physics

Thomas H. Pigford

Thomas H. Pigford is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thomas H. Pigford rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas H. Pigford (April 21, 1922 – February 27, 2010) was a professor and the founding chairman of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Key takeaways

Thomas H. Pigford belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thomas H. Pigford to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thomas H. Pigford from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thomas H. Pigford (April 21, 1922 – February 27, 2010) was a professor and the founding chairman of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. The scope of his career in nuclear engineering consisted of reactor design, nuclear safety, fuel cycles, and radioactive waste management. He is credited for having an influential voice in nuclear policy. Pigford was generally well respected by scientists and environmentalists alike because of the expertise he brought to the subject and his objectivity. He was considered a pro-nuclear advocate, but only if done so in a safe way.

Early years Pigford graduated magna cum laude from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1943. He served in the Navy during World War II, and was later asked to join the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while still completing his doctorate. Pigford helped to establish the Nuclear Engineering Department at MIT.

Marriage and family Pigford married his first wife Catherine Kennedy Cathey and had two daughters, Cynthia and Julie Pigford. Catherine died in 1992. Two years after the death of his first wife, Pigford married his second wife Elizabeth Hood Weekes in 1994. He had two stepdaughters from his second marriage, Janvrin Deler and Laura Weekes.

Career As a chemical engineer, he co-authored the book "Nuclear Chemical Engineering" published in 1958 and 1983 which outlined methods that the government used for harvesting plutonium from reactor fuel to be used in bombs. This text was critical because it was considered to be the first in the field. He won the John Wesley Powell Award for his contribution to the United States Geological Survey.

Three Mile Island accident Pigford was appointed to a commission in 1979 to study the Three Mile Island accident in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The commission reported that certain operators lacked proper training which led them to turning off certain safety systems. With these safety systems off, a simple malfunction turned into a larger problem that destroyed the nuclear core. Pigford was very critical of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for their technical errors and the alarmist response. "Every technology imposes a finite degree of risk upon society, both in its routine operation and in the occurrence of accidents. The essential question is the trade-off between the risks and the benefits. The commission neither received any evidence nor reached any conclusions that the risks of nuclear power outweigh its benefits."

Chernobyl disaster Seven years after the Three Mile Island incident, a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl, Ukraine exploded and spewed a cloud of radioactive material across Europe. Pigford was appointed by the secretary of energy to a committee for evaluating the safety implementations of a similar reactor in Hanford, Washington. Pigford concluded that the plant, which was being used to make plutonium for nuclear bombs, was less safe than the American commercial nuclear reactors. He rejected safety measures proposed by the department, claiming that they would be no help at all. Immediately after this revelation, the department closed the reactor.

Proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository Pigford served on the EPA panel in the mid-1990s to help advise the agency on what standards should be put in place for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The EPA eventually decided that the government should have the power to assume how to use the land in the area in future millenniums. Pigford was critical of the EPA for permitting higher levels of radiation contamination in the water supply for farmers because of their assumption that the land would only be used by subsistence farmers, "They end up with such a less stringent result that cannot be defended. That’s bad for the project; it’s bad for the country."

Death In 2001, Pigford was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and was treated for nine years. He died from complications of the disease on February 27, 2010, at his home in Oakland, California.

See also Nuclear engineering Nuclear reactor Nuclear fuel cycle Radioactive waste John Wesley Powell Award

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thomas H. Pigford

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thomas H. Pigford claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thomas H. Pigford before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thomas H. Pigford ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thomas H. Pigford

In research: Thomas H. Pigford appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thomas H. Pigford in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thomas H. Pigford is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1922 births, 2010 deaths, Academics from Oakland, California, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thomas H. Pigford outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Thomas H. Pigford in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thomas H. Pigford means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thomas H. Pigford out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thomas H. Pigford in simple terms?

Thomas H. Pigford (April 21, 1922 – February 27, 2010) was a professor and the founding chairman of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Why does Thomas H. Pigford matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thomas H. Pigford?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thomas H. Pigford.