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Lawrence

Livermore

National

Laboratory

July/August 1998

Celebrating Edward Teller

at 90


at 90

About the Review

On the occasion of Edward Teller’s 90thbirthday, S&TR has the pleasure of honoringLawrence Livermore’s co-founder and mostinfluential scientist. Teller is known for hisinventive work in physics, his concepts leadingto thermonuclear explosions, and his strongstands on such issues as science education, thenation’s strategic defense, the needs for sciencein the future, and sharing scientific information.The articles in this issue also show him, asalways, tirelessly moving forward with his newand changing interests.

• •

About the CoverLawrence

Livermore

National

Laboratory

July/August 1998


at 90


at 90

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for theDepartment of Energy. At Livermore, we focus science and technology on assuring our nation’s security.We also apply that expertise to solve other important national problems in energy, bioscience, and theenvironment. Science & Technology Review is published ten times a year to communicate, to a broadaudience, the Laboratory’s scientific and technological accomplishments in fulfilling its primary missions.The publication’s goal is to help readers understand these accomplishments and appreciate their value tothe individual citizen, the nation, and the world.

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© 1998. The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. This document has been authored by The Regents ofthe University of California under Contract No. W-7405-Eng-48 with the U.S. Government. To request permission to useany material contained in this document, please submit your request in writing to the Technical Information Department,Publication Services Group, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94551, or toour electronic mail address [email protected].

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Prepared by LLNL under contractNo. W-7405-Eng-48

SCIENTIFIC EDITOR

J. Smart

MANAGING EDITOR

Sam Hunter

PUBLICATION EDITOR

Sue Stull

WRITERS

Bart Hacker, Arnie Heller, Gina Kaiper, Sue Stull, Katie Walter, and Gloria Wilt

ART DIRECTOR AND DESIGNER

Kitty Tinsley

INTERNET DESIGNER

Kitty Tinsley

COMPOSITOR

Louisa Cardoza

PROOFREADER

Al Miguel

S&TR is a Director’s Office publication,produced by the Technical InformationDepartment, under the direction of the Office of Policy, Planning, and SpecialStudies.

2 Commentary by Bruce TarterHappy Birthday, Edward!

FeatureCelebrating Edward Teller at 90

4 Glimpses of an Exceptional Man6 Still Shaking Up Science Today

10 Gifts of a Fertile Mind22 For the Love of Science27 Edward Teller’s Awards28 Edward Teller’s Honorary Degrees

Edward Teller’s Books

S&TR Staff July/August 1998

LawrenceLivermoreNationalLaboratory

Printed in the United States of America

Available fromNational Technical Information ServiceU.S. Department of Commerce5285 Port Royal RoadSpringfield, Virginia 22161

UCRL-52000-98-7/8Distribution Category UC-700July/August 1998

2

Science & Technology Review July/August 1998

Commentary by Bruce Tarter

HEN we began making plans to celebrate Edward Teller’s90th birthday, I asked him if he would give a talk to the

Laboratory. We discussed it and agreed he would give twotalks, the first to a small group at lunch, and then an address inthe auditorium that would also be televised throughout theLaboratory. These events would be followed by a dinner andremarks the next evening at the Stanford University FacultyClub, near the Hoover Institution, where he now spends theother half of his professional life. All of us who participated inthis sequence of activities will remember and cherish them asremarkable for a scientist of any age, but simply astonishingfor someone entering his tenth decade.

At his birthday lunch, Dr. Teller reflected on the nature ofscientific inquiry, as contrasted with artistic value or moralpurpose. It was a particularly interesting talk because heillustrated it with anecdotes from his student days, including amemorable conversation with Niels Bohr. As he has so oftenin his life, he concluded by arguing strongly that knowledge bepursued as vigorously as possible, its applications sought, andboth the knowledge and applications described to everyone sothat decisions could then be made about their use.

In his speech to the Laboratory, “More Science inLivermore,” Dr. Teller reflected on the Laboratory and on whatit might do in the future. After remarking, “The Laboratory isthe one thing in my life I am completely happy about,” hebriefly described three specific contributions of the Laboratorythat had really major importance.

The first contribution was the introduction of very largecomputers into the scientific enterprise and our leadership in

this area for many years (and again today, I’m happy to say).The second was the development of nuclear weapons thatcould be carried by submarines—a very difficult technicalachievement, and one that changed the calculus of the ColdWar because it effectively negated the advantage of a firststrike (by either side). Finally, there was the work on strategicdefense, which he (and many others) believe led to thecollapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

Looking to the future, Dr. Teller enthralled the audienceby describing in some detail a particular area of research thatshould be possible with the National Ignition Facility currentlyunder construction. Specifically, we should be able to creatematter at very high pressures and (relatively) lowtemperatures, leading to an entirely new domain forlaboratory physics as well as exploring much of planetaryand astrophysics.

These two talks and their main themes are indicative ofthe intensity and diversity of Dr. Teller’s extraordinarycontributions as a scientist. At his birthday dinner at Stanford,I said the best gift we could offer him was to continue topursue knowledge and its applications as vigorously aspossible at the Laboratory and to focus on the future, not thepast. The one tangible gift is this issue of Science andTechnology Review, not as a memorial, but as a guide to thelife of one of the most original and important figures of the20th century.

Happy Birthday, Edward.

■ Bruce Tarter is the Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Happy Birthday, Edward!

W

3


EACHING one’s 90th birthday isin itself an achievement. Edward

Teller came to that milestone with muchmore—important accomplishments,great honor, public recognition. For sure,the way has sometimes been rough;controversies have surrounded a goodpart of his life. But Teller not only

R

1908 1910

1912

consulted by Papa Teller regardedEdward as exceptional in the subject.

Certainly, Teller’s early educationalambitions were to study mathematics atthe university. He was deterred in this bya father who, concerned about Edward’sprofessional future, bade him to studychemical engineering. For two yearsTeller did this, but he was pulled away bythe excitement over quantum mechanics,a new theory of physics that was changingthe way scientists viewed atoms andmolecules. Teller joined the fray and wentto the University of Leipzig, where hestudied under Werner Heisenberg.

Just before he entered Leipzig,tragedy struck: Teller, absentmindedlymissing his trolley stop, jumped off thevehicle after it had restarted and fellunder its tracks. He lost a foot to theaccident and has since then dependedon a prosthesis. The accident preventedhim from engaging in many athleticactivities, but his competitive spirit anddetermination allowed him to excel inone—Ping-Pong. Teller has said that hewas not greatly afflicted by the loss ofhis foot; Werner Heisenberg has saidthat it was the hardiness of Teller’s

Glimpses of an Exceptional Manendures, he has prevailed. Still activelypursuing new scientific ideas, still aleader in foreseeing problems in need of solution, Teller is irrepressible andinfluential. We had better take seriouslyhis wishes for his 100th birthday, among them, “excellent predictions—calculations and experiments—aboutthe interiors of the planets” that hewants Lawrence Livermore’s scientiststo give him.

If there was a foreshadow of hiscareer, it was late in appearing. Born inBudapest, Hungary, in 1908, little EdeTeller did not utter a word until he wasthree years old. His grandfather wasafraid he might be retarded. But in acase of all or nothing, when at last thechild began to speak, it was in completesentences. Shortly thereafter, he wasinventing mathematical games to amusehimself. At the family dinner table withfather Max, mother Ilona, and oldersister Emmi, he would sometimes askto be left alone because he had a“problem”—that is, he was pondering amathematics question. At an early age,he read and understood Euler’s text onalgebra. Mathematics professors

Born in Budapest,

Hungary, the son of

Max and Ilona Teller.Begins to talk late,

but in complete

sentences.

4


5


unhappy about being interrupted, ashappened one day when Leo Szilardphoned. Fortunately for Szilard, thereason for the call—confirming thefundamental basis for nuclear bombs,that neutrons bombarding elements couldcause the release of more neutrons—wasinteresting enough to displace Mozart.

If Teller likes to have his Steinway(the “monster” purchased at a hotelauction in Chicago) moved to whereverhe lives, he also likes to be surroundedby scientific colleagues and continuallyshare ideas. Essential to Teller’s scientificmethod are free exchanges that stimulatethought or check irrationalities. It is nosurprise that he feels strongly aboutscientific exchanges or that he expresseshimself well and is a natural teacher.

In his youth, Teller and his familyexperienced repression and persecution atthe hands of the Communists after BelaKun seized power in Hungary. One warlater, they were persecuted by Nazis. After1938, they were afraid to visit familyand friends in Hungary lest they bedetained by the instruments of Nazipower. Teller never saw his father again,and he was not to be reunited with hismother and older sister Emmi until 1959.Emmi’s husband was lost to the Nazis, aswas Mici’s brother.

