The Atom Goes to College: Nuclear Engineering, Teaching Reactors, and the Atomic Age

The little-known history of nuclear reactors in American life, and the role of public colleges in the Atomic Age.

In The Atom Goes to College, David Munns explores the creation and forgotten prominence of “teaching reactors,” nuclear reactors dedicated to education during the golden age of American atomic ambitions. From the 1950s to the 1970s, a generation took the science of the atom and made it into the engineering of the reactor. Across two dozen teaching reactors in colleges and univers...