Edwin E. Kintner, Nuclear Power Pioneer, Dies at 90
Edwin E. Kintner, who played a role in early efforts to harness nuclear power and later witnessed its destructive potential while heading the decontamination of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after a partial meltdown, died on May 7 in Exeter, N.H. He was 90.
Mr. Kintner had prostate cancer, his son Eric said.
After World War II, Mr. Kintner helped develop a reactor for the Navy that was later used in the first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus.
“To produce Nautilus, it was necessary to expand man’s knowledge far beyond the ‘known’ in almost every technical area — physics, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, electronics, environmental medicine,” Mr. Kintner wrote in an article in The New York Times Magazine in 1965, shortly after the 10th anniversary of the submarine’s maiden voyage on Jan. 17, 1955.
Mr. Kintner went on to a wide-ranging career in military and civilian energy. He worked for the Atomic Energy Commission and was head of the Department of Energy’s fusion program, overseeing the construction of reactors and developing nuclear power as an alternate source of energy.
When the core of the reactor melted down at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pa., in March 1979, an event that severely set back the development of nuclear power plants, Mr. Kintner was named to oversee the cleanup....
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Mr. Kintner had prostate cancer, his son Eric said.
After World War II, Mr. Kintner helped develop a reactor for the Navy that was later used in the first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus.
“To produce Nautilus, it was necessary to expand man’s knowledge far beyond the ‘known’ in almost every technical area — physics, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, electronics, environmental medicine,” Mr. Kintner wrote in an article in The New York Times Magazine in 1965, shortly after the 10th anniversary of the submarine’s maiden voyage on Jan. 17, 1955.
Mr. Kintner went on to a wide-ranging career in military and civilian energy. He worked for the Atomic Energy Commission and was head of the Department of Energy’s fusion program, overseeing the construction of reactors and developing nuclear power as an alternate source of energy.
When the core of the reactor melted down at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pa., in March 1979, an event that severely set back the development of nuclear power plants, Mr. Kintner was named to oversee the cleanup....