The article states or at least implies that Teller’s advocacy of Operation Plowshare, and other such projects was “loony” ... I strongly disagree. Long ago we should have worked on developing well-tuned small nukes for such purposes. If they had been developed, they could now be used in other mining operations (consider substituting for “fracking”, for example, as well as to release oil from shale) in addition to Plowshare. There may have been a body of knowledge to draw on for nuclear “bunker busters”, and rendered threats such as Iran’s deep constructions moot.
I believe that Teller was a very far-seeing man in many ways.
Agreed.
The only mistake Teller made was turning over calculations and engineering details to his grad students.
That is how the nuclear-pumped laser program died. Someone checked the math and discovered that the grad student made some mistakes. Ergo, the nuke laser would not work.