Thomas Lee Neff

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Thomas Lee Neff (born in Oregon in 1943 ) is an American physicist. He is considered the father of the megaton to megawatts agreement.

Career

Neff studied mathematics and physics at Lewis and Clark College in Portland , in 1973 he received his doctorate in theoretical physics from Stanford University . This was followed by employment at the universities of Berkeley and Stanford, here as assistant to Wolfgang Panofsky , before moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There he headed the program for international energy studies from 1977 to 1985, after which he was employed at the Center for International Studies at MIT.

Neff is an expert on both international energy markets and nuclear disarmament. He has published several books in this field and advised government institutions around the world.

Megatons to Megawatts

In the course of the collapse of the Soviet Union , Neff asked himself what could be done with the highly enriched uranium that was abundantly available there and that came from nuclear warheads that were no longer needed. It occurred to him that the USA could buy this in order to use it in its nuclear power plants for energy production.

On the occasion of a disarmament conference in Washington on October 19, 1991 , Neff made the proposal to the Russian nuclear scientist and later head of Minatom , Viktor Michailow , to buy enriched uranium, to which he replied: “Interesting. How much? ”Surprised by this statement, Neff published an article a few days later in the New York Times in which he presented his plan to the public. Neff's idea met with a broad response and ultimately resulted in the Megatons to Megawatts agreement in 1993 .

Awards

Neff is a Fellow of the American Physical Society , in 1997 he received the Leo Szilard Award .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas L. Neff: A Grand Uranium Bargain . New York Times, October 24, 1991. Digitized on the website of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, PDF file, 482 kB, accessed on April 20, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Neff, Thomas Lee
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neff, Thomas L.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Oregon