Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

J. Samuel (“Sam”) Walker is the former historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the author of Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan. He is also the author of five books on the history of regulating nuclear power, including Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective and The Road to Yucca Mountain: The Development of Radioactive Waste Policy in the United States.

Related Profiles

Roger Cloutier

Oak Ridge, TN

Roger Cloutier was born in North Attleborough, Massachusetts in 1930. After serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, he pursued a career in health physics at the University of Massachusetts and University of Rochester.

Henry DeWolf Smyth

Washington, DC

Henry DeWolf Smyth (1898-1986) was an American physicist, diplomat, and bureaucrat. During World War II, Smyth was a member of the National Defense Research Committee’s Uranium Section.

Hugh Bradner

Los Alamos, NM

Hugh “Brad” Bradner was a physicist at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project.

Ray Smith

Trinity Site

Ray Smith is the historian at the Y-12 National Security Complex. His specific focus is the history of Oak Ridge, and he is intimately acquainted with the uranium enrichment processes undertaken at the Y-12, K-25, and S-50 plants during the Manhattan Project, and how the Fat Man and Little Boy bombs worked.