Charles Julian Barton, Sr

Charles Julian Barton, Sr, a reactor chemistry pioneer, died of causes related to his advanced age at 1:40 AM on January 31, 2009 at the NHC Health Care Center in Oak Ridge. He had celebrated his 97th birthday on January 16th.

Dr. Barton was born on January 16, 1912, in the Campbell County town of Jellico, Tennessee. He was the son of Viola Hodsden Barton and Charles Lee Barton. Dr. Barton attended public school in Jellico until 1929 when he began studying at Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky. During his year as a Cumberland College student, he developed an interest in chemistry. The next year he transferred to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where he obtained a BS in 1933 and an MS in 1934. He then went on to obtain a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Virginia in 1939.

Between 1934 and 1936, Dr. Barton worked as a chemist for TVA testing the quality of the cement that went into Norris Dam. After obtaining his PhD. He obtained employment in the rayon industry, and was a rayon chemist till 1946 when he took a job with International Minerals at a phosphate mine near Bartow, Florida. In 1948 he accepted an offer to join Warren Grimes’ chemistry group at Y-12, where his most notable assignment was the development of a technique for the separation of zirconium from hafnium. This was an important step to the development of the Light Water Reactors, because zirconium is essential for both Naval and civilian power reactor technology.

Dr. Barton was administratively transferred from Y-12 to ORNL in 1950, and went to work on the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion project at the same time. Between 1950 and 1969 much of Dr. Barton’s ORNL research focused on molten salt reactor technology. His areas of interest were the chemistry and chemical problems related to molten salt reactors.

He was a true pioneer of Molten Salt Reactor chemistry. His pioneering efforts and accomplishments included:
1. Pioneering research on the NaF, ZrF4, UF4 salt mixture concept, and shared credit for the final reactor formula. This fuel formula was used in the revolutionary Aircraft Reactor Experiment, the pioneering molten salt reactor.
2. Shared pioneering research on the LiF, BeF2, UF4 salt mix, and the creation of the final formula. This is the salt formula used for the 1966 to ‘69 molten salt reactor experiment.
3. Pioneering research on chloride salts for reactor use. Chloride salts are promising safe alternatives to the dangerous metallic sodium used in fast breeder reactors.
4. Pioneering research on the use of plutonium as a MSR fuel. This research opened the door for using molten salt reactors to dispose of plutonium stockpiles left over from nuclear weapons, and for burning plutonium found in nuclear waste.
5. Pioneering research on the extraction of protactinium from blanket and core salts. This was a vital element in the use of molten salt reactors to efficiently convert thorium, an abundant element that presently goes to waste, into a nuclear fuel.
6. Pioneering research on the use of molten salts in a blanket to extract power from a thermonuclear reactor. This research opened the door to approaches to extracting energy from fusion machines.

In addition to these accomplishments, Dr. Barton made notable contributions to nuclear safety. When Dr. Barton was asked to perform plutonium chemistry in the mid 1950’s he learned of safety concerns with the then current methods of plutonium handling. He requested an expansion of his research assignment, to include improvements in plutonium handling technology and techniques. Dr. Barton successfully completed all of these assignments, and his findings pointed to long term improvement in worker and researcher safety, while handling dangerous material at AEC facilities. Dr. Barton went on to team with the late George Parker between 1960 and 1964 in the study of chemical aspects of reactor accidents. In that research Dr. Barton specialized in improving understanding of the transport of radioisotopes in the environment following reactor accidents. Dr. Barton’s research carried him to England where he studied the release of radioactive materials following the Windscale reactor fire.

During the late 1960’s Dr. Barton’s research shifted to safety issues stemming from the use of nuclear devices to stimulate the production of natural gas. Dr. Barton also undertook a pioneering study of the normal presence of radioactive radon that is naturally present in natural gas, and natural sources of radioactive radon found in many American homes.

