Thomas Lee Neff[1] (September 25, 1943 – July 11, 2024) was an American physicist. He played a major role in the Megatons to Megawatts Program that dismantled thousands of nuclear warheads.
Thomas Neff | |
|---|---|
| Born | Thomas Lee Neff September 25, 1943 Lake Oswego, Oregon, U.S. |
| Died | July 11, 2024 (aged 80) |
| Alma mater | Stanford University |
| Occupation | Physicist |
Life and career
editNeff was born in Lake Oswego, Oregon on September 25, 1943.[2][3] He attended Stanford University.
As a post-doc, he was an assistant to American Physical Society President Wolfgang "Pief" Panofsky and helped write legislation that created the US Department of Energy.[4] He went on to become a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology[5][6][7] during the 1990s.
Neff is credited with dreaming up the Megatons to Megawatts Program and selling the idea to the governments of the USA and post-Soviet Russia. Under the program, Russia dismantled many of its nuclear warheads and sold the diluted uranium to the USA to power nuclear reactors. The program solved the problem of how to shrink the USSR's large nuclear weapons stockpile and keep weapons-grade uranium from being sold to America's enemies.
He was a fellow of the American Physical Society.[8] He died on July 11, 2024, at the age of 80.[3]
References
edit- ^ Broad, William J. (January 28, 2014). "From Warheads to Cheap Energy". The New York Times. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ Thomas Neff, who helped turn Soviet nukes into electricity, dies at 80 Washington Post
- ^ a b Broad, William J. (July 20, 2024). "Thomas Neff, Who Turned Soviet Warheads Into Electricity, Dies at 80". The New York Times. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
- ^ Lott, Jeffery. "The Power of a Transformative Idea". Lewis and Clark University. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
- ^ "Agreement enriches U.S., Russia: Uranium pact turns nuclear swords into plowshares". The Courier. Waterloo, Iowa. October 27, 1992. p. 29. Retrieved July 20, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Brilliant idea serves Russia and U.S." The Knoxville News-Sentinel. Knoxville, Tennessee. November 1, 1992. p. 69. Retrieved July 20, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Uranium agreement could be first step toward a safer planet". The Orange Leader. Orange, Texas. November 21, 1992. p. 4. Retrieved July 20, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Dr. Thomas L. Neff". Concord Funeral Home. Archived from the original on July 20, 2024. Retrieved July 20, 2024 – via archive.today.
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