The political events that so affectedTeller’s life also affected his scientific

career. His own inclination was to pursuepure science; war turned him into anapplied scientist who used his expertiseto develop weapons in the service ofthe United States. His work on thehydrogen bomb was an importantaccomplishment, especially when wefound out that the Soviets weredeveloping their own H-bomb. Thatwork also made possible an invulnerablesubmarine-based nuclear deterrent. Butsomehow the confluence of Teller’sachievement with the scientific debateover nuclear weapons in McCarthy-erapolitics led to the Teller–Oppenheimerconflagration that damaged bothscientists.

Teller has survived and gone on.Today, as emeritus director of LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory andsenior research fellow at the HooverInstitution at Stanford University, hecan look back on a very full life. ButTeller, being Teller, mostly looks ahead.

— Gloria Wilt

spirit, rather than stoicism, that allowedhim to cope so well with the accident.

Teller met his wife, nicknamedMici (for Augusta Maria), through hisfriendship with Edward “Suki” Harkanyi,her older brother. They married inFebruary 1934, after a long courtshippunctuated with separations caused byhis university studies and appointmentsand a break of two years caused by aquarrel over Mici’s decision to study atthe University of Pittsburgh without firstdiscussing any commitment to Edward.But their life together was foreordained.For over 60 years, Mici Teller has beenan integral part of Edward’s life atlocales in Europe and across the UnitedStates. Early one year, Mici wasuprooted from their home of threemonths and moved several times, fromthe Virginia suburbs to New York City,then to Berkeley, and, just as she foundherself pregnant, on to Chicago andfinally to Los Alamos. Paul, their firstchild, was born during the first summerat Los Alamos, and Wendy followedtwo years later.

Some scientists live only for theirwork. Teller, who greatly loves science,nevertheless has many other interestsand pursuits. Among them is music. Heis an accomplished pianist with anextensive classical repertoire. Whenrelaxing at the piano with Mozart, he is

1914

Attends Mellinger

School in Budapest.

Niels Bohr appliesquantum theory tothe movement ofelectrons aroundthe atom.

1916 1918

Enters the Minta

School established by

Moritz von Karmann.

Edward and Mici Teller have always enjoyedmusic. (Photo courtesy of Jon Brenneis.)

fields as well, has inspired generationsof nuclear physicists.”

Although he officially retired fromLawrence Livermore in 1975, Tellerremains extremely active. He currentlydivides his time between Livermore,where he is Director Emeritus, andStanford University’s Hoover Institution,where he is a senior research fellow.While at Livermore, Teller pursuesamazingly diverse research interestswith the gusto and curiosity of someone40 years younger. “He has an inbornwide range of interests, and it seemsevery year his interests get broader,”observes former Livermore Director John Nuckolls.

Longtime Livermore colleagueLowell Wood notes that there are many

generalists who know a little aboutmany things, but “Edward knows

a lot about everything.” BecauseTeller is expert in so many fields, he seesconnections and relationshipsbetween disciplines.

Says Wood, “Otherscientists can be king

6


of the hill for their narrow specialty, butEdward has the ‘intellectual bandwidth’to be pretty good in a lot of areas andtops in any area he chooses.” In thatrespect, says Wood, Teller is similar toother 20th-century greats like EnricoFermi, Leo Szilard, and John vonNeumann, who all made sizablecontributions to more than one field(and who all at one time or anotherwere close colleagues of Teller).

Livermore physicist NealSnyderman attributes Teller’s insatiablecuriosity to the fact that he was presentat the creation of quantum mechanics.“There was such excitement that youcould finally understand matter. Youfinally had rules and then the greatchallenge of trying to understandeverything.”

Concerning Teller’s famousassurance to the Navy in 1956 thatLawrence Livermore could produce athermonuclear warhead small enoughto be carried by a submarine, formerLivermore Director Johnny Foster saysthat Teller had studied the technicalchallenges of miniaturizing warheads to

HERE is little doubt that EdwardTeller is one of the towering figures

of 20th-century physics. At 90, he is stillone of the most influential men ofscience. Although his early training wasin chemical physics and spectroscopy,Teller has made substantial contributionsto such diverse fields as nuclear physics,plasma physics, astrophysics, andstatistical mechanics. LawrenceLivermore physicist Mort Weiss, a closefriend, has written: “His work hasshaped the nature of nuclear physicsresearch and has left an indelibleimpression on that field. His wide-ranging, questing, and tenacious approachto research, not only in nuclear physics

but in many other

T

1920

Socialists takeover Hungary.

Still Shaking Up Science Today

(left) Lowell Wood and Edward Teller have long worked physics challengestogether. (right) From Hungarian Ambassador Pal Tar, Teller accepts theMiddle Cross with the Star of the Order of Merit, one of the country’s highestdecorations. (Photo courtesy of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.)

7


a greater degree than people at the timeappreciated. “Actually, Teller does alot more thinking than talking.” If hehas a motto, says Foster, it is that“you’ve got to probe the limits.”

In attempting to explain Teller’smark in so many disciplines, Weisscites his “fantastic ability to absorbinformation.” What’s more, he says,“Teller’s a very intuitive thinker. He hasa lot of ideas, and every now and thenthere’s a real shaker that changes physics.”

Plenty of “Shakers”Teller is especially interested in the

contributions to physics that will bepossible with the National IgnitionFacility, now under construction atLivermore. “All of planetary physics andmuch of astrophysics, like the explanationof magnetic fields in sunspots, may welldepend on the findings of NIF,” hedeclared recently. Such findings, he said,could be even more important than theLaboratory’s contributions to nationalsecurity.

While much of Teller’s attention inthe 1980s was directed to designingdefensive systems to safeguard the nationagainst ballistic missile attack, his focusin the 1990s has expanded to protectingthe planet from possible catastrophes.One particular concern is the possibility

of catastrophic damage to the Earth froman asteroid or comet, similar to the onethat probably triggered the demise ofdinosaurs. Teller has collaborated withseveral Livermore physicists, includingDick More, on the issue of determiningwhether a collision by a giant asteroidwould disrupt Earth’s magnetic field.

A 1995 workshop at Livermore onplanetary defense drew more than 100scientists from China, Russia, Europe,and the U.S. Teller emphasized toattendees the need for experiments todetermine the composition and structureof comets and asteroids, and he discusseda strategy for mitigating hazardous objectsso large as to be beyond the capabilitiesof nuclear explosives.

“Today, we know a meteorite killed90% of all living things—dinosaurs andall kinds of other things. And that it wasthat meteorite that actually stimulatedour own evolution. I have never been infavor of people dying out and a newworld taking over. I would rather haveevolution based on dreamed possibilities.So I advocate the building of telescopes,the prediction of collisions, and thedeflection of objects, such as meteorites,”Teller said.

The topic of asteroid collisions withEarth has recently caught the fancy ofthe public and moviemakers. The

phenomenon illustrates the oft-repeatedobservation that Teller seems toanticipate society’s needs for scientificand technological solutions, but morethan that, he feels an overridingnecessity to personally provide answers.

Over the past few years, Teller’sconcern for the planet has grown todevising ingenious fixes for possibleenvironmental crises. He was the leadauthor of a paper presented at aninternational conference in Italy last yearthat outlined technological responses todrastic climate changes. He argued thatcurrent technology offers much morerealistic options for addressing globalwarming than proposed drastic cutbacksin carbon dioxide emissions. Oneattractive approach, he suggested,involves diminishing by about 1% theamount of sunlight reaching the Earth’ssurface, to counteract any warmingeffect of greenhouse gases. In likemanner, the paper discusses prospects for“physics-based modulation” of suddenplunges in temperatures, similar to thosein the past that resulted in mini ice ages.

Strongly related to Teller’s concernwith planetary protection is his interest inthe origin of life and the forces that haveshaped evolution. Snyderman suggestsTeller is interested in biology because itinvolves fundamental chemistry, one of

1922 1924

1926

1928

1930

Enters Karlsruhe Technical

Institute, Germany, to

study chemical

engineering and math.

Graduates

from the Minta

School, top of class

in physics and math.

Slips when

exiting astreetcar,

severingright foot.

Enters U. of

Leipzig to study

physics under

WernerHeisenberg.

ReceivesPh.D. inphysicsfrom U. of Leipzig.

8


1932 1934

his first great interests, and because theorigin of life presents “one of the greatquestions scientists are capable ofanswering but have not yet done so.”

Safer Nuclear PowerIf the industrial world’s production

of carbon dioxide is indeed causingglobal warming, then safe and affordablenuclear power, Teller believes, is a sureway to counteract that trend. His interestin safe fission reactors dates to the verybeginnings of the atomic age. Shortlyafter its formation in June 1947, theAtomic Energy Commission establishedthe Reactor Safeguard Committee, withTeller as its first chairman. NotesSnyderman, “Teller was involved fromthe very start of nuclear power morethan 50 years ago. He believes it’s theultimate practical power source, but healso recognizes there’s a publicperception that must be overcome.”

