Dieter Smidt

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Dieter Smidt (born March 10, 1927 in Rysum , East Frisia , † August 11, 1998 in Karlsruhe ) was a German physicist and author as well as a member and temporarily chairman of the reactor safety commission .

Life

Smidt was born in the East Frisian village of Rysum (today the municipality of Krummhörn , district of Aurich ). His parents were the local pastor Udo Smidt and his wife Helene, geb. Farr. After attending the humanistic grammar school in Bremerhaven , he studied at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, now the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology . Smidt was married to Ursula Smidt, born in 1957. Ropertz. The couple had two sons.

job

After completing his doctoral thesis with Christian Gerthsen in 1954 ( luminescence through excitation of alpha particles and electrons ), Smidt initially worked as a scientific assistant in Karlsruhe for two years before he went into industry at the age of 29 and immediately became the chief physicist of the atomic energy department of Deutsche Babcock and Wilcox -Dampfkesselwerke AG in Oberhausen . In 1957 he was trained as one of the first German physicists at the International School of Nuclear Science and Engineering in the USA in reactor physics and reactor technology. In 1960, Smidt finally returned from Oberhausen to Karlsruhe and initially took over the large technical department in the nuclear research center. Five years later, Smidt was appointed full professor and head of the Institute for Reactor Technology at the University of Karlsruhe, which at the same time led to the management of a newly founded institute for reactor development at the nuclear research center. In the first few years of his career in Karlsruhe, Smidt made outstanding contributions to the first German research reactor FR-2 .

Smidt was a member of the German Reactor Safety Commission from 1968 to 1982. In two terms (1971–1974 and 1981–1982) he chaired the committee. Among other things, guidelines for German reactor safety were developed under his leadership. In addition, Smidt was also appointed to international expert committees.

Works (selection)

  • Reaktortechnik, Vol. 1 and 2, Karlsruhe 1971 (2nd edition ibid. 1976)
  • Reactor safety technology. Safety systems and incident analysis for light water reactors and fast breeders, Springer Verlag, Berlin etc. 1979

Awards

  • Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for Services to Nuclear Safety (1978)
  • Arthur Holly Compton Award from the American Nuclear Society

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The article is based on the contribution by Günther Keßler in the Biografisches Lexikon Ostfriesland, Volume III, Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Aurich 2001, p. 393/394, online (PDF; 74 kB).
  2. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 31, No. 45, March 6, 1979.
personal data
SURNAME Smidt, Dieter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German nuclear physicist and author
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Rysum , East Frisia
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 1998
Place of death Karlsruhe