Edward Teller

Edward Teller (Hungarian: Teller Ede; 15 January 1908 – 9 September 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist and chemical engineer. He is often called "the father of the hydrogen bomb" because he helped create a powerful type of nuclear weapon.

Teller was born in Austria-Hungary in 1908 and moved to the United States in the 1930s. He joined a group of talented scientists known as the "Martians".

Teller made many important discoveries in physics and chemistry. He helped explain how certain types of radioactive decay work. During World War II, Teller was part of the Manhattan Project, the effort to build the first atomic bomb. After the war, he worked on developing even more powerful weapons.

Teller also helped start the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and worked there for many years. He supported the use of nuclear power and testing. Later in life, he advised leaders on many scientific and military projects. Teller received important awards for his work and passed away in 2003 at the age of 95.

Early life and work

Ede Teller was born on January 15, 1908, in Budapest, which was then part of Austria-Hungary. He grew up in a Jewish family and went to the Minta Gymnasium in Budapest. Teller loved numbers and could do calculations in his head.

Teller moved from Hungary to Germany in 1926. He studied mathematics and chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) and later switched to physics after hearing lectures by Herman Mark. He then studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München under Arnold Sommerfeld. In 1928, he had an accident but learned to manage the pain without painkillers. He finished his studies at Leipzig University, getting his PhD in 1930.

In 1930, Teller moved to the University of Göttingen, but he left Germany when it became unsafe for Jewish people after Adolf Hitler came to power. He went to England and then to Copenhagen to work with Niels Bohr. In 1935, he moved to the United States and became a professor at George Washington University. There, he made important discoveries in physics and became a United States citizen in 1941.

Manhattan Project

Main article: Manhattan Project

Los Alamos Laboratory

In 1942, Edward Teller joined a planning session led by Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley. This session was part of the Manhattan Project, the effort to build the first nuclear weapons in the United States. Teller was very interested in creating a much bigger bomb than the atomic bomb, called the “Super,” which later became known as the hydrogen bomb.

Construction began on a special laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in early 1943. Oppenheimer directed this laboratory, whose goal was to design an atomic bomb. Teller moved there in March 1943 and joined the Theoretical Division. He worked on different ideas for building bombs.

Teller helped with important parts of the bomb design. He was one of the few scientists who watched the first nuclear test in July 1945 safely. He described the moment as very bright, like sudden daylight in a dark room.

Hydrogen bomb

Main article: History of the Teller–Ulam design

Edward Teller went back to Los Alamos in 1950 to help make a very strong new bomb. With scientist Stanislaw Ulam, he made a new plan in 1951. This plan used a small explosion to start a much bigger one, which made an extremely powerful bomb possible.

Teller became famous as a main person in making this new bomb design. But not everyone agreed on who came up with the idea first. Some people thought Ulam had the main idea, while others said it was Teller. Either way, the new design was a big achievement, and both the United States and the Soviet Union started working on similar weapons.

Oppenheimer controversy

In 1954, Edward Teller spoke about J. Robert Oppenheimer during a hearing. The hearing was to decide if Oppenheimer could keep his security clearance. Teller and Oppenheimer had disagreed before, especially about work on new types of energy weapons. During the hearing, Teller said he did not think Oppenheimer should keep his security clearance.

Many of Teller’s science friends did not agree with what he said, and he became isolated from the science community. Teller later said he did not mean to hurt Oppenheimer, but his words had a big impact.

US government work and political advocacy

Edward Teller kept working with the government after some scientists disagreed. He helped make safer nuclear reactors and created designs to avoid dangerous accidents. His ideas were used in hospitals and universities around the world.

Teller also believed in strong defense and spoke about needing more money to protect the country. He worked on important projects with nuclear weapons and had many leadership roles at science labs and universities. He often advised leaders about nuclear testing and policy.

Global climate change

Edward Teller was one of the first well-known people to talk about the dangers of climate change. He said that burning fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide to the air. This gas acts like a blanket and makes the Earth warmer.

In 1957, Teller told scientists that if carbon dioxide in the air went up by 10%, it could melt some polar ice. In 1959, he spoke about oil and warned that burning fuels creates carbon dioxide. He said this gas traps heat and could raise temperatures enough to melt ice caps. This might flood cities near the coast.

