NORMAN CARL RASMUSSEN 1927 2003 · 2016. 8. 4. · fate of the Red Sox and the impact of the curse...

N A T I O N A L A C A D E M Y O F S C I E N C E S

N O R M A N C A R L R A S M U S S E N1 9 2 7 – 2 0 0 3

A Biographical Memoir by

K E N T F . H A N S E N

Biographical Memoirs, VOLUME 86

PUBLISHED 2005 BY

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the authorand do not necessarily reflect the views of the

National Academy of Sciences.

3

NORMAN CARL RASMUSSEN died on July 18, 2003, at the ageof 75. He succumbed to complications of Parkinson’s

disease from which he suffered for many years. Norm was aremarkable scientist, engineer, and educator who madeadditions to nuclear physics, nuclear engineering, healthphysics, and risk analysis. In each of these fields he was acreative researcher who made important, lasting contribu-tions. He first achieved recognition for his work in gammaray spectroscopy and the quantitative determination of thenuclear composition of materials. Subsequently he workedon the analysis of radiation doses in survivors of the U.S.nuclear weapons testing programs of the 1950s and 1960s.His most influential work was in directing the Atomic EnergyCommission study on nuclear safety, published as WASH1400 but better known as the Rasmussen Report. Thispioneering effort has evolved into the principle tool of riskassessment in the nuclear industry. His public service includedthe National Science Board, numerous National Academyof Sciences panels, and the Defense Science Board. How-ever, to those of us privileged to know him well, our senseof loss is dominated by the loss of a wonderful colleagueand friend who possessed a rich collection of delightfulhuman characteristics.

NORMAN CARL RASMUSSEN

November 12, 1927–July 18, 2003

B Y K E N T F . H A N S E N

4 B I O G R A P H I C A L M E M O I R S

EARLY YEARS

Norm was born on November 12, 1927, in Harrisburg,Pennsylvania. He grew up on a dairy farm as the fifth of sixbrothers. He attended public schools in the Hershey, Penn-sylvania, school system. Besides being a student he had themultiple chores of a farm boy, an experience that greatlyinfluenced his career. As a farm boy in the depths of theGreat Depression he had to learn how to care for animals;how to service and maintain farm equipment; and how tobuild or repair farm buildings and facilities. The result wasthat he became very proficient in using his hands, and verymotivated to use his intelligence. Finally, the experiencesof his youth gave him a lifelong habit of hard work. Hisfather died when Norm was in the eighth grade, and thefamily moved to near Gettysburg, where his grandparentshelped in caring for the family. He graduated from highschool in June 1945 and enlisted in the Navy. He was sentto the Great Lakes Naval training school, where he becamean electronics technician. He served on active duty untilAugust 1946, when he was honorably discharged.

With the help of the GI bill he enrolled in GettysburgCollege in the fall of 1946. He majored in physics becausehis interest had been stimulated in high school. He cameunder the guidance of Prof. George Miller at GettysburgCollege, who intensified Norm’s interest in physics, andalso encouraged Norm to go to graduate school. Upon gradu-ation (cum laude) in June 1950 Norm enrolled in graduateschool in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Before leaving Gettysburg he met a young coed, ThaliaTichenor, who subsequently became his wife (in 1952) andlifelong soul mate.

At MIT he worked for Prof. Robley Evans in the Radio-activity Center, which Evans created and led. The work was

5N O R M A N C A R L R A S M U S S E N

concerned with the field of experimental low-energy nuclearphysics, including the determination of nuclear energy levels,radiation dosimetry, and the biological effects of radiation.It was in the fall of 1952 that I first met Norm. He was ateaching assistant in Prof. Evans’s two-semester subject“Nuclear Physics,” which I took as a senior in physics. Normwas always available to the students to help with under-standing the material and in working the devilishly longhomework assignments. One of my classmates and closefriends subsequently became a research assistant in the Radio-activity Center, and I began to see Norm frequently outsidethe classroom. He was an avid sports enthusiast, both as aplayer and as a fan. We frequently shared despair over thefate of the Red Sox and the impact of the curse of theBambino. (For readers not familiar with the curse, it beganin 1920 when Harry Frazee, owner of the Red Sox, sold hisstar pitcher, Babe Ruth, to the New York Yankees for cash.Frazee subsequently used the cash to promote a Broadwayflop, whereas the Yankees converted Babe Ruth to a hitter.And the rest is a well-known history of triumph for theYankees and tragedy for the Red Sox.) Even in our lateryears together as faculty colleagues we would occasionallysneak off in the afternoon to go watch the Red Sox together.

