[1] Following his graduation, Hurst was en route to the United Kingdom by ship to undertake doctoral studies at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, working his passage as a radio operator, when World War II broke out.
[1][3] In 1940, after completing the first year of his PhD studies, Hurst volunteered as a civilian experimental scientist with the Ministry of Supply, undertaking bomb disposal and mine detection duties.
It took the team a week of painstaking work to successfully complete the task, made more difficult by toxic fumes from the explosive and ongoing bombing raids.
In 1948, he joined the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, working first on the chemistry of plutonium, before heading a team that investigated the potential of different types of nuclear reactors.
In 1957, he was appointed chief chemist at the Atomic Energy Authority Industrial Research and Development branch at Risley, Cheshire, and in 1958 he was named as the first director of the Dounreay experimental fast-breeder reactor complex.