Non-military uses of nuclear explosions

Edward Teller supported looking into ways to use nuclear explosions for jobs that were not related to war. The United States looked into this idea under something called Operation Plowshare. He suggested using a very powerful hydrogen bomb to dig a deep-water harbor in Point Hope, Alaska. This harbor would help move resources from coal and oil fields. The government agreed to look into this plan in 1958, calling it Project Chariot. Teller talked about how much money this could save, but he couldn’t convince local leaders it was a good idea.

Some scientists worried this plan could hurt animals and the Inupiat people who lived nearby. The harbor would also be blocked by ice for nine months every year. Because of these problems and worries about health, the project was stopped in 1962.

Teller also supported an idea to use nuclear explosions to get oil from tar sands in northern Alberta. This was called Project Oilsands. The government of Alberta liked the idea, but Canada’s government, led by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, said no because they didn’t want nuclear weapons in Canada.

Teller suggested using nuclear bombs to stop big storms called hurricanes. He thought that by setting off nuclear explosions in the right places, we could create many small storms instead of one big one.

Nuclear technology and Israel

Main articles: Israeli nuclear program and Israel and weapons of mass destruction

Edward Teller helped Israel with nuclear energy for many years. In 1952, he met with an Israeli leader and talked about making materials for nuclear reactions. From 1964 onward, Teller visited Israel often, sharing his knowledge with leaders there.

Later, Teller told American leaders that Israel had built nuclear weapons. He said this was needed because of a large war. He also helped stop American plans to check Israel's nuclear facilities. Even years later, Teller said Israel had these weapons but had not tested them, as testing could cause problems.

Three Mile Island

Edward Teller got sick in 1979. He thought it was because of Jane Fonda. She acted in a movie called The China Syndrome. The movie showed a pretend accident at a nuclear plant. The movie came out just before a real accident at Three Mile Island.

After the accident, Teller supported nuclear power. He said it was safe and reliable. He wrote in The Washington Post that he was the “only victim” because of the stress from talking about nuclear power. He thought reactors were not dangerous. He believed his health issue was from stress, not the accident itself.

He felt stressed when talking to people like Ralph Nader and Jane Fonda. They were speaking out against nuclear power.

Strategic Defense Initiative

See also: Project Excalibur

In the 1980s, Edward Teller strongly supported an idea called the Strategic Defense Initiative, which some called "Star Wars." This plan wanted to use lasers, particle beams, and missiles to stop enemy missiles before they could reach the United States. Teller worked with government leaders, including President Ronald Reagan, to begin research on this defense system. The idea was to use special satellites with atomic weapons to send X-ray lasers at incoming missiles.

Some scientists thought the plan might not work. They believed enemies could use simple tricks to avoid the defense system. Teller wrote a book in 1987 called Better a Shield than a Sword to share his support for protecting people with active defense systems. He also talked about his ideas about lasers at conferences in 1986 and 1987.

Asteroid impact avoidance

Main article: Asteroid impact avoidance

After seeing the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter in 1994, Edward Teller had an idea to protect Earth from big space rocks. He talked to scientists from the United States and Russia who used to design weapons during the Cold War. They met at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1995 to discuss how to defend the planet.

Teller suggested using a very big explosion, as strong as a million tons of dynamite, to stop a large asteroid from hitting Earth. This explosion would be about as heavy as a small truck—light enough to be launched into space by the Russian Energia rocket. If scientists saw a dangerous asteroid early enough, they could use this explosion to either break it apart or change its path so it would miss Earth. This idea could also help against very large and rare space objects, including some comets from far away in space.

Death and legacy

See also: List of things named after Edward Teller

Edward Teller died in Stanford, California on September 9, 2003. He was 95 years old. He had health problems because of his age.

Teller believed in strong defenses using nuclear technology. For this reason, some people thought of him as a scientist who made poor choices. He received many awards for his work, including the National Medal of Science and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was also honored by science groups and leaders.

Publications

Edward Teller wrote many books about science and energy. Some of his well-known books include Our Nuclear Future; Facts, Dangers, and Opportunities, Basic Concepts of Physics, and The Legacy of Hiroshima. He also wrote The Constructive Uses of Nuclear Explosions and Energy from Heaven and Earth. Later, he published Better a Shield Than a Sword and Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics. His memoirs, titled Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics, came out in 2001.