ACADEMIC CAREER

Norm completed his Ph.D. in 1956, and his thesis wasentitled “Standardization of Electron Capture Isotopes.” Thiswas a very creative experimental thesis involved in deter-mining absolute nuclear decay rates. After graduation, Normremained in the MIT Physics Department as an instructor.He also continued his experimental work in the RadioactivityCenter. Norm’s hands-on experience as a child made himan extremely versatile and creative experimentalist. In the1950s the tools available for detection and measurements


were primitive. Norm was in the forefront of developingcoincidence-counting techniques to measure decay schemes,which was the focus of his early papers.

At this time, the mid-1950s, MIT was building the MITresearch reactor and expanding the program in nuclearengineering into a full department. Norm was invited tobecome an assistant professor in the new department tohelp in the creation of a curriculum that included experi-mental methods. He also became an important experimen-talist using the new reactor. He was a key participant in thebuilding of a 6-meter bent crystal spectrometer that wasused for gamma ray spectroscopy studies for many years.He migrated from the determination of decay spectra tothe use of spectra for measuring nuclear composition. Thisled him to a major program for the measurement of spentnuclear fuel composition, a matter of significant importanceto the nuclear weapons programs where both tritium andplutonium were created in production reactors. This workalso brought him international renown, as the InternationalAtomic Energy Agency adopted his techniques for use inproliferation studies.

Although a magnificent experimentalist, he was alsoexceedingly creative in applying new technologies to nuclearspectroscopy problems. He was among the leaders in adoptingthe use of solid-state devices for photon detection andmeasurement. He was an important contributor to thedevelopment of lithium drifted germanium detectors. Healso recognized the importance of data analysis and was thefirst spectroscopist to adopt the then-new fast Fourier trans-form to data analysis.

Part of his training and background was an appreciationof the importance of statistics to the analysis and interpre-tation of data. Robley Evans was very firm in training all hisstudents to be careful and thorough in their analyses. This


training was reflected in Norm’s work and laid the founda-tion for his subsequent appreciation of probabilistic riskassessment. It also made Norm an excellent poker player, apleasure he pursued regularly and profitably.

One of Norm’s closest colleagues and collaborators wasProf. Theos J. Thompson. Tommy came to MIT in 1957 todesign the MIT research reactor. In 1966 Tommy began aspecial summer program in nuclear power plant safety. Thisprogram brought together leading experts in all aspects ofsafety, including reactor physics and engineering, materialsproblems, instrumentation and control issues, plant opera-tions, modeling and simulation, and plant licensing. Normwas a participant in this program, and in 1969 he becamethe director when Tommy left to become an AEC commis-sioner. As a result Norm was in the position of being anexperienced analyst with a deep understanding of most ofthe issues involved in nuclear power technology.

THE REACTOR SAFETY STUDY

The first civilian nuclear power plant, Dresden 1, wenton line in 1959. This was followed by Yankee Rowe in 1960.The electric utilities began a rapid increase in plant ordersand construction. The first large unit was at Oyster Creekin New Jersey and was a very large plant, over 650 MWe.The plant was ordered in 1963, construction was approvedin 1964, and the plant went into commercial service in 1969.Another large plant, Nine Mile Point, also went into servicein 1969. Thereafter growth was very rapid; four plants in1970, four more in 1971, and eight plants in 1972. In 1973U.S. utilities ordered 41 nuclear plants. Clearly the industrywas growing, and attracting attention.

