Harold Lichtenberger

Harold V. Lichtenberger (April 22, 1920 – December 7, 1993) was an American physicist who was involved in the planning of the Chicago Pile-1, the first nuclear reactor to achieve criticality, and in other reactor experiments at the Argonne National Laboratory.

During the construction of the Chicago Pile-1, he was part of the team measuring materials,[1] and during testing he, Warren Nyer and Alvin C. Graves made up a "suicide squadron" known as the liquid-control squad: if the control rods failed, they were to pour a solution of cadmium salts over the reactor to absorb neutrons.

[2][3] He was then responsible, with Albert Nobles, for reassembling the reactor after it was disassembled and moved to the Metallurgical Laboratory's more remote Site A location outside Chicago.

In 1954, Lichtenberger was also in charge of experiments at the proving ground in Idaho in which experimental reactors were systematically taken beyond criticality and caused to explode by manipulation of the control rods.

[7] He died in West Simsbury, Connecticut, in December 1993, of stomach cancer.