OBIT Teller - Father of "H" Bomb dies aged 95
TAPE: EF03/0817
IN_TIME: 01:09:37
DURATION: 0:20
SOURCES: ABC
RESTRICTIONS:
DATELINE: File
SHOTLIST
1. STILL: Dr. Edward Teller
STORYLINE:
Scientist Dr. Edward Teller, dubbed the "father of the H-bomb" for his enthusiastic pursuit of the powerful weapon, died on Tuesday aged 95.
Teller had recently suffered a stroke and died at his home on the Stanford University campus, not far from the Hoover Institution where he served as a senior research fellow, according to Susan Houghton, a spokeswoman for the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, which Teller helped found.
Teller exerted a profound influence on America's defence and energy policies, championing the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, nuclear power and the Strategic Defence Initiative.
Among honours he received were the Albert Einstein Award, the Enrico Fermi Award and the National Medal of Science and, in July, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Edward Teller was born January 15, 1908, in Budapest and arrived in the US in 1935, becoming a US citizen in 1941.
He joined the Manhattan Project in 1942 at the Los Alamos (New Mexico) Scientific Laboratory to work on developing the first atomic bomb.
He also promoted the hydrogen fusion bomb, a concept that attracted interest but remained secondary to the work on the atomic weapon.