Opposition to nuclear power began to take shape in the1960s, with the initial concern focused upon radiation fromthe plants and the effluents. Then the concern shifted to


safety and the consequences of large accidents. Intervenersbegan to attack the licensing process and create expensivedelays in plant construction and licensing. The plant designswere based upon the concept of the “maximum credibleaccident.” Usually this took the form of a large rupture in amain coolant pipe, depriving the core of cooling water.Arguments in the courts and in the public arena were com-plicated because of the lack of quantitative assessments ofthe real risks associated with the plants. Senator John Pastore(Rhode Island) was the chairman of the Joint Committeeon Atomic Energy, and in 1972 he wrote to James Schlesinger,head of the AEC, encouraging the AEC to undertake a studythat addressed the issue. Schlesinger agreed and went aboutcreating a large-scale project for that purpose. Because ofthe significance of the study it was felt that it should be ledby someone outside the AEC itself. Norm’s name emergedas a likely leader of the project based upon his associationwith the issue, his neutrality as an academic, and his scientificreputation. Norm agreed to head a multiyear, multimillion-dollar study.

He was very fortunate to have as a close collaborator,Saul Levine, who was then the deputy director of the Officeof Research at the AEC. Together they began to reviewpotential tools for risk analysis and encountered some classicwork by Chauncey Starr and F. R. Farmer that suggestedprobabilistic approaches to address licensing and siting. Theirwork also considered the use of event trees to identify howthings could go wrong, and then in using fault trees todevelop quantitative evaluations of the likelihood of anaccident. This was then to be followed by an assessment ofthe consequences of every failure (e.g., radiation releasequantities, pathways to the environment, and effects uponpopulation). Together Norm and Saul created a programto examine the risk associated with both major types of U.S.


reactors (i.e., the pressurized water reactor and the boilingwater reactor). Their team ultimately involved a large numberof analysts at the national laboratories, the utilities, andseveral universities.

The activities of the AEC were overseen by the JointCommittee on Atomic Energy (JCAE) of the U.S. Congress.The committee had a deep interest is the future of nuclearenergy and the findings of the study underway. Norm wasfrequently called upon to testify before the JCAE. He wasan extraordinary witness due to his great depth of knowl-edge, his ability to put complex issues in a comprehensibleform, his obviously forthright presentations, and his wonderfulsense of humor. At one hearing Senator Pastore was presid-ing. Norm was explaining the concepts of event trees andfault trees and how they were used. In the midst of histestimony the quorum bell rang. Senator Pastore interruptedNorm and explained that the committee members wouldhave to leave in about 10 minutes. He asked Norm howmuch longer he would need to complete his remarks. Normreplied, “Senator, that depends upon how smart you are!”The staffers in attendance were all aghast, and Senator Pastoreroared with laughter and suggested that the committee shouldadjourn promptly.

The study report, WASH 1400, was released in draft formin 1974, and the final version in October 1975. It was receivedwith appreciation from the industry because it concludedthat the risks to nuclear power were very low. Converselythe opponents attacked the report vigorously because theconclusion was unacceptable to them. There followed anextensive period of review, debate, and reassessment. Appre-ciation for the report grew after the Three Mile Islandaccident (TMI). The report had suggested that small breaksin piping were much more significant than the large breakaccident. TMI was in fact a small break. In the aftermath of


the accident the Kemeny Commission suggested that themethodology be used in risk assessment. The Nuclear Regu-latory Commission had replaced the AEC as the regulatorin 1975. After TMI the Nuclear Regulatory Commission beganto use probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) for specific safetyissues; for example, the issues regarding loss of offsite powerto a station were analyzed and found to be significant, leadingto new regulations. The commission went even further inthe 1990s by deciding to use PRA for judging the impact ofthe usefulness of various safety regulations. Today the industryoperates under what are called “risk informed regulations,”which allow utilities to use PRA to adjust their service andmaintenance activities. Partly as a result of these changesU.S. plants are now among the most productive in the world.

Norm received well-deserved recognition for this pio-neering work. He was elected to the National Academy ofEngineering in 1978 and to the National Academy of Sciencesin 1979. In 1985 he was awarded the Department of EnergyEnrico Fermi award, the most prestigious of all DOE awards.The Fermi award had a cash stipend of $100,000. A fewweeks after receiving the award, Norm told me of hisadventures with his new riches. He deposited the check athis bank and waited a few days to inquire at an ATM abouthis balance. He said he just wanted to see that much moneyin his account. The balance did not reflect the deposit. Hewaited another few days and tried again, and again thedeposit wasn’t shown. After a third trial and several weeksafter making the deposit, he went to the bank personally toask what had happened. The teller listened to his story andthen patiently explained that the ATM screens only showed5 digits before the decimal.

