Alvin Radkowsky

Alvin Radkowsky was an American nuclear physicist who served as chief scientist of the United States Navy's nuclear propulsion division. In the 1950s he developed the burnable poison method of using boron to control and extend the life of naval reactor cores, an advance that shaped naval reactor design for decades. Radkowsky also headed the design team for the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, which began operating in 1957 as the first full-scale nuclear power plant built for civilian electricity generation in the United States. Later in his career he became a leading advocate for thorium-based reactor fuel, arguing that it could reduce the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation from civilian power programs.