Randolph Hafstad; Physicist Helped Develop Nuclear Power

Randolph Hafstad, 89, a physicist who helped develop nuclear power. After German scientists succeeded in splitting atomic nuclei in the late 1930s, Hafstad and two colleagues accomplished the same feat in 1939 at the Carnegie Institution of Technology in Washington. It was the first step toward the production and use of the atomic bomb in 1945. In 1948, Hafstad was appointed the first director of reactor development for the Atomic Energy Commission. In 1955, he became a vice president at the General Motors Corp.and was chief of its research laboratories until he retired in 1969. In Oldwick, N.J., on Oct. 12.