Gregory Minor

Gregory Charles Minor was one of three middle-management engineers who resigned from the General Electric nuclear reactor division in 1976 to protest against the use of nuclear power in the United States. A native of Fresno, California, Mr. Minor received an electrical engineering degree from the University of California in 1960. He gained an M.S. degree at Stanford University in 1966. He began working for G.E. in 1960 and died of leukemia in 1999. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E4D71231F932A05754C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print G. C. Minor, 62, an Engineer Who Criticized Nuclear Power] ]

Mr. Minor, Richard B. Hubbard and Dale G. Bridenbaugh resigned from the division of G.E. that built nuclear reactors in 1976, because they believed "nuclear power presented a profound threat to mankind". All three were managing engineers who had spent most of their working life building reactors, and their defection galvanized anti-nuclear groups across the country. [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,918045,00.html The San Jose Three] ] [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879643,00.html The Struggle over Nuclear Power] ]

The three engineers acknowledged, in Congressional testimony, the possibility of human error, and asserted that nuclear engineers had become so specialized that none of them could see the whole picture any longer. As a result, they said, no one was in control.

Mr. Minor said that he had developed "a deep conviction that nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons now present a serious danger to the future of all life on this planet".

ee also

*Nuclear safety
*Nuclear safety in the United States
*Anti-nuclear movement in the United States
*Nuclear power whistleblowers
*Richard Levernier
*Gerald W. Brown

References