[IP] Theodore B. Taylor, 1925-2004
Begin forwarded message:
From: George Dyson <gdyson@xxxxxxx>
Date: November 1, 2004 7:16:25 PM EST
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Theodore B. Taylor, 1925-2004
[FYI, perhaps for IP?]
Theodore B. Taylor, 1925-2004
Thirty-one years ago, The New Yorker published a profile of nuclear
weapon designer Ted Taylor, written by John McPhee. Published in book
form as "The Curve of Binding Energy," this was the first time the
prospect of nuclear terrorism was raised publicly as a genuine concern.
“The use of small numbers of covertly-delivered nuclear explosives by
groups of people that are not clearly identified with a national
government is more probable, in the near future, than the open use of
nuclear weapons by a nation for military purposes,” Ted had warned
privately in 1966, adding that retaliation offered no protection
against subnational groups or “an extremist group of U.S. citizens who
believe they are trying to save the U.S.” Thanks to John McPhee's help
in raising the alarm, and the work of countless individuals and
government officials (including Ted's own work with the IAEA in
Vienna) we have not yet faced the tragedy that Ted Taylor feared.
Ted Taylor died in Bath, New York, on October 28, after a long battle
to regain his capacities after a series of strokes. Freeman Dyson, his
friend, colleague, and fellow patent-holder (on the TRIGA inherently
safe reactor) wrote the following on October 29:
----------
Theodore B. Taylor was born in Mexico City on July 11, 1925. He
always retained warm feelings toward Mexico and its people. He
studied physics at Caltech, UC Berkeley and Cornell University. He
worked as a bomb designer in the Theoretical Division of the Los Alamos
National Laboratory from 1948 to 1956. He was famous in the community
of bomb experts as the most creative and imaginative of the designers.
His bomb designs were the smallest, the most elegant and the most
efficient. He was able to draw his designs freehand, without elaborate
calculations. When they were built and tested, they worked. Many of
them went into the stockpile of our tactical nuclear weapons, intended
for use by the army to stop a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. At
that time he believed sincerely that his bombs were helping to keep the
peace and prevent World War Three.
In 1956 Taylor left Los Alamos and joined the newly founded company
General Atomic in San Diego to work on peaceful applications of nuclear
energy. He helped to design the TRIGA reactor, which is mainly used
to produce short-lived isotopes for medical diagnosis in hospitals.
The reactor was designed to be inherently safe and was a commercial
success. About seventy-five TRIGA reactors were sold. In 1957, in
response to the Soviet launch of the first Sputnik, Taylor started at
General Atomic a project to design a space-ship propelled by a large
number of nuclear bombs. The project was called Orion. Taylor led
it for six years, from 1958 to 1964. Taylor had a dream that this
project would open the skies to humanity and at the same time give us a
way to reduce the size of our stockpiles. It would combine the
exploring of the solar system with unilateral nuclear disarmament. The
project was technically promising but politically hopeless. After the
Test-Ban Treaty of 1963 made the testing of Orion impossible, the
project came to an end. With it died Taylor's dream that nuclear bombs
could be used for a better purpose than killing people.
From 1964 to 1966, Taylor was Deputy Director of the Defense Atomic
Support Agency of the Department of Defense, responsible for the care
and maintenance of the nuclear stockpile. During those years he
became convinced that nuclear weapons were an unconditional evil. He
resigned from the government and decided to spend the rest of his life
as a private citizen, working for complete nuclear disarmament and the
development of renewable energy resources. He spent some years at the
International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, helping to establish
safeguards to protect nuclear materials from diversion to clandestine
weapons programs. He founded a private company helping to develop
renewable energy projects. He wrote several books concerned with
nuclear proliferation and renewable energy. Toward the end of his
life he became an anti-nuclear activist, opposing all forms of nuclear
energy and taking part in anti-nuclear demonstrations.
Taylor was one of the great men of our time, gifted as a scientist,
as an administrator and as a human being. It was his fate to succeed
brilliantly as the creator of bombs that he came to despise, and to
fail in his efforts either to use the bombs for a good purpose or to
kill the monster that he had helped to grow. He felt deeply the
tragedy of his destiny, but he never lost his sense of humor and his
determination to do whatever he could to make the best of a bad
situation.
--------
Ted Taylor was a larger-than-life character who drew Freeman Dyson out
of his office in New Jersey to go build a spaceship in the California
sun. While trying to piece together the rest of that story 40 years
later, I happened to be interviewing Ted when news came in of the first
Pakistani nuclear weapons test. From the cryptic news reports that
appeared during the course of the afternoon and evening, Ted quickly
figured out, in astonishing detail, what exactly had been done (and
what might be done next). I also interviewed a good number of
unreformed weaponeers, people who had worked with Ted at Los Alamos or
at the Pentagon but had stayed on the other side of the unilateral
disarmament fence. No matter how strongly they disagreed with Ted's
position, they had only the highest respect for Ted.
Ted Taylor devoted his life to sending the rest of us an unforgettable
message, backed by his own actions, about the really big issues of our
time: nuclear weapons, space travel, energy conservation, appropriate
technology, how to reunite humanity toward common goals. Despite his
grand ambitions, he always remained down to earth in his approach. “He
didn’t play big shot," remembers his Project Orion colleague Jaromir
Astl. "He played one of the guys."
Ted's final words to me, when I last spoke to him on the phone:
"I am searching for the truth as long as I can."
George Dyson
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/