GEORGE L. WEIL - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED 08/17/1971 - HFSID 25074

GEORGE WEIL
Handwritten notes to TV/radio host George Sanders by George Weil, atomic pioneer turned fierce critic of the nuclear power industry
Autograph Note signed: "With all good wishes to/George Sanders and success/in promoting wise use of/the radio medium./George Weil/Aug. 17, 1971", 7x9¼. Weil's business card, and a newspaper photo of him, are affixed below his signature. Nuclear physicist George Leon Weil (1908-1995) joined Enrico Fermi's nuclear research team at Columbia University in 1940. On December 2, 1942, he removed the control rods when Fermi produced the first sustained nuclear chain reaction in a squash court at the University of Chicago. Weil was an observer at the Trinity test site (July 16, 1945), when the first atomic bomb was exploded in the New Mexico desert. He became director of reactor research at the Atomic Energy Agency, but resigned in 1952. Weil became a very severe critic of the nuclear power industry, calling US plant construction "too many, too large, too soon and too inefficient", and offering too much risk for too little reward. He wrote the book Nuclear Energy: Promises, Promises, and fought nuclear plant construction projects. George Sanders, a radio/TV interview host in Los Angeles and later Portland, collected autographs from his guests. Left edge frayed from binding. Lightly toned around edges. Otherwise, fine condition.