Alfred Nier; Helped Build Atom Bomb
<i> Times Wire Services</i>
MINNEAPOLIS —
Alfred O.C. Nier, a physicist who helped to develop the atomic bomb, died Monday after an automobile accident. He was 82.
Nier, who maintained throughout his life that using the bomb was appropriate to stop World War II and save American lives, was asked by physicist Enrico Fermi in 1940 to identify the best type of uranium to sustain slow-neutron fission. He isolated U-235 in his basement workshop.
Nier officially began working on the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge, Tenn., in 1943.
Except for the war years, he spent most of his life in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., where he was born.
He earned three college degrees from the University of Minnesota and taught and did research there until his death.