With the release of WASH 1400 Norm was involuntarilycommitted to becoming a public figure. He spent anincredible amount of time traveling the world explaining


the methodology, defending nuclear power, and helpingdevelop the applications. He was always fair in his debates,never indulging in distortion, misrepresentation, or exaggera-tion. He was deeply appalled by the poor quality of some ofthe actions of some opponents. Most of all he was distressedby the unwillingness of some opponents to discuss issuesoffstage and off camera. He always tried to understand thenature of the opposition and how together the industryand the opponents might find constructive resolution. Hekept on his wall a cartoon showing two figures separated bya deep, symmetric chasm. One character is saying to theother, “Come over to my side, the view is much clearer.” Healways tried to maintain a balanced perspective on the nuclearissue and did his best to convince others to do the same.

While maintaining his activities in the nuclear powerarena he continued an active academic career. He was namedhead of the Nuclear Engineering Department in 1975 andserved in that position for seven years. In 1983 he was namedthe McAfee Professor of Nuclear Engineering. During theseyears, he continued an active research program but withthe focus now on risk assessment. He was highly soughtafter by students to be their thesis supervisor. The studentgrapevine was, and is, well attuned to the merits of variousfaculty members as advisors. Norm was one of the best ingiving his students lots of time, attention, and moral sup-port. He supervised over 60 graduate theses, and each ofhis graduates became a lifelong friend.

He was appointed by President Reagan to the NationalScience Board in 1982 and served for six years. He alsoserved on the Defense Science Board from 1974 until 1978.He continued as a consultant to the Defense Science Boarduntil his retirement in 1990. He retired from active teach-ing in 1994 in part due to his health.


THE MAN

Norm maintained a remarkably wide set of personalinterests and activities. He was very good with his handsand pursued crafts with diligence and skill. He made muchof the furniture for his home just for the shear joy of crafts-manship. He and his wife purchased land in New Hampshireon a small lake, and he cleared the land and built by himselfa small home. He would visit barn sales throughout NewEngland to find old beams and boards and incorporatethese into his home. As part of his land clearing he purchasedan abandoned bulldozer and restored it to operating con-dition. He then used the bulldozer to improve the roadinto his property and prepare a site for a sauna, which heagain built by hand. He loved spending time in the summeron the lake. In the fall he would go up on weekends to cutwood for the stove and fireplace. And in the winter he usedthe home whenever he could arrange a ski trip to themountains.

Perhaps my favorite tale of Norm has to do with hiswood chopping one fall. He cut wood for most of a chillyOctober Saturday. After enough effort, he fired up his saunato relax. After he had been inside long enough, he thoughthe might prove his Scandinavian roots by leaping into thelake. Knowing that this late in the season no one would beat the lake he ran out of his sauna in the buff, ran downthe path to his dock, and pounding his chest and yellinglike Tarzan he leaped into the lake. Only after becomingairborne did he note that two very frightened women weresitting in a rowboat fishing just off the end of his dock.

Norm was also very athletic and participated in all kindsof sports. He was particularly fond of skiing, and we alwaysarranged our teaching schedules to have common days offto go skiing in the middle of the week. We also served


together on the Scientific Advisory Board of the IdahoNational Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Wefrequently managed to find time to ski in Utah or Wyomingon those trips.

Beyond sports Norm had a real passion for bird watching.Wherever he traveled he took binoculars with him in thehopes of having a few minutes to see new species. As part ofhis duties on the National Science Board he traveled to theSouth Pole. He made arrangements to be helicoptered overto the ice shelf in order to see emperor penguins. He wasparticularly fond of penguins and found this trip one ofthe most exciting of his life. After completing the trip, hegave a seminar in the Nuclear Department with a slide showthat included the penguins. He appeared at the seminardressed in a penguin costume, which created one of thelasting moments in the department’s history. He also tooka vacation to journey to the Priboloff Islands in order tosee the unique species present there.

There is no doubt that the greatest individual inspira-tion in his life was his wife, Thalia. Together they sharedthe raising of two children: son, Neil, and daughter, Arlene.Subsequently they enjoyed together four grandchildren. Normwas blessed with intelligence, a strong work ethic, and awonderful family life that was apparent to all who knew him.