During the past decade, Teller hasworked with Wood and otherLivermore scientists on a new kind ofnuclear fission reactor. The papersdescribe a nuclear reactor that has nomoving parts and can operate withouthuman intervention for three decades.Such a reactor, the authors state, “maybe widely acceptable because its safety

features are simple, inexpensive, andeasily understood.” If widely employed,the reactor could directly reduce present-day worldwide carbon dioxide emissionsby twofold, thereby providing “asolution to all aspects of globalwarming.”

The advanced reactor would bedeployed 200 meters underground andcapable of delivering electrical powerup to 1,000 megawatts. It would beconnected to the plant’s electricalgenerator subsystems situatedaboveground. The residual radioactivitywould be sealed within the reactor’s coreand thereafter allowed to decay in place.Heat from the radioactivity wouldprevent water from reaching the system.

The novel concept has drawn interestfrom scientists from other nationallaboratories and even from Ukraineand Russia. Foster, who is familiar withthe design, says that although muchengineering work is required, the conceptis sound and deserves further work.“What energy source are we going toleave our children?” he asks.

Teller also has a long-term interestin applying nuclear energy (both fusionand fission) to space exploration. Woodrecalls working as a graduate studentwith Teller on designs for fission space

propulsion engines in the 1960s and onmore exotic, fusion-driven designs inthe 1970s. Teller’s current concept isa rocket engine, based on a uraniumsolution reactor, that would makepossible travel from Earth to Mars inone day. As might be expected, Teller’sinterests in space range far beyondvisiting the solar system, extending tothe great questions of moderncosmology, including the physics ofblack holes and gamma-ray bursts.

Interest in SuperconductorsColleagues say Teller’s enduring

interest in magnetism is a naturalextension of his early background inchemistry. One offshoot of that interest ishis work with Livermore physicist BrianWilson to advance the current theoryof high-temperature superconductingmaterials. First discovered in 1986,these materials carry currents withoutthe loss of any energy and in some casesgenerate immensely powerful magneticfields. A satisfactory explanation forhow high-temperature superconductorswork still eludes scientists.

Superconductivity is also of interestto Teller because the promise ofsupercomputers is dependent on the useof materials through which current can

MarriesAugustaMaria (“Mici”)

Harkanyi.

Rockefeller Fellow

at Niels Bohr’s

Copenhagen Institute

for Theoretical Physics.ResearchAssociate at

U. of Göttingen.

9


1936

1938

he’s in the hospital.” Foster describestaking his son to visit Teller at StanfordHospital. Wood was also visiting atthe time, Foster recalls, and within 15 seconds, the three scientists (includinga bedridden Teller), to the amazementof the younger Foster, were vigorouslyarguing physics, weapons systems, andballistic-missile-defense issues.

At the same time, Foster describes aman who is “just so gentle.” Friends andassociates all say they wish the publiccould see the Teller they know, a man ofwarmth, humor, and playfulness. Indeed,Wood says the single most strikingfeature about Teller’s life is the differencebetween the popular public image of thecold scientific genius and the reality ofa very warm, concerned human being.

Taking a StandTeller continues to take strong, and

occasionally unpopular, stands on issuesinvolving science and technology. In1995 he said, “We scientists are notresponsible and should not be responsiblefor making decisions. But we scientistsare uniquely and absolutely responsiblefor giving information. We must providethe decision makers with the data. Onthe basis of this, they will have the bestchance to make the right decisions.”

Teller never wavers from what hebelieves must be said, says Wood.“Politicians may not agree with him, butthey know they are listening to the voiceof integrity.” He points out that Tellerhad already “shaped the course of menand nations” by the time he reached theage of 70 in 1978. And yet, Teller becamea tireless advocate for strategic defenseduring the following decade, willinglyenduring much personal criticism fromboth politicians and fellow scientists.

Foster says that Teller has thoughtthrough the proper relationship ofscientist to society more carefully thananyone else he knows. “If there’s a bignational issue dealing with science andengineering, he’ll address that issue,work hard, and make his contributionregardless of politics. . . . He’ll go upagainst impossible odds. You’ll tell himthat he doesn’t have a chance, but he’llsay that he’s a champion of lost causes.”

“It’s striking to see a person at the ageof 90 interested in moving forward,” saysWood. “It’s a combination of physicalstrength and good genes, but moreimportant, a strength of character andof purpose. Teller chooses to make theeffort despite his failing physiology. I think that’s quite remarkable.”

— Arnie Heller

flow with little or no resistance. Tellerwas among the first to see that the futureof computers in science lay in creatingmodels of physical events.

What accounts for Teller’s fertilemind and extraordinary productivityeven at age 90? “Physics must be thefountain of youth,” says Snyderman.“He’s incredibly sharp. I can’t keep upwith him.” Snyderman, like Weiss, hasfor years met weekly with Teller todiscuss whatever topic is on his mindthat day. He admits that Teller has mostof the original ideas. “He’s alwaysthinking about the future, and yet hekeeps coming back to old problems. Ifhe’s not satisfied that a problem hasbeen completely resolved, he keepsreturning to find a practical and elegantsolution. The only authority to Edwardis logic.”

Snyderman says that he usuallyemerges from discussions with Teller“in such an excited mood.” Nuckollsfinds Teller today much as he waswhen Nuckolls arrived at Livermore inthe mid-1950s: “extremely creative andintuitive, with an insatiable curiosity.”Citing Teller’s “incredible intensity,”Foster observes that Teller is “not happyif he isn’t driving himself to exhaustion.Occasionally he oversteps it, and then

Lecturer

at U. ofLondon.

With Mici,

sails to the

U.S.

Professor of

physics at George

Washington U.

With George Gamow, establishes

“thermonuclear energy” theme for

annual Washington Conference on

Theoretical Physics.

Otto Hahn andFritz Straussman,working inGermany, splituranium atom.

Leo Szilardverifies neutronproduction fromfission ofuranium.

10

It was a fertile decade to which Edward Teller was born: Planck’s work

in radiation and energy, the Wright brothers’ first powered flight, and

Einstein’s theory of relativity. What Teller has accomplished is rooted

in his continual quest for knowledge and the

desire for scientists to share their findings.

S he enters his tenth decade, Edward Tellercontinues questing after knowledge and

innovation. Time recently cited his suggestion ofsending a robot spacecraft to rendezvous withasteroid XF11, first thought to be on a collisionpath with Earth. The idea was to get informationabout the composition and strength of passingasteroids so as to understand how best to destroyor divert them. Teller for some time has beeninterested in outer space and has been concernedwith the possibility of catastrophes caused byasteroids, comets, or other near-Earth objects. Infact, he and his colleagues have studied ways todeflect or destroy such objects with nuclear

A

Gifts of a Fertile MindGifts of a Fertile Mind

Drives Leo Szilard to Albert

Einstein’s summer cottage for

him to sign letter to President

Roosevelt about “. . . powerful

bombs of a new type.”


11

explosions. Prolific in his ideas anddetermined in his pursuit of scientifictruth, Teller has promoted scientificstudies far ahead of their time, studiesthat often have profoundly affected thedirection of science and technology.

While making notable contributionsto science, Teller has also involvedhimself in myriad causes. He haspromoted science education to developstrong scientists and engineers for thefuture; he has advocated openness insharing scientific information; he hasbeen at the forefront of developing safenuclear energy for civilian use; and hehas developed advanced technologiesto defend U.S. national security.

That last cause has, of course, broughtTeller both credit and controversy. Ithas endowed him with a larger-than-lifepresence in the scientific pantheon andhas forever tagged him as the “father ofthe hydrogen bomb.” Nevertheless, it isnot the sum of his work; a better symbolof his work is Lawrence LivermoreNational Laboratory, the institution Tellerfought for and cites as his proudestachievement. Founded as a secondweapons laboratory, it has also been,as Teller intended, a world-class scienceresearch institution that has made many

scientific innovations while servingthe nation’s security interests. Thework at Livermore demonstrates justhow comprehensive Teller science has been.

Doing Pure ScienceThroughout his career, Teller has

been a participant in the developmentof nuclear theory; he has helped shapethe nature of nuclear physics research.Trained in chemical physics andspectroscopy, he cast his research net

In 1957, thefounders of thenew Livermorebranch of theUniversity ofCalifornia RadiationLaboratory areshown: E. O.Lawrence, Teller,and Herbert F.York, the firstdirector.

1940

1942

across a broad range of physics subfields.He began with atomic and molecularphysics and broadened his expertisewith nuclear physics, plasma physics,astrophysics, and statistical mechanics.