Dr. Barton married Ruth Mae Grant in 1939. They were married for 64 years before Ruth died on December 26, 2003. They had three children, Charles Barton, Jr., of Dallas, Texas, David Grant Barton, of Greenville, Texas and the late Michael Lee Barton, of Quainton, England. In addition to his surviving sons, Dr. Barton is also survived by David’s wife, the Reverend Ann Barton, David’s son, Gregory Ross Barton, Greg’s wife Marci Welch, and their child, Ada Barton; David’s daughter, NPR journalist, Julia Barton, her partner Josh Sarantitus and their children, Zackery and Avi Sarantitus; Michael’s wife, Lorna Barton, who now lives in Columbia, South Carolina, and sons Blair Barton of Columbia, South Carolina, and Mathew Barton of North Carolina, and Matthew’s wife Kate. Dr. Barton married Anna Kate Teague, a family friend, in September 2004, and is survived by her. Family members say that the marriage brought Dr. Barton great happiness.

Dr. Barton was a community leader. He was an active member of Glenwood Baptist Church for many years, and later transferred his membership to the First Baptist Church of Oak Ridge before going on to become a founding member of Grace Covenant Church of Oak Ridge. Dr. Barton was involved in many community activities. In addition to his church work, he was active in the Clinton Baptist Association for many years. He helped to found Hope Cottage, originally a half way house for recovering alcoholics, which has now grown into Hope of East Tennessee. Dr. Barton also served for many years as a volunteer with the Contact Help Line. He also was a founding member of the Prisoners Aid Society of Tennessee. He was an active supporter of the reform of Tennessee's sales tax which he viewed as oppressive to poor of Tennessee. He also wrote extensively about his life experiences and travels in the Oak Ridger and in other local publications.

Funeral arrangements will be announced soon.

A number of stories related to Dr. Barton’s professional career and his scientific accomplishments can be found on the Internet blogs, Nuclear Green and Energy from Thorium.

Update on my father

I received an update from David last evening. The reason for the belated nature of the update is clear. Daddy has been transfered to a skilled nursing care facility that does not have a wifi internet connection, so David can't email from Daddy's room. Here is what David
wrote:

Mid-afternoon yesterday (Wednesday), Daddy was transferred to NHC, a skilled nursing facility in Oak Ridge. He is in room 120, a semi-private room. The other bed in the room is unoccupied, so it's fairly comfortable now. The staff seems cooperative and attentive, but very much by the book.

They got Daddy out of bed for a couple of hours today, sitting up in a chair. He seems in good spirits and anxious to get better so that he can get out and go home. I was doing some stretching after I helped him with his breakfast and he indicated that he would like to join in. So we did some arm waving and stretching and he actually did some semi situps. He's been eating well here, finishing most of the food brought to him, and staying awake and alert more than he has for the last couple of days. He's a bit fatigued tonight, but ate almost all of his supper.

Hopefully, he will soon be able to get out of his room (in a wheeled chair) and participate in some of the activities they offer here. I purchased a TV for his room today, allowing Daddy and Anna Kate to indulge their CNN addiction. . . .

Charles Julian Barton, Sr. at Y-12

I talked with my father, Charles Barton, Sr., yesterday about his ORNL career. He is not a good communicator. His speech as always been halting, and he does not organize his memories into well formed stories. I can see that Interviewing him will be a process, and that information will come out in little snippets. My father's view of the the importance of the information might not be the same as mine, or of histories. What I have learned so far:

My father views his work on the separation of Zirconium and Hafnium. Zirconium and Hafnium are "rare earths." They are chemically similar, and thus not easy to separate. About 1% to 3% of refined Zirconium is Hafnium. Inside a reactor Zirconium and Hafnium behave very differently. Zirconium has a low neutron cross section. That means it is unlikely to capture neutrons inside a reactor. Capturing neutrons slows down or even stops chain reactions. Zirconium also resists corrosion. This makes it an ideal metal to use inside a reactors, especially as a cladding for fuel elements in light water reactors. Hafnium is has a high neutron cross section. It is 600 times more likely than Zirconium to capture neutrons inside a reactor, and unless separated from Zirconium, will poison chain reactions. Hafnium is also used inside reactors as control rods.

