FPN21-68
Fusion Veteran Chuck Flanagan Passes, Age 90
December 22, 2021
Fusion veteran Charles (Chuck) Flanagan passed away September 8, 2021 in
Oak Ridge, TN at age 90. Chuck joined the Westinghouse Electric Co. in
1975 as a project manager in the newly formed Westinghouse fusion
program. He moved to Oak Ridge, TN in 1980 to become the deputy manager
of the Fusion Engineering Design Center at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory. He later spent 3 years in Munich as a project coordinator
for the ITER conceptual design phase, before returning to Oak Ridge as
deputy team leader of the U.S. ITER program. He retired from full-time
professional activities in 1995.
Earlier in his career, while in the Army, he assisted in the Nevada
atomic bomb underground test in 1955. He then joined the Westinghouse
Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in Pittsburgh, where he contributed to
the design of the Shippingport civilian nuclear power plant and later
managed the Bettis nuclear engineering department, where he was
responsible for nuclear reactors in more than 100 ships for the U.S.
Navy.
Chuck was a recipient of Fusion Power Associates 1994 Distinguished
Career Award.