In 1925, when Teller graduated fromgymnasium in Hungary and entereduniversity in Germany, it was a time of revolution and extraordinarybreakthroughs in physics. Einstein hadturned the scientific world on its headwith his theory of relativity. Then NielsBohr came along and invented the early

Hitler invades Poland.Britain and Francedeclare war onGermany. Germanyworks on atomic bomb.

Hitler invadesBelgium, theNetherlands, &Luxembourg.

Hears President Roosevelt address

Pan American Scientific Conference &

call to join in defending “our science, our

culture, our American freedom, and our

civilization” as a personal call to action.

Japan bombsPearl Harbor;U.S. declareswar on Japan& Germany.

Physicist, U. of Chicago,

working on chain-reaction

research for U.S. Office

of Scientific Research

& Development.Becomesnaturalized

U.S. citizen.

Physics professor,

Columbia U., working

with Enrico Fermi &

Leo Szilard on chain-

reaction research.

12


quantum theory—the radical insightthat electrons circling atomic nucleiwere jumping from orbit to orbitwithout heed to the space in between—and revolutionized the scientificunderstanding of atoms and molecules.Bohr’s theory started to explain thestability of atoms, how combinations ofneutral atoms could form chemicalbonds, and why atoms of a particularelement could form only limitednumbers of bonds.

Teller, fascinated by quantummechanics, changed from studyingchemical engineering—which he wasdoing at the behest of his father—andwent to the University of Leipzig tostudy physics under Werner Heisenberg,an important contributor to modernquantum mechanics theory. Heisenberg’suncertainty principle held that subatomicparticles are governed not by causalitybut by probability.

As Heisenberg’s student, Tellerobtained his Ph.D. in 1930 in theoreticalphysics. The same year, he publishedhis first paper, “Hydrogen MolecularIon,” the result of his application ofquantum mechanics to the chemicalbond of the positively charged hydrogenmolecule. Teller exactly calculated theenergy levels in an excited hydrogen

molecular ion and thereby explained theproperties and behavior of the hydrogenmolecule. A mathematics prodigy,Teller was the right person for solvingthe involved mathematics problem ofhow one electron spins around twonuclei. That work was one of theearliest descriptions and still is a widelyheld view of the molecule today.

During the 1930s, Teller continuedworking on electron structure inmolecular physics at the University ofGöttingen. With Heisenberg in 1933,Teller wrote another significant paper,which extended the Franck–Condonprinciple to symmetry-breakingtransitions among the nuclei in apolyatomic molecule. In 1939, this ideawas applied to absorption spectra ofbenzene, explaining an anomalous bandin the ultraviolet.

A series of collaborations with hisstudents and colleagues led to a 1937paper coauthored with Emil Jahn on theJahn–Teller effect, a statement aboutthe role of electron energy levels indetermining the shape of moleculeswith more than two atoms. Althoughthe proof was purely mathematical andits predictions were not verifiedexperimentally until 1952, it remainsone of Teller’s most significant and

1944

1946

enduring contributions. Because of the effect’s value in spectroscopy,calculating chemical reactivity, anddetermining crystal structure, itssignificance extends through all ofmodern chemistry.

Teller had meanwhile fled Germanyin 1933, going first to Copenhagen, thenLondon. In 1935, he accepted a positionat George Washington University, wherehe continued his work in chemicalphysics. His most significant result inthe late 1930s centered on the theory ofthe physical adsorption of gases onsurfaces. Named the BET theory afterthe initials of its creators Brunauer,Emmett, and Teller, it still plays a majorrole in calculations for such industrialprocesses as catalysis of chemicalreactions.

At George Washington, Teller begana fruitful collaboration in nuclear physicsand astrophysics with the distinguishedphysicist George Gamow. Their firstpublication appeared the same yearTeller arrived and led to the definitionof Gamow–Teller transitions, a still-important extension of the theory ofbeta decay. The beta decay theorydescribes the radioactive transformationof an atom as the nucleus emits orabsorbs an electron or positron, changing

First full-scalecontrolled nuclearreaction is achieved, ina reactor built atUniversity of Chicago.

Physicist, Manhattan

Engineer District, working

at Los Alamos Scientific

Laboratory.

PresidentRooseveltdies.

Germanysurrenders.

Trinity testshot of atomicdevice, fromNew Mexico.

Atomic bombis dropped onHiroshima &Nagasaki;Japansurrenders.

Physics professor, U. of

Chicago, taking leaves for

stints at Los Alamos.

13


conference wondered whether asplitting nucleus would release enoughadditional neutrons to start a fissionchain reaction that would release alarge amount of energy. Two monthsfollowing the conference, Leo Szilard, a Hungarian colleague and friend ofTeller’s, confirmed the feasibility ofsuch a chain reaction in his laboratory.A way had been found to make a bombof great power out of a small amount offissionable material, and Teller wouldplay a role in it.

The following events are wellrecounted in history books: Szilard andTeller convinced Einstein to sign a letterto President Roosevelt about an atom-bomb-building project; Americaentered the war, which galvanizedbomb research; the top-secret ManhattanProject enlisted an elite band ofscientists to work on the bomb in theremote mountains of Los Alamos; andwork culminated in 1945, with theexplosion of the world’s first atomicbomb.

Teller was present throughout thecritical points in the development ofthe atomic bomb. He obtained initialfederal funding for chain-reactionresearch, performing experiments bythe fall of 1941 with Leo Szilard and

1948

its atomic number by one withoutaltering its mass number. The Gamow–Teller theory provides rules forclassifying subatomic particle behaviorin radioactive decay.

With this work, Teller, who had beenpondering the activity of the electronspinning around the atom, found himselfdelving into the very heart of the atom,the nucleus. Teller and others’ prewarresearch in nuclear physics producedsignificant theoretical results on theforces holding nuclei together, theforces between nucleons, models ofthe atomic nucleus, and neutronscattering in molecular gases andcrystal lattices.

Developing Nuclear WeaponsIn 1939, at the Washington

Conference on Theoretical Physicsconvened annually by George Gamow,attendees received some startling news:the German scientists Otto Hahn andFritz Strassman had discovered fission.Bombarding uranium with neutrons,they had split the nucleus and released a great amount of energy.

That announcement was to be theopening salvo leading to the ManhattanProject and the development of theatomic bomb. Scientists at the

Becomes member of

National Academy of

Science.

Assistant Director

of Los Alamos

Scientific

Laboratory.

First Sovietfissiondevice isdetonated.

Mao Tse-Tungproclaims thePeople’sRepublic ofChina.

Is appointed chairman

of AEC’s Advisory

Committee on Nuclear

Reactor Safeguards.

Enrico Fermi at Columbia University.Their work led to the first controllednuclear reaction.

Early in the war, atomic researchintensified and was consolidated at theUniversity of Chicago’s MetallurgicalLaboratory, where Teller was a part ofthe theoretical group and worked onthe first nuclear reactor. There, thefeasibility of releasing significantnuclear energy was confirmed. TheManhattan Project to produce the bombbegan, and scientists took off for themountains of New Mexico.

Once Teller had settled his family inLos Alamos in April 1943, one of hisearly responsibilities was to indoctrinateincoming scientists about the project. Healso worked on implosion calculations,helping John von Neumann to developways to calculate the critical mass andnuclear efficiency of various bombdesigns. He devised the implosionapproach used in the first atomic bomb.

But even as he was involved with thework on the fission weapon, Teller,always thinking ahead, was pondering afusion bomb, one that worked not bysplitting heavy nuclei but by unitinglight nuclei. The same process thatpowers the sun and the stars, fusioninvolves hydrogen, whose nuclei are the

14


PresidentTrumanannounces thatU.S. will pursuedevelopment ofhydrogen bomb.

North Koreainvades SouthKorea; People’sRepublic ofChina sendsforces in.

Conceives of

radiation-imploded,

high-yield H-bomb

scheme.

1950

Begins campaign

for a second nuclear

weapons laboratory.

simplest in nature and have the lowestelectrical charge. Hydrogen nuclei alsohave the least repulsion of each other,so the nuclei fuse at lower temperatures.Scientists knew that fusion theoreticallycould release more energy per unit massthan fission.

With suggestions from Fermi, Tellerhad conceptualized a fusion weapon, inwhich a fission bomb would be used toheat a mass of deuterium (a heavy formof hydrogen) to start a fusion reaction.The concept stalled initially when Tellerthought his calculations indicated theunlikelihood of a fission weaponproducing the hundreds of millions ofdegrees of temperature needed to trigger

significant fusion. But Manhattan Projectcolleague Emil Konopinski revisitedthese calculations with him, and theyconcluded that the concept probablywould work. The thermonuclearsuperbomb became a secondaryendeavor during the Manhattan Project.