The chemical, and metallurgical properties of Zirconium made it an ideal material for light water reactors. During the 1940's the Navy saw that reactors could revolutionize the propulsion of submarines. They looked at two designs, one using sodium as a coolant. The history of sodium cooled reactors has always been a troubled one, and the Navy did not master the technology. The second naval reactor concept, patented by Alvin Weinberg, was the light water reactor. Pure zirconium was needed in order to get good performance from the light water reactors. Thus the development of both the atomic submarine and civilian light water reactors became possible. Today 85% of the world's commercial reactors are light water reactors that use Zarconium fuel cladding.

My father's first job at Y-12 in 1948, was to work along with Lyle Overholser, and J.W. Ramsey, to develop an industrial process for separating Zirconium and Hafnium. Lyle and my father had been a PhD students together at the University of Virginia in the 1930's. J.W. Ramsey was the father of a long time friend Jim Ramsey. Previous literature reported the use of ether . But the volitility of ether made it difficult to work with. My father and Lyle Overholser tried various organic solvents with little sucess. Then one day Ramsey showed up with a jug of hexone, and suggested that they try it. The hexone workes well, and the hexone process is still used for seperation in the United States. The separation process turned out well, and the light water became the corner stone of the first nuclear age. The names of L.B. Overholser, C.J. Barton, Sr., and J.W. Ramsey are on the patent. The patent describes the separation process:

The separation of hafnium impurities from zirconium can be accomplished by means of organic solvent extraction. The hafnium-containing zirconium feed material is dissolved in an aqueous chloride solution and the resulting solution is contacted with an organic hexone phase, with at least one of the phases containing thiocyanate. The hafnium is extracted into the organic phase while zirconium remains in the aqueous phase. Further recovery of zirconium is effected by stripping the onganic phase with a hydrochloric acid solution and commingling the resulting strip solution with the aqueous feed solution. Hexone is recovered and recycled by means of scrubbing the onganic phase with a sulfuric acid solution to remove the hafnium, and thiocyanate is recovered and recycled by means of neutralizing the effluent streams to obtain ammonium thiocyanate.

The History of ORNL states:

"Herbert Pomerance later that year discovered that zirconium's capability for neutron absorption had been vastly overstated because of its contamination by the element hafnium, which had a much greater poisoning effect.

Zirconium minerals have traces of hafnium, whose chemical characteristics are nearly identical to zirconium's, making economical separation of the two difficult. With funding from Captain Rickover and the Navy, laboratory researchers across the country investigated ways to separate the two elements. In 1949, chemical technologists at the Y-12 Plant, under the direction of Warren Grimes, developed a successful separation technique and scaled it to production level under the direction of Clarence Larson, then superintendent of the Y-12 Plant.

Zirconium alloys became essential first to the Navy's reactors and later to commercial power reactors. Zirconium rods filled with uranium pellets made up the fuel cores of nearly all light-water reactors, and hafnium was used in the control rods to regulate nuclear reactions. "

After the industrial facilities for purifying Zirconium were established at Y-12, the Y-12 Chemistry group was transfered administratively to ORNL. My father was moved to X-10 to work on the aqueous homogeneous reactor. Although little known now, the Aqueous homogeneous reactor was quite successful. It might have received a great deal more attention had not ORNL been also developing an even more promising concept, the Molten Salt Reactor.

At least one ORNL technical report reflects my father's aqueous homogeneous reactor research,
PHASE STABILITY OF HOMOGENEOUS REACTOR HOT FUEL SOLUTIONS. He was the lead writer along with J.S. Gill, GM Habert, WL Marshall, and RE Moore.

The History of ORNL reports:

"In 1952 the Lab built a small (1-megawatt) ``homogeneous'' reactor, one in which a liquid uranium solution was used both as fuel and as the source of steam to spin a generator's turbine. Besides offering potentially higher generating efficiencies than solid-fuel designs, it offered and important operation advantage: Its fuel solution could be routed continuously through a processing plant for purification and replenishment so the reactor would not require shutdowns for refueling. In 1957 ORNL built a larger homogeneous reactor, one modified to irradiate thorium and ``breed'' uranium while it generated power. But by then work on a solid-fuel breeder was well under way, and the AEC soon abandoned the liquid-fuel alternative."

The next post on my father's ORNL career will deal with his role in the development of Molten Salt Reactors.