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ROBERT B
RI C HARD S
1 91 6-1 988
BY KARL P. COHEN
ROBERT BENJAMIN RICHARDS, a distinguished nuclear engineer
who made major contributions to unclerstanding of the nucle-
ar fuel cycle en c! to the design of thermal and fast-spectrum
nuclear reactors during a thirty-six year career with the Gener-
al Electric (GE) Company, died in San Jose, California, on
July 26, l9SS, at the age of seventy-one.
Bob was born November IS, 1916, in Scranton, Pennsylvania,
and was brought up in that city. He attended Central High
School. After graduating in 1934, he became a chemical labora-
tory assistant at Central for two years, showing an early propensity
for chemistry. He received a B.S. in chemical engineering from
Pennsylvania State College in 1939, an M.S. in organic chemistry
in 1941, en cl a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1946 from the same
school. His cloctoral thesis was entitled "The Viscosity Properties
of Polymeric Solutions." His thesis advisers were Merrell R. Fen-
ske and Grover C. Chancllee. While working towarc! his doctorate,
Dr. Richards clid chemical engineering, organic chemistry, and
physical chemistry research at the Pennsylvania State College Pe-
troleum Refining Laboratory.
He joined the General Electric Research Laboratory in
Schenectady, New York, in 1947. At that time GE hack just
taken over as operations manager at the Hanford nuclear fa-
cilit,v under contract to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).
207
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208
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
The highest priority program was the development of a re-
placement process for recovering plutonium from irradiated
fuel. The wartime process coprecipitation of plutonium with
bismuth phosphate was a batch process that did not recover
the main component of spent fuel, uranium. Research on the
Redox solvent extraction process took place at Argonne Na-
tional Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and
. , ~
elsewhere. Deduction to practice, as a corlllnuous p~-~;~ in
pulsed columns, was to be at Hanford. Bob was transferred to
the Hanford Atomic Plant in Richland, Washington, and was
soon in the midst of this effort. He held a variety of manageri-
al positions and is credited with major contributions to the
technological development of the Redox, Purex, and metal
recovery processes. Due to the fog of classification, it is diffi-
cult to be more specific, but Bob was manager of separations
technology in 1954 and was appointed coeditor of the fuel
processing volume of the AEC Reactor Handbook.
In 1953 Bob became manager of the pile technology group,
with responsibility for the improvement of the Hanford graph-
ite reactors. In 1956 he became manager of the research and
engineering operation for the plant's Chemical Processing
Department and was directly responsible for all classified
chemical engineering design work at Hanford.
Following the revision of the Atomic Energy Act in 1954,
which opened the door to civilian atomic power, GE set up a
new division in San Jose, California, to produce boiling water
reactors (BWRs). Dr. Richards was called down from Richland
in 1957 to become manager of engineering.
The challenge facing him was to define the product. BWRs
present a great variety of design options. The power chain can
be direct cycle, indirect cycle, or mixed. There can be dry or
wet (pressure suppression) containment. The geometry and
cladding of the fuel elements and fuel bundles must be cho-
sen. The fuel irradiation lifetime must be predicted and the
fuel composition (including burnable poison) selected. The
number of coolant circulation loops and the type of pumps
can vary, as can the number of styles of control drives and
auxiliary safety loops.
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ROBERT B. RICHARDS
209
Many scientists and engineers worked on these issues, but
final ratification of the engineering decisions rested with Bob
Richards. In his decisions, he was particularly concerned with
both the economics and the safety of the product. He spon-
sored the elaboration of a development program specifically
directed at improving BWR economics, en cl personally partici-
pated in companywide nuclear safety reviews.
Dr. Richards was elected to the National Academy of Engi-
neering in 1970. His citations included, among other things,
the design of the first commercial nuclear power plant (Dres-
den I); the first nuclear plant with internal steam separation
(KRB); the design and operation of the first nuclear plant
with nuclear superheat (ESADA-VESR); and the design of the
standardized offerings of GE's BWRs in the range of 500,000
to I.1 million kilowatts.
In 1968 he became manager for engineering of the Reactor
Fuels and Reprocessing Department. In October 1971 he be-
came manager of the Special Fuels Programs with overseas
licensing responsibilities for the Nuclear Energy Division. He
was appointed manager, international business development,
Overseas Projects Department in January 1973. In August 1974
he was appointed general manager of the Fast Breeder Reac-
tor Department, Energy Systems and Technology Division,
located in Sunnyvale, California, a position he held until his
retirement in 1983. Dr. Richards was a fellow of the American
Nuclear Societ,v (ANS), a fellow of the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and a member of the American
Chemical Society. He was a past chairman of the Nuclear Fuel
Cycle Division of the ANS. He received the 1970 Robert E.
Wilson Awarc! of AIChE.
He served on the advisory committees for the Nuclear Engi-
neering Department of Brookhaven, Argonne, and Oak Ridge
National Laboratories.
Dr. Richards was a dedicatecl supporter of the nuclear pow-
er industry and of fast-spectrum reactors. He was particularly
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210
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
font! of pointing out the huge energy resource available to the
United States through fast reactors, comparer! to the reserves
of coal, oil, gas, or even U-235.
Until one of his hands was disabled late in life by a short-
enec! tendon, Dr. Richards was a talentecl en cl proficient
pianist. He was marries! to Jean Urie and had two chilclren.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
organic chemistry