The end of the war diminished thegovernment’s interest in weapondevelopment, so research work at LosAlamos shrank significantly, as didfunds for nuclear testing and research.However, work on the “super” wasrevived upon the discovery that theSoviet Union, now an adversary of theU.S., had detonated an atomic bomb.A faction of the scientific community,

including Teller, felt that it would onlybe a matter of time before the Sovietsdeveloped a hydrogen bomb. To maintainthe balance of power, it was imperativefor the U.S. to develop a hydrogenbomb first. A majority of the scientificcommunity had doubts about the moralityor the practicality of developing such abomb, but pressure to build it mountedwith the discovery that ManhattanProject scientist Klaus Fuchs had passednuclear secrets—including concepts fora hydrogen bomb—to the Soviets. OnJanuary 31, 1950, President Trumangave the go-ahead to intensify thepursuit of the fusion hydrogen bomb.(See box, p. 16.)

Back at Los Alamos, scientists weretrying to solve a critical problem ofpropagating a fusion reaction initiated bya fission bomb through a cylinder ofliquid deuterium. The breakthroughcame when Teller invented the radiationimplosion concept, which was describedby Teller and Los Alamos colleagueStanislaw Ulam in one of the mostfamous documents produced during40 years of weapons research, but notwidely read because of its securityclassification. In the radiation implosionconcept, the fusion fuel is firstcompressed. This makes possible the

In 1952, the LosAlamos laboratorysuccessfully tested“Mike,” the world’sfirst thermonuclearexplosion, based onEdward Teller’sideas. Subsequently,the LivermoreLaboratory testedand developed thePolaris missilewarheads.

U.S.“Greenhouse”test ignites firstmeasurablethermonuclearburn.

15


1952

1954

ignition and effective burn of fusionfuel. Radiation is channeled from theexploding primary fission bomb to thesecondary fusion device, causing it toimplode and compress its fusion fuel.

The “Mike” thermonuclear devicebased on this radiation implosionconcept was exploded on Eniwetokatoll on October 31, 1952. In this firsttest, cryogenic deuterium fuel was used.Later, solid lithium–deuterium fuel was used.

Building an InstitutionWhat would become Lawrence

Livermore National Laboratory wasestablished just a few weeks before theMike test, on September 2, 1952. Itwas the result of vigorous efforts byTeller, who believed that a friendlycompetitor of the Los Alamoslaboratory would accelerate thedevelopment of thermonuclearweapons and fuel scientificaccomplishment. Teller was greatlyassisted by Ernest Lawrence, who alsocame up with a suitable site. TheLivermore laboratory began life as abranch of the University of CaliforniaRadiation Laboratory (now the ErnestOrlando Lawrence Berkeley NationalLaboratory).

Lawrence Livermore is stamped withTeller’s vision and ideas. Throughoutthe 45 years of its existence, Teller hasbeen its guiding presence.

Champion of Safe ReactorsNuclear fission was discovered just

before the beginning of World War II,which explains why its first applicationwas as a weapon. But it has the potentialfor many civilian uses. Teller has longbeen a champion of nuclear energy for

peaceful uses, particularly as analternative to other sources of energy.To that end, he has made manyfundamental contributions to the designof safe and reliable nuclear reactors forgenerating power.

In 1947, Edward Teller became thefirst chairman of the Atomic EnergyCommission’s Committee on ReactorSafeguards. The committee was originallyformed to review, evaluate, and advisethe AEC of the hazards of reactor

At the NevadaTest Site, Tellerand researchersinspect details ofOperationPlumbbob, inwhich the U.S.conducted the firstdemonstration ofa containedundergroundnuclear explosion.Teller wasinstrumental in thisdemonstration ofundergroundtesting withoutradioactive fallout.

Physics Professor,

U. of California.

Associate Director of

Livermore branch of

the U. of California

Radiation Laboratory.

First U.S.noncryogenicthermonuclearbomb tested.

First Sovietignition ofmeasurablethermonuclearburn.

Visits Livermore

with E. O. Lawrence;

encouraged to think

of this site for a

second laboratory.

National SecurityCouncil and AECauthorize a secondnuclear weaponslaboratory atLivermore.

Consultant to

Livermore branch of

U. of California

Radiation Laboratory.

U.S. “Mike”thermonuclear implosiondevice demonstratesfeasibility ofthermonuclear weapon.

16


Is awarded Doctor of Science

degree from Yale U., the first

of 23 honorary

degrees.

First Soviettest of agenuinethermo-nuclearbomb.

At Project NOBSKAmeeting, discussionof switch to solidpropellant & Teller’scompact weaponpaves way for Polarismissile.

Atomic EnergyCommissionsupports Teller’sprojection ofcompactwarheadfeasibility.

Serves on the General

Advisory Committee

to the AEC.

Instrumental in Operation

Plumbbob, first U.S. demonstration of a

contained underground nuclear explosion.

U.S.launchesAtlas inter-continentalballisticmissile.

1956

U.S.–U.S.S.R.moratoriumon nucleartestingbegins.

Developing the H-Bomb

In the fall of 1941, Enrico Fermi suggested that a fission bomb be used to heat a mass of deuterium to a temperature where thethermonuclear fusion of two deuterium atoms will proceed rapidly. I came up with a counter argument: that the needed temperature wouldbe so high that most energy will appear as useless radiation rather thanusable kinetic energy of the nuclei. Fermi agreed to my objection.

A few months later, I attempted to finalize my argument on thedeuterium-plus-deuterium reaction. We did not succeed. EmilKonopinski, my collaborator, suggested (correctly) that tritium in adeuterium-plus-tritium reaction might react much faster thandeuterium-plus-deuterium. I, in turn, proposed that the thermonuclearreaction might proceed before a lot of radiation is emitted and anequilibrium with radiation is established.

During this work, Oppenheimer invited us to participate in adiscussion at Berkeley about the problems of explosives using nuclearenergy. Oppenheimer mentioned the possibility of a hydrogen bomb toArthur Compton (head of the whole Chicago project), arguing that thefission and fusion bomb problems required a new laboratory, whichwas established in March 1943.

In Los Alamos, difficulties connected with the fission bomb soonrequired the whole available effort. But working with a small group, Icould give continued attention to the hydrogen bomb. It turned out thatit is quite difficult to postpone radiation equilibrium and obtainsufficient time for thermonuclear reactions. But it still seemed quitepromising to obtain a hydrogen bomb in this manner.

With the end of the Second World War, strong feelings developedagainst continuing the work. I returned to pure physics in Chicago forthe next few years, which personally I found more attractive.

In 1949, I returned as a visitor to Los Alamos with the mainpurpose to continue the improvement of the fission bomb. But in thesummer, the Soviets exploded a copy of our fission bomb. Thequestion arose whether work on the hydrogen bomb should be givennew emphasis. This possibility was strongly supported by ErnestLawrence. On the other hand, the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)advised unanimously against such a project. In Los Alamos, Ulam and

Everett made further calculations. They came up with results ofimproved quality, which, however, were negative on the feasibility of their approach to H-bombs.

By the end of 1950, I had the novel and positive answer. Because of the wartime work, we knew how to strongly compress thethermonuclear fuel, and, in the compressed fuel, radiation would beless important and would not inhibit the reaction. The Los Alamosadministration discouraged new approaches, so for the time being Irestricted myself to a few private discussions. One of these occurredbetween Ulam and myself in February 1951. Ulam suggestedcompression, for which I was fully prepared. I knew how to accomplishit, and I knew how it would help. I put all this down in a joint report,which Ulam signed but failed to support in subsequent discussions.

I took the opportunity of an SAB meeting (spring 1951) to presentthe plan for “an equilibrium hydrogen bomb,” in which compressedfuel would be used. I gained the unanimous support of the SAB.

At that time, progress at Los Alamos had been assured, and I feltthat it would be better for me to start work at an additional laboratory.This possibility materialized (with the essential help of ErnestLawrence) in Livermore. In 1952, in the early days of Livermore, thefirst hydrogen bomb was successfully exploded. The detailed thermo-nuclear design was furnished by John Wheeler and collaborators.

An important application of the hydrogen bomb came through aplan for placing such explosives in rockets carried by submarines. Thisdevelopment made it impossible for the Soviets to attack the UnitedStates and prevent retaliation. Indeed, rocket-delivered explosives arehard to shoot down, and the submarines that carry them are hard tolocate. The proposal I made succeeded because of the excellent work ofJohn Foster at Livermore, who designed a small and efficient primaryfission bomb, and Carl Haussmann, who designed a small and efficientsecondary hydrogen bomb. The resulting nuclear explosives were morethan ten times as powerful as those used during the Second World War,but the use of thermonuclear reactions made them flexible enough tobecome practical explosives carried by submarines.

— Edward Teller, June 1998

operations. The committee’s charter waslater expanded to include all aspects ofreactor safety.

