As our country observes Veterans Day and those who have served, regulators like me take time out to honor the late Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the nuclear program in the United States Navy. Here is why he mattered then…and now.

Rickover, born in Poland in 1900, was Jewish. Immigrating to America in 1906 to escape conflict, and speaking no English, his family moved to Chicago. Hyman, or Rickie as he was called then, was eventually able to get into the Naval Academy, Class of 1922.

He captained only one ship, and that for only three months, a small minesweeper. His real interest was in engineering and propulsion.  He went to Columbia after the war achieving a mechanical engineering degree.  Still in the Navy, Captain Rickover and a small group of junior officers were tasked to build the Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine. To say that there was skepticism about his work is an understatement.  The Navy put maverick Rickover into a converted ladies room to work, and continued to throw up hurdles along the way.  Rickover recruited naval hero Lt. Commander Edward L. Beach which gave him access to Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, the chief of Naval operations after World War II.   Nimitz okayed the project, a critical first step.

Equally important, Rickover began to cultivate his relationship to Congress and particularly the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy—a move that would pay great dividends in his mission. Every time the Navy put the brakes on his effort, he would go over their head to Congress and the JCAE.  For example, there were temptations to cut back on safety, but Rickover insisted on welds instead of gaskets, and maximum shielding to protect the men, something the Russians skimped on.  He insisted on using civilian standards to protect Navy crews.  With this momentum from Capitol Hill, his team was moved to the Idaho National Lab and built a prototype of the Nautilus’ nuclear reactor core system.

Rickover was a perfectionist, so many would later say.  His gruff demeanor and attention to every detail was what a growing nuclear program needed.  The Navy was said to have had 3 enemies:  The Russians, The Air Force and Rickover.  He was not much of a team player and had defied the traditions of the Navy over and over and looked to Congress to advance his rank and his projects.  And that they did. Congress pushed for the Nautilus. It was Congress that recognized the importance of nuclear power for use in their largest ships.  It was Congress that recognized the need for faster submarines that could stay underwater longer.

The Nautilus was completed in 1955 and was the first submarine to stay underwater for more than two days.  In 1958 it became the first submarine to go to the North Pole, and eventually logged 60,000 nautical miles underwater, being submerged for two weeks, powered by nuclear energy.  By 1958, the Soviet Union had nuclear subs too, and the cat and mouse game underwater began.  Attack subs were deployed for spying, and nuclear weapons were placed aboard the USS George Washington in 1959. Rickover had changed military strategy forever.

At the same time, President Eisenhower announced the Atoms for Peace program at the United Nations on Dec 8, 1953.  It meant using atomic fission to generate electricity and once again Rickover was tapped to assist. “Ike” wanted the US to build commercial nuclear power stations and he trusted Rickover and his team to do it right.   

Just four years later, in December 1957, Shippingport Atomic Power Station opened with the Atomic Energy Commission owning the nuclear portion of the Shippingport Plant. The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was launched in 1960.  Rickover talked Congress into making sure all aircraft carriers would be nuclear.  Rickover turned his attention to making a better sub too. The Soviets had created a November-class 30 knot fast sub and the United States had to keep up.

But the Vietnam war and anti-war protests dealt a blow to all-things-nuclear.  War protests morphed into opposition over nuclear weapons, and then nuclear in general.  The anti-war, anti-technology fervor grew, even under Jimmy Carter who said that, “Except for my father, Admiral Rickover had the greatest impact on my life of any other man that I have ever met.”  Public opinion against nuclear was strong, and Carter had his own reasons to slow it down despite serving in the Navy under Rickover.

“Nuclear power is an energy source of last resort,” said Carter, in 1976, during the presidential campaign against Gerald Ford.  “As we reach our goals on conservation, on the direct use of coal, on development of solar power and synthetic fuels, and enhanced production of American oil and natural gas, then we can minimize our reliance on nuclear power.”

After his election, President Carter delivered a nuclear policy statement that ratcheted back and brought down the stature of nuclear power—institutionally, regulatory, financially, politically. Then on March 28, 1979, Three Mile Island Nuclear Station’s initial feed water pump malfunction combined with other equipment and systems malfunctions causing a reactor core meltdown, with radioactivity being released to the containment building.  Fortunately, the building performed its safety function as designed and prevented uncontrolled releases to the environment. Despite Carter’s trying to show the world that TMI was safe by visiting the control room with his wife shortly after this, the nuclear decline had begun. It was an unfortunate turn of events.

This brings us to 2024 and this century.  Despite the accidents at Fukushima and Chernobyl, Watts Bar 2 received its operating license from the NRC in 2015 and Georgia just completed two AP1000 advanced-design Gen 3 reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta.

As I sat at the ribbon-cutting for Plant Vogtle Unit 4, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm urged the United States to triple the nuclear fleet and keep the progress going.  Many others have echoed the same challenge recognizing the giant energy load facing America as our country moves to cleaner resources.

For me as a regulator, I take this challenge.  Our Commission, Utility and fellow state leaders were resolute to play our part in the American Nuclear Renaissance, which Hyman Rickover started. In 1986, Rickover died and was honored in the National Cathedral.  Not many people talk about his life and accomplishments today, but on this Veterans Day 2024, I honor him and his legacy.