Norm will be most remembered by the scientific com-munity for his remarkable achievements in the area of nuclearpower plant safety. Every nuclear plant around the worldnow has a tool that allows for the assessment of risks, andof means for improving the safety of plant design and opera-tions. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has used theresults of his methods to assist in identifying new regulatoryprocesses and procedures. The results are much greaterinsights into system design and performance. All new reactorconcepts are influenced by the ability to examine their safety


in a quantitative way. Other technical areas are beginningto adopt the probabilistic risk assessment approach.

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK several colleagues and friends for their assis-tance in preparing this biography. Gordon Brownell, Frank Masse,and Costa Maletskos were with Norm in his early years in the Radio-activity Center and provided much valuable information. Prof. GeorgeApostolakis was very generous in reviewing material regarding WASH-1400 and its impact on the industry.


S E L E C T E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y

1956

Standardization of Electron Capture Isotopes. Ph.D. thesis, MIT,Physics Department.

1960

With A. H. Kazi and H. Mark. Six-meter radium bent-crystal spectrographfor nuclear gamma rays. Nucl. Phys. 15:653.

With R. D. Evans. Isotopes: Radioactive measurement. In MedicalPhysics, ed. O. Glasser, pp. 338-341. Chicago: Yearbook Publishers.

1962

With M. Cohan. Analysis of radiations from spent fuel elementsusing a bent crystal spectrograph. Trans. Am. Nucl. Soc. 5:1.

1965

With J. A. Sovka and S. A. Mayman. The nondestructive measure-ment of burnup by gamma-ray spectroscopy. In Proceedings of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency Symposium on Nuclear MaterialManagement, pp. 829-849. Vienna, Austria: International AtomicEnergy Agency.

1966

With O. Oldenberg. Modern Physics for Engineers. New York: McGraw-Hill.

1967

With V. J. Orphan and U. Hukai. Determination of (n,g) reactionQ values from capture gamma-ray spectra. In The Third InternationalConference on Atomic Masses. University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,Canada.

The nondestructive analysis of spent reactor fuel by gamma-ray spec-troscopy. In Proceedings of the Symposium on Safeguards Research andDevelopment. Report no. WASH-1076, pp. 130-137. Argonne, Ill.:Argonne National Laboratory.


1969

With T. Inouye and T. Harper. Application of Fournier transformsto the analysis of spectral data. Nucl. Instrum. Methods 67:125-132.

1972

Nuclear detection methods. In Preventing Nuclear Theft: Guidelines forIndustry and Government, eds. R. B. Leachman and P. Althoff, pp.231-263. New York: Praeger.

1974

The United States Atomic Energy Commission study on the estima-tion of risks to the public from potential accidents in nuclearpower plants. Nucl. Saf. 15(4):375-383.

The approach of the United States Atomic Energy Commission studyto the public risks of power reactors. In The Nuclear Controversy inthe USA-II, an International Workshop.

Nuclear power risks in the United States. In Proceedings of the 1974World Energy Conference.

1975

Safety and risks of nuclear power. In Proceedings of the InternationalSymposium on Nuclear Power Technology and Economics (under theauspices of the National Science Council with the co-sponsorshipof the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, the Taiwan PowerCompany, and the National Tsinghua University), pp. 601-620.

The safety study and its feedback. Bull. At. Sci. 31(7):25-28.Reactor safety. IEEE Spectrum 12(8):46-55.

1977

The nuclear power controversy. Nucl. Eng. Int. 22:256.With D. Rose. Nuclear power safety and environmental issues. In

Options for United States Energy Policy, pp. 119-142. Institute forContemporary Studies.

1979

Setting safety criteria. In Proceedings of a Symposium of the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciences/Argonne National Laboratory: NationalEnergy Issues—How do we Decide? pp. 144-155. Argonne, Ill.: ArgonneNational Laboratory.


Chain reaction, nuclear. In Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. 5thed., pp. 15-27. New York: McGraw-Hill.

1980

Setting safety criteria. In National Energy Issues, How Do We Decide?ed. R. G. Sachs, pp. 73-82.

NORMAN CARL RASMUSSEN 1927 2003 · 2016. 8. 4. · fate of the Red Sox and the impact of the curse...

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