Teller, an engaging and energeticchairman, led the committee as itincorporated many improvements. Thecommittee innovated such safety featuresas containment structures and methodsfor flooding the reactor in an emergency,promoted training of reactor operators

while advocating system designs thatlowered dependence on human factors,and devised systematic rules for reactorsiting that took into account the nearbypopulation and the reactor’s power level.

In the early years of reactortechnology, few techniques and littleinformation existed for evaluating reactorsafety. Probabilistic safety analysistechniques had not been developed, and

human tolerances to radiation andingestion of plutonium were not wellknown. Under Teller’s guidance, thecommittee developed the concept ofdesigning safety features into reactors toprevent the “worst possible accident.”Over time, this concept evolved to today’s“design basis accident,” which considersaccident probabilities in setting designsafety standards.

17


U.S.S.R.successfully testsintercontinentalballistic missile;launches Sputnik I.

Receives Albert

Einstein Award for

discoveries in

atomic, nuclear, &

solid-state physics.

BecomesDirector of

Livermore

Laboratory.

1958

U.S.launchesExplorer Isatellite.

In 1962, President Kennedypresents Edward Tellerwith the Enrico FermiAward in recognition of“contributions to chemicaland nuclear physics, forhis leadership inthermonuclear research,and for his efforts tostrengthen nationalsecurity.” (To the left isGlenn Seaborg, chairmanof the Atomic EnergyCommission; Teller’s wife,Mici, is at the President’sright.)

E. O.Lawrence,Director of U.of CaliforniaRadiationLaboratory,dies.

Livermore Lab

achieves breakthrough

in tests of Polaris

warhead prototypes.

18


Strategic Defense Initiative: The Next Step

It is widely believed that the rapid development of weapons ofmass destruction is the main danger humanity confronts. An extremeconsequence of this belief is that new scientific knowledge isconsidered dangerous and must be limited.

I strongly believe that the main danger lies in human intentionsand not in the ability to bring about mass destruction. An importantexample is the history of the wars of Genghis Khan—in particular,the destruction of Persia by the Mongols. More than half thepopulation of the defeated country was killed, and Persia, thepresent-day Iran, has never recovered its great historic importance.

I believe that the most important part of the present danger is dueto the situation that the world has become smaller and moreinteractive, and catastrophes may occur with unprecedented rapidity.

The United States, which is losing the remnants of its isolation,is a particularly important component in this change. The technicalcause of this change lies primarily in the development andworldwide proliferation of missiles. They may carry weapons ofmass destruction such as nuclear explosives or poisons (chemical orbiological), but even if they carry no more than high explosives,they are already a terrible and sudden danger to stability.

My attempts to do something about this situation go back tothe visit of Ronald Reagan, freshly elected governor of California,to the Livermore Laboratory. Reagan listened with an active interestto receive novel information of our attempts (in 1967) at missiledefense. He asked a few relevant questions and then left withoutstating clearly whether and to what extent he agreed.

That answer came in 1983 when Reagan gave a remarkableafter-dinner speech to a mixed audience of which I was a part.With a delay of sixteen years, he unambiguously stated that missiledefense was possible, necessary, and urgent. In that regard, hegave the Livermore initiative his full support. But how to do it?Reagan suggested that defense, if ever possible, should notutilize nuclear explosives.

In this new situation, my good friend, Lowell Wood, took thestrong initiative of advocating first x-ray lasers and later “BrilliantPebbles.” The latter (and final) proposal consisted in destroyingthe attacking missile by a direct collision with a small guideddefensive object. The defensive object should actually be a satellitealready in orbit. Lowell and others in our Laboratory continued todevelop this concept. Having helped and supported this effort, Iam convinced that it is realistic particularly with the continuinggreat advancement in computing capability. An important part of thedevelopment was and remains the specification that the aggressivemissile should be destroyed soon after it has been launched. Thisnecessitates continuing surveillance of our globe by satellites andan international understanding that unannounced missiles or missilesin unannounced orbits should be promptly destroyed. This, inturn, would make safety from rapid attack a worldwide benefit.

Such an effect has been strongly supported by PresidentsReagan and Bush. Unfortunately, efforts toward missile defensecontinue at present mostly in connection with defending ourarmed forces on their missions abroad. The American people(together with all other people in the world) should have such adefense that, indeed, necessitates defensive measures againstdangerous launches even before it is obvious who will beattacked. We give priority to the defense of our armed forces,whose needs as an organization must obviously be satisfied.Unfortunately, the need to defend our homeland may, in politicalpractice, be deemphasized by denying the possibility or, at anyrate, the urgency of such a defense.

What has been stated here does not describe my only technicalactivity nor the only strongly needed technical-military development.It appears to me that it stands out as a matter that has been in thepublic eye for a couple of decades and where there seems to bea necessity for change in emphasis in the immediate future.

— Edward Teller, May 1998

Resigns as Livermore

Laboratory Director; continues as

Associate Director; assumes

position of Professor-of-Physics-

at-Large with U. of California.

First Polarissystem tests, farahead ofschedule; firstPolaris submarinegoes to sea.

Moratorium onnuclear testingends withU.S.S.R.resumption of testing.

Receives AEC’s

Enrico Fermi Award for “contributions

to chemical and nuclear physics . . . leadership

in thermonuclear research . . . efforts to

strengthen national security.”

1960

1962

19


Limited NuclearTest Ban Treatyprohibitsatmospherictesting of nuclearweapons.

First U.S.combat troopsare committedto Vietnam.

Becomes Chairman of

Department of Applied

Science, U. of California at

Davis, Livermore Campus;

first class enters.

1964 1966

In 1956, Teller led a study thatculminated in the design of an inherentlysafe reactor. The TRIGA (Test, Research,Isotopes—General Atomics) reactor wasinvented that summer, the result of aTeller idea and his articulate advocacyof peaceful nuclear applications at the1955 Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva. Some 60 TRIGA reactors were later builtaround the world.

Teller’s study group developed aspecial reactor material system with anautomatic mechanism to stabilize poweroutput at a safe value and thus preventdangerous overheating. The TRIGAdesign has led to many important andvaried uses in nuclear education,research, and medicine.

Nuclear Power as ServantWhen President Eisenhower gave the

famous “Atoms for Peace” speech at theU.N., about adapting atomic-bombtechnology to peaceful uses, the idearesonated with Teller. He took the themefurther in a keynote speech to the JointAEC Weapons Laboratory Symposiumon Nonmilitary Uses of Nuclear andThermonuclear Explosions, held inLivermore in February 1957, where heled an effort to stimulate new ideas in

civilian nuclear applications. Theconference led to the initiation of thePlowshare Program in June 1957 toexplore the feasibility of using nuclearexplosions for applications such as earthmoving, power production, and breedingfissile materials such as plutonium.

Teller wholeheartedly endorsed theprogram and, through his writings andpublic talks, acquainted others with the

range of Plowshare ideas and explainedthe physics and chemistry at their basis.Unfortunately, his enthusiasm for theproject was at odds with the public’srising concerns about the environmentalimpact of nuclear power. Ultimately,Plowshare lost to such concerns. Even so,the program studies and experimentsyielded many achievements, including:• The first view of the phenomenology

1968

U.S. AstronautsArmstrong &Aldrin land onthe moon.

Teller’s conceptsfor nuclearreactor safetydesign were firstused in theTRIGA reactors.The University ofCalifornia atBerkeley usedthis TRIGA-3reactor forresearch from1965 to 1989.

20


Named professor

at U. of California.Is appointed to Foreign

Intelligence Advisory

Board by President Nixon.

Paris PeaceAccord is signedfor Vietnamconflict; cease-fire begins.

Is named to Nelson

Rockefeller’s

Commission on Critical

Choices for Americans.

1970

1972

of an underground nuclear explosionand subsequent information derivedfrom it has proved useful for otherunderground investigations and nucleartests.• The most complete environmentalstudy to date for excavating a smallharbor at a remote site in Alaska withnuclear explosions. This work becamea model for the modern environmentalimpact statement.

• Development of a family of nuclearexcavation explosives that had TNT-equivalent yields from 1 kiloton to over100 kilotons and that would releaseonly a relatively low quantity of fissionproducts into the atmosphere. These“clean” nuclear explosives would havebeen used to excavate a new PanamaCanal, had that project gone forward.• Demonstrations of fracturing low-permeability rocks with nuclear

explosions and, later, the design of aspecial nuclear explosive for thispurpose, leading to increased naturalgas production.

Legacy of X-Ray LasersThe Lawrence Livermore program

to research nuclear-pumped x-ray lasersystems accelerated after PresidentReagan’s “Star Wars” speech tointroduce the Strategic DefenseInitiative (SDI) in 1983. Teller thoughtsuch a laser system would provide ashield for the United States againstSoviet missiles. He championed the x-ray laser effort and numerous otherR&D activities, including guidedantimissile missiles called BrilliantPebbles. (See box, p. 18).

