the answer were greater than one, a nuclear chain reaction was possible; if less than one, a divergent chain reaction was impossible.
From page 399...
... By late 1941 the plutonium branch of the uranium project was consolidated under Arthur Compton at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, and Zinn accompanied Fermi to the Met Lab. Each experiment involved a pile of graphite and uranium about 11 feet high and 8 feet wide.
From page 400...
... In 1948 the AEC designated Argonne as the national laboratory responsible for all work on reactors and Walter became the nominal scientific boss of several reactor projects. These included the High Flux, a water-moderated, highly enriched reactor being designed in Oak Ridge under Wigner's supervision; the NaK-cooled fast breeder prototype (EBR-1)
From page 401...
... The Russian pilot plant was the forerunner of that country's plutonium-producing reactors; Argonne's BWR experiments led to the 90 large commercial BWRs now operating. The McCarthy era occurred during Walter's tenure as director of Argonne National Laboratory, and he had a few stories to tell about the hysteria that enveloped that period, including imagined security breaches at Argonne.
From page 402...
... Walter Zinn greatly influenced the earliest postwar decision as to which of the myriad power reactor concepts to pursue. He suggested two basically different paths: variants of the naval STR, which led to the commercial PWRs and BWRs; and the fast breeder, which led to the EBR-1 and its successor, EBR-2, and breeders in Russia, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and India.
From page 403...
... In 1966 Walter married Mary Teresa Pratt; she died in 2008. His stepsons Warren and Robert Johnson died in 2020 and 1991, respectively.


This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More information on Chapter Skim is available.