Milton Shaw

Milton Shaw (October 5, 1921 – November 24, 2001) was an American nuclear engineer who served as director of the Division of Reactor Development and Technology at the US Atomic Energy Commission from 1964 to 1973. He served in the US Navy during World War II before transitioning to the Naval Reactors program. Considered a protégé of Hyman Rickover,

Biography

Early life Milton Shaw was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on October 5, 1921. He had two sisters, Ruth and Genevieve. He joined the Navy later that year, where he was sent to the Navy Propulsion School at Cornell University. Following the end of the war, he worked at the Naval Engineering Experiment Station and Testing Laboratory (EES) in Annapolis. He studied under Weinberg until 1951, at which point he began work with Rickover. Shaw became Rickover's designer of surface-ship propulsion systems. for the development of the USS Nautilus, launched in 1954, the first nuclear submarine, and the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, launched in 1960. After leaving the Naval Reactors Bureau in 1961, Shaw worked for the Secretary of the Navy as Senior Technical Assistant for Research and Development. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing all reactor research and development. Several reactor safety research programs were underway at the AEC. Among these was the Molten Salt Breeder Reactor (MSBR) program, which culminated in the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) at Oak Ridge. At the time, interest in extending the supply of nuclear fuel led to substantial research into breeder reactors. The competing designs included the MSBR and Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor. Shaw, with his Naval Reactors background, moved to stamp out research into reactor safety, and towards what he saw were the two proven reactor designs: the light-water reactor and the LMFBR. In particular, in spite of the project's apparent successes, Shaw was directly responsible for the cancellation of the MSRE, and is credited with Weinberg's ouster from ORNL.

In 1973, with considerable criticism mounting of the AEC's regulatory programs, the Nixon administration installed Dixy Lee Ray as chair. She quickly moved to separate the reactor development and regulation segments of the agency, prompting Shaw to resign in protest.

Shaw later worked as an energy consultant, and taught as a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University and MIT. While US research into the thorium fuel cycle continued after Shaw's departure, particularly at Fort St. Vrain and the Shippingport LWBR, several writers have argued Shaw's actions played a substantial role in preventing the adoption of thorium-based nuclear power in the United States.

Honors and awards Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award (1959, 1964) National Civil Service Award (1968) Atomic Energy Commission Distinguished Service Award (1972)