Horse Power To Nuclear Power: Memoir Of An Energy Pioneer

As he was preparing to enter graduate school in physics, Donald Trauger received a telephone call that would change the course of his entire life. On the line was John Dunning, head of the Manhattan District Project at Columbia University, who invited Trauger to join his staff in classified physics research. The young student promptly accepted, and thus began an amazing five-decade career that shaped many important developments in nuclear energy technology.

Donald B. Trauger was born in Exeter, Nebraska, where he grew up on his family farm. He received a bachelor of physics degree from Nebraska Wesleyan University and studied nuclear physics and engineering at both Columbia University and the University of Tennessee. Trauger was appointed to the Manhattan District Project during his graduate tenure at Columbia. In 1946 he joined the staff of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a researcher on the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Project. He was named associate director for nuclear and engineering technologies in 1970, and from 1984 until his retirement in 1993, he was the senior staff assistant to the director of ORNL. Trauger is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society and holds honorary doctorates from Nebraska Wesleyan University and Tennessee Wesleyan College. He is a member of several scientific honor societies, and he has served as an elected member and vice chairman of the Oak Ridge Board of Education and on the boards of trustees of the Holston Conference Colleges of the United Methodist Church and Tennessee Wesleyan College. Donald Trauger lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with his wife, Elaine. They have two grown sons and two grandchildren