He continued to be affiliated with the University of Chicago until 1940 when he became the head of the physics and mathematics departments at Olivet College in Michigan.
In early 1942 he returned to Chicago to work in Eugene Wigner's Theoretical Group developing nuclear reactors.
[1] Wigner claimed that Gale Young was his "main helper in 1942 in designing a nuclear pile cooled by water.
"[2] From 1942 to 1946 Young was a research associate on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab).
In 1962 he returned to ORNL as an assistant laboratory director, working on non-military applications of nuclear energy, especially desalination of seawater.