Some experts believe the SDI helpedto bring about major changes in worldpolitics, including the end of the ColdWar. The destruction of the Berlin Walland the collapse of the Soviet Unionchanged defense priorities. The programfor developing the x-ray laser into anantiballistic missile system waseliminated. But the SDI programproduced a better understanding of thephysics of x-ray lasers and newcomputer codes for modeling plasmas.It has also resulted in:

From the earliestdays, Teller insistedthat the Laboratoryacquire the mostadvancedcomputersavailable. In 1960,Teller (left)discusses thenewly installedLivermoreAdvancedResearchComputer withDirector HaroldBrown (center) andSidney Fernbach,head of theComputationDivision (right).

21


Officially retires; becomes

Associate Director Emeritus

of LLNL and University

Professor Emeritus of the U.

of California.

1974

1976

Becomes a senior research

fellow at the Hoover

Institution on War,

Revolution, and Peace at

Stanford University.

• A laboratory x-ray laser for biologicalimaging. Coupling x-ray lasers with x-ray microscopes, Livermore scientistscan create three-dimensional hologramsof living organisms, which enable themto study how DNA is organized insidea sperm cell. • Advanced materials such as aerogeland SEAgel. As a target for the x-raylaser, these materials can be doped withother materials. Their very low densitieshave spurred numerous commercialuses, such as thermal insulation andencapsulating material for timed-releasemedication.• Radiographic diagnostic techniques todetect flaws in SDI components andspinoff methods for detecting flaws inartificial heart valves.

Is awarded Israel’s Harvey Prize

for “. . . contribution to science

and technology . . .”

Good Luck WishDuring his 90th birthday celebration

on January 15, 1998, Teller spokeabout his latest science interests. Heacknowledged that biology is the majorfield of opportunity for young, would-bescientists, although quantum mechanicsis still the field he would choose forhimself, “for things that are explainable.”

While x-ray lasers did not head hislatest to-do list, he did bring up the largerissue of planetary defense and the future ofphysics. He said, “I see planetary defenseas a very interesting contribution not tothe preservation of life, but to the furtherunderstanding of the evolution of life.”

Speaking to an audience of 400 onhis birthday, Teller strongly stated that hebelieves Livermore’s National IgnitionFacility now under construction willsucceed in achieving fusion energy, anda new branch of physics will develop inwhich ultrahigh pressures from laserswill be used to change electron structures.

“All of planetary physics and muchof astrophysics may well depend on thefindings of NIF,” he said. To hisaudience, many of whom will beinstrumental in achieving the lofty goal,Teller said with a smile, “Good luck.”

— Gloria Wilt, with Bart Hacker

(left) Lawrence Livermore today. (right)Teller gives advice to attendees of his 90thbirthday party.

22


EST known as a scientist andproponent of sometimes

controversial ideas, Edward Teller isalso a self-confessed teaching addict.Among the less controversial of hisopinions is that this country needs moreintensive science education to developscientists and engineers of the future.He has done everything he canpersonally to see that students of allages learn about and appreciate science.

His belief in education and theexchange of information is so strongthat since the 1940s, he has fought thesecrecy that shrouds most defense-related scientific work by the

government. He instead encouragesopenness and a sharing of ideas with thepublic and with other scientists aroundthe world. By nature friendly andgregarious, Teller thrives on the freeexchange of ideas and thoughts andbelieves that science as a whole thriveson openness. Moreover, he believes thatwhile secrecy is not compatible withscience, it is even less compatible withdemocratic procedure. His years inEurope, particularly Germany around1930, perhaps demonstrated to him theimportance of free speech.

Ever the TeacherDuring an interview on the occasion

of his 90th birthday, Teller was askedwhat scientists could do to help thepublic overcome their suspicions aboutnew technology and science. “It is notup to the scientists,” Teller responded.“It is up to teachers. A good teacherdoes not have to be someone whodeeply understands his subject. A good

teacher is someone who can transfer thelove he or she has for the subject tostudents.”

A teacher for over 60 years, Telleralways hopes that his students willcome to share his love for science. Hehas long been concerned that notenough young men and women arechoosing science as a career, so he hasmade every effort to educate and inspireyoung scientists. His teaching careerbegan at London City College in 1934and continued at George WashingtonUniversity in Washington, D.C., theUniversity of Chicago, and severalcampuses of the University ofCalifornia, where he holds the title ofUniversity Professor Emeritus.

From the first, Teller developed areputation as an outstanding lecturer,always able to explain complex issuesin simple terms and to synthesizemyriad ideas. At the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley, he taught aphysics course to nonscience majors

B

Teller loves to teach. At left, he answers a student’s questionsafter a talk; at right, he talks to rapt fourth graders from Lodi,California, in June 1990.

1980

For the Love of Science

23


1982 1984

1986

Serves on the White

House Science

Council.

PresidentReaganannouncesStrategicDefenseInitiative.

Is awarded

National Medal

of Science.

so popular that hundreds of studentshad to be turned away.

He recognized that an appreciationof science among nonscientists is asimportant as the creation of newscientists. In fact, science appreciationis so important to Teller that he devotedan entire chapter to the subject in his1987 book, Better a Shield than a Sword.

In recent years, he has enjoyedreaching out to high school andelementary school students to stimulatetheir interest in science. In 1990, at 82,he taught a weekly class in physics toLivermore-area high school studentsand their teachers and parents. Duringthe early 1990s, he continued to speakseveral times a year to area students. In1996, his soft spot for youngstersinterested in science was still apparentin an interview he granted to a seventhgrader researching the Manhattan Project.

Creating a New DepartmentTeller began his career as a

theoretical physicist interested in purescience. But after his work on theManhattan Project during World War II,he was increasingly involved in itsapplications. Over the years, he grewconcerned that our universities werestrong in the pure sciences and

engineering but not in the “gap” inbetween. After the establishment ofLivermore Laboratory in 1952, hefound that new employees were goodscientists but often had little or notraining in how science could be applied.

In 1960, Teller formally proposedestablishing a Department of AppliedScience as part of the University ofCalifornia. The department would belocated at Livermore and offer M.S.and Ph.D. candidates science instructionas well as hands-on experience withprojects under way at Livermore.

This dream became reality when thefirst class entered in the fall of 1963.Organized as a unit of the College ofEngineering at the University ofCalifornia at Davis, the department,with Teller as its first chairman, offeredM.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering.The program was designed to create anatmosphere where boundaries betweenscience and engineering are subordinated,and engineering is fully integrated withmathematics, physics, and chemistry.

Hans Mark, the son of a colleague ofTeller’s, has had a particularly closerelationship with Teller and with thenew department. In 1955, Tellerconvinced Hans Mark to join theLaboratory, where he became a division

leader in experimental physics whilealso teaching at the Department ofApplied Science and at Berkeley. Hemoved on to become the foundingchairman of Berkeley’s Department ofNuclear Engineering and to serve inmany prestigious technical positionsacross the country. Most recently, Markwas named director of DefenseResearch and Engineering for theDepartment of Defense.

Teller and Mark have served foryears as members of the board of theFannie and John Hertz Foundation,which has been instrumental in thegrowth of the Department of AppliedSciences at Livermore. In the late1970s, the foundation and theUniversity’s Science Fund madematching $500,000 donations that wereused to build a permanent teachingfacility at Livermore. The foundationsponsors a hundred fellowships a yearat various university levels in the fieldsof mechanical and electricalengineering, as it has since itsestablishment in 1958.

Today, the Department of AppliedScience offers a five-year Ph.D. programto a student body of 90. The majority ofthe students also work at Livermorewhile taking classes. Fourteen faculty

ReceivesSylvanusThayer Award.

members hold joint appointments atUC Davis and Lawrence Livermore.Other than Lawrence BerkeleyNational Laboratory, Livermore isthe only laboratory with such a closerelationship to a university.

At the dedication of the permanentteaching facility at Livermore in 1977,Vice President Nelson Rockefellercommended Teller, saying that he had“spoken against the times when hesuggested [establishing] an applied

science school at one of the leadingcenters of high technology in thecountry, but to its credit, one of theworld’s leading institutions, theUniversity of California, acted on theproposal.”

The War against SecrecyNot long after World War II, Teller,

J. Robert Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr,and others protested continuedclassification of research. Many

24


Teller was the drivingforce behind establishingthe University ofCalifornia at Davis,Department of AppliedScience. Shown here arethe faculty in 1965: (leftto right) Michael May,Harold Furth,Montgomery Johnson,Berni Alder, John Killeen,Roy Bainer, Teller(department chairman),Wilson Talley, RichardBorg, Al Kirschbaum,and Richard Post.

1988 1990

ReceivesPresidential

Citizens Medal

from President

Reagan.

Is conferred

“Director

Emeritus” by

U. of California

Regents.

