Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

J. Samuel Walker

HistorianWashington, DC

Expert
J. Samuel Walker Listen to J. Samuel Walker’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

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

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.

James Marshall

Washington, DC

Colonel James Marshall (1897-1977) was district engineer of the Manhattan Engineer District. Marshall earned a position in the Army Corps of Engineers during his years at West Point.

Clifford Durr

Washington, DC

Clifford Durr was an American civil rights lawyer.  Born into the Alabama aristocracy, Durr became an unlikely champion for oppressed people.

Tomoko Watanabe

Japan

Tomoko Watanabe was born eight years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both of her parents survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.