Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Richard McCardell was a nuclear engineer at the National Reactor Testing Station (today Idaho National Laboratory).

A native of Idaho, McCardell worked a series of jobs before graduating from Pocatello High School. In 1962, he earned his master’s degree in physics at Idaho State University and began working at the National Reactor Testing Station along side his wife Lynn McCardell, where he was involved with the Special Power Excursion Reactor Test, or “SPERT,” a series of reactor tests in Idaho Falls.

Related Profiles

Richard B. Tillson

X-10 Graphite Reactor

Attended Iowa State University.

Vannevar Bush

Washington, DC

Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator. In 1940 the National Defense Research Committee was established and President Roosevelt appointed Bush as its president.

Ronald Mickens

Ronald Mickens is a physicist who currently teaches at Clark Atlanta University. He is a prominent voice in the African American scientific community, and has written several works documenting the feats of previous black physicists, including The African American Presence in Physics, and Edward Bouchet: The First African-American Doctorate.

William M. Eichbaum

Manhattan, NY

William M. Eichbaum worked on the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, TN for the Clinton Engineer Works.