Rudolf Schulten (16 August 1923 – 27 April 1996) was a German physicist who was professor at RWTH Aachen University and the main developer of the pebble bed reactor design, which was originally invented by Farrington Daniels.

Schulten's concept compacts silicon carbide-coated uranium granules into hard, billiard-ball-like graphite spheres to be used as fuel for a new high temperature, helium-cooled type of nuclear reactor.

The idea took root and in due course a 46 MWth (megawatt thermal) experimental pebble bed reactor (the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchsreaktor, or AVR reactor) was built at the Jülich Research Centre in Jülich, West Germany.

The project was cancelled in 2010 due to lack of investment, even though the technology has essentially been completely developed.

The technology is currently being developed mainly in China who currently operate a 10 MW test reactor (HTR-10) of this type.