Henry Stone, the former General Manager of GE's Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory and Vice President and Chief Engineer of GE's Nuclear Energy Division, will provide the Wednesday lunch keynote at the Knoxville Control System Cyber Security Conference.
The talk will discuss what it took to build a new industry from scratch - the commercial nuclear power industry. This required building on the World War II Manhattan project and the Navy nuclear submarine efforts.
Mr. Stone will reminisce about what it was like for engineers to transform needs into reality- to enable submarines to be submerged longer without a need for refueling and for a cheaper form of electric generation. In the early 1950's and 60's, that meant going from first principles analyses to small scale testing to full prototype testing using paper, pencils, and slide rules because textbooks, computers, and technical standards didn't exist.
As there has been such a hiatus in the domestic nuclear power industry since the last nuclear plant was built, Mr. Stone will also briefly discuss some needs for the next generation nuclear plants.
Additionally, Mr. Stone will touch on how the Navy nuclear program influenced and supported the commercial program and provide some anecdotes on what it was like to work for Admiral Hyman Rickover- the father of the Nuclear Navy.
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