Hungaryofficiallydeclares itselfan independentrepublic.

Berlin Wall is dismantled.

Cowinner of first Sicilian

Regional Science Peace

Prize from Italy’s Ettore

Majorana-Erice- Scienza.

OperationDesert Stormis fought inPersian Gulf.

Receives Order

of Banner with

Rubies of the

Republic of

Hungary from

its President.

nuclear scientists even advocatedsharing nuclear secrets with the SovietUnion, then our former ally andbudding adversary, reasoning thatopenness on our part would allay thefears of the Soviets. Teller made thepoint that keeping scientific facts secretwould hinder us but would hardlyinterfere with the work of a potentialcompetitor, because scientificdiscoveries are almost always made bymore than one researcher. However, the

U.S. government rejected this and otherovertures for openness.

Teller likened military secrets toindustry’s protection of engineeringand production technologies. Industrylimits access to a product until itreaches the market and researchersbegin to produce the next generation.He saw no reason why military secretscould not be handled in a similar way,maintaining secrecy for a year tomaintain the element of surprise andthen sharing the new technology.

Teller also felt strongly that thecountry’s citizenry should be as wellinformed about science as possible toallow rational discussion of publicpolicy. Yet, as in the past, the publicknows few hard facts about ourcountry’s defense systems or those ofour adversaries, leaving decisions aboutour defense to the political winds.

But the classification tide is turning.In December 1993, then-Secretary ofEnergy Hazel O’Leary began todeclassify many documents that hadbeen kept at the secret level for decades.Teller played a key role in convincingO’Leary to declassify documents onlaser fusion, pointing out that the secretclassification of this work placed U.S.

scientists at a disadvantage and impededinternational cooperation. Becauseforeign governments did not restrictfusion research in their countries, theonly victims of the secrecy wereAmericans.

A Way of LifeEdward Teller never stops fighting

the good fight. During a speech atLawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory’s Special Guest Day in1992, he reiterated his concern about

25


Long-timecolleagues andfriends Hans Mark(left) and EdwardTeller have shareda passion forexperimentalphysics, intenseinterest in scienceeducation, andtheir excellentsenses of humor.

1992 1994

U.S.S.R. isdisbanded.

Is named to National

Space Council’s

Advisory Board by

Vice President Dan

Quayle.

Receives Middle Cross

with the Star of the

Order of Merit of the

Republic of Hungary.

26


19981996

education in the hard sciences andengineering. His thesis was that theU.S. cannot maintain its worldleadership position and standard ofliving unless we act now to rejuvenateour scientific community. He alsorestated his belief that every studentshould receive lectures that instill anappreciation of science and technology.According to Teller, possessing ascientific understanding of the universeis important because science “has aninfluence on all of us, affecting ourideas of space, time, and causality.”And understanding technology isimportant “because we live in it.”

He also continues to urge thegovernment to change its classificationpolicy to one that enforces secrecy in apractical manner, that limits the lifespanof secret information, and correspondswith the American ethos.

Teller, a naturalized Americancitizen, clearly loves his adoptedcountry. Both efforts—for better scienceeducation and greater openness—aredriven by his concern for maintainingthe American way of life.

— Katie Walter

Receives A Magyarság

Hírnevéért Díj, highest

official government award,

from the Prime Minister of

Republic of Hungary.90thBirthdayCelebration.

Edward Teller and then-Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary confer at a public forum on reshapingthe Department of Energy’s classification policy. Teller believes that such a policy should includenot only less restrictive classification of new documents and declassification of old ones but alsoa proper explanation of declassified material. (Photo courtesy of AP/Wide World Photos.)


27

Edward Teller’s Awards

1955 Harrison Medal, American Ordnance Association

1957 Joseph Priestly Memorial, Dickinson College

1958 Albert Einstein Award, Lewis and Rosa StraussMemorial Fund

1959 General Donovan Memorial Award1960 Midwest Research Institute Award1960 Research Institute of American Living

History1961 American Academy of Achievement

Golden Plate1962 Thomas E. White Award1962 Enrico Fermi Award, Atomic Energy Commission

1963 Robins Award of America1974 Leslie R. Groves Gold Medal1975 Harvey Prize, Technion Institute of Israel

1977 Semmelweiss Medal1977 Albert Einstein Award, Technion Institute of Israel

1978 Henry T. Heald Award, Illinois Institute of Technology

1980 American College of Nuclear MedicineGold Medal

1980 Man of Science, Achievement Rewards forCollege Scientists

1980 Paul Harris Fellow, Rotary

1980 A. C. Eringen Award, Society of EngineeringScience, Inc.

1981 Distinguished Scientist, National ScienceDevelopment Board

1981 Distinguished Scientist, Phil-American Academy of Science and Engineering

1982 Lloyd Freeman Hunt Citizenship Award,Heritage of Freedom Council

1982 American Academy of Achievement Gold Medal1982 Jerusalem College of Technology1983 National Medal of Science for 19821983 Joseph Handleman Prize, Jewish Academy of Arts

and Sciences

1984 National Security Award, National CoordinatingCouncil on Emergency Management

1985 American Preparedness Award, American CivilDefense Association

1986 Sylvanus Thayer Award, Association of Graduates, U.S. Military Academy, West Point

1987 Strategic Defense Initiative Technical Achievement Award, American Defense Preparedness Association

1988 Shelby Cullom Davis Award, Ethics and Public Policy

1988 Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Award1989 Presidential Citizens Medal, President Reagan

1989 DAR Americanism Medal, National Society ofthe Daughters of the American Revolution

1990 Ettore Majorana Erice Scienza Per La Pace,Science Peace Prize, Ettore Majorana Centre forScientific Culture, Erice, Sicily

1990 Order of Banner with Rubies of the Republicof Hungary, President of the Republic of Hungary,Foreign Minister of the Republic of Hungary

1994 Middle Cross with the Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary

1998 A Magyarság Hírnevéért Díj, highest officialHungarian government award, Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary

Edward Teller receivesawards from (at left)General JamesAbrahamson and (at right)President Ronald Reagan.

28


Edward Teller’s Honorary Degrees

Doctor of Science1954 Yale University1959 University of Alaska1960 Fordham University1960 George Washington University1960 University of Southern California1960 St. Louis University1962 Rochester Institute of Technology1964 University of Detroit1966 Clemson University1969 Clarkson College of Technology1987 Adelphi University

Doctor of Law1961 Boston College1961 Seattle University1962 University of Cincinnati1963 University of Pittsburgh1974 Pepperdine University1977 University of Maryland, Heidelberg

Doctor of Humane Letters1964 Mount Mary College

Doctor of Philosophy1972 Tel Aviv University

Doctor of Natural Science1981 De La Salle University, Philippines

Doctor of Medical Science, honoris causa1983 Medical University of South Carolina

Doctor of Strategic Intelligence1987 Defense Intelligence College

Honorary Professorship1991 Eotvos University, Budapest

Edward Teller has received 23 honorary degreessince his Ph.D. in physics from the University ofLeipzig in Germany.

Energy: A Plan for Action, Edward Teller, available from the Commission on Critical Choices for Americans, NY,1975.

Critical Choices for Americans: Power and Security, EdwardTeller, Hans Mark, and John S. Foster, Lexington Books,Lexington, MA, 1976.

Nuclear Energy in the Developing World, Edward Teller,Mitre Corporation, Metrek Division, McLean, VA, 1977.

Energy from Heaven and Earth, Edward Teller, W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco, CA, 1979.

The Pursuit of Simplicity, EdwardTeller, Pepperdine University Press,Los Angeles, CA, 1980.

Better a Shield Than a Sword, Edward Teller, Free Press/MacMillan,New York, NY, 1987.

Conversations on the Dark Secrets

of Physics, Edward Teller, WendyTeller, and Wilson Talley, PlenumPress, NY, 1991.

U.S. Government Printing Office: 1998/683-051-60049

Structure of Matter, Francis Owen Rice and Edward Teller,John Wiley and Sons, NY, 1949.

Our Nuclear Future, Edward Teller and Albert L. Latter,Criterion Books, NY, 1958.

The Legacy of Hiroshima, Edward Teller with AllenBrown, Doubleday and Co., Garden City, NY, 1962.

The Reluctant Revolutionary, Edward Teller, University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO, 1964.

The Constructive Uses of Nuclear Explosives, EdwardTeller, Wilson K. Talley, and Gary H. Higgins, McGrawHill, NY, 1968.

Great Men of Physics, Emilio G. Segrè, Joseph Kaplan,Leonard I. Schiff, and Edward Teller, Tinnon-Brown, Los Angeles, CA, 1969.

The Miracle of Freedom,Edward Teller, InternationalAcademic and TechnicalPublications, Boulder, CO,1972.

Edward Teller’s Books

Printed on recycled paper.

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