Editing Thorium — Key Persons Directory (section)

=== Politicians and Policymakers ===

==== Glenn Seaborg (1912–1999) ====
Nobel laureate chemist; discoverer of plutonium; chair of the Atomic Energy Commission 1961–1971. Seaborg was the primary institutional champion of the plutonium-based fast breeder reactor within the AEC — the main competitor to Weinberg's MSR for research funding. His preference for the plutonium cycle over the thorium cycle was a major institutional driver of the MSR program's defunding.

==== Admiral Hyman Rickover (1900–1986) ====
"Father of the nuclear Navy"; director of Naval Reactors. Rickover chose the pressurised water reactor for submarine propulsion in the early 1950s, establishing the LWR as the dominant reactor type. While not directly involved in the thorium debate, his choice of PWR set the industrial and institutional trajectory that made the LWR path the default civilian technology — marginalising the MSR. Weinberg acknowledged Rickover's practical wisdom in choosing the PWR for its specific application while arguing it was the wrong choice for civilian power.

==== Senator Harry Reid (connection to LFTR is distinct from Skinwalker Ranch) ====
For thorium: Senator Reid's primary relevance was to UAP funding; not directly a thorium advocate.

==== Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) ====
On May 18, 2022, introduced US Senate Bill S.4242 — the "Thorium Energy Security Act" — which would have provided for the preservation and storage of uranium-233 to foster development of thorium molten-salt reactors. The bill was not adopted by Congress.

==== President Richard Nixon (1913–1994) ====
Nixon's January 1971 announcement of the liquid metal fast breeder reactor as the top-priority energy research program was the decisive political act that killed the MSR. The decision was driven by AEC recommendations and by the industrial lobbying of Westinghouse and General Electric.

==== President Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) ====
Carter's 1977 executive order banning commercial reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel ended any near-term commercial prospect for the MSBR in the United States, as the MSBR design requires online reprocessing. Though motivated by genuine proliferation concerns, the ban had the consequence of foreclosing the thorium cycle's commercial development for decades.