General Atomic lab in S.D. announced 65 years ago

General Atomic, then a division of General Dynamics, announced it would build a nuclear laboratory on cityowned land at Torrey Pines 65 years ago. The John Jay Hopkins Laboratory for Pure and Applied Science was formally dedicated there on June 25, 1959.

The company now known as General Atomics built its first fusion research reactor in the mid-1950s and continues to explore nuclear fusion in San Diego today.

From The San Diego Union, Friday, March 2, 1956:

ATOMIC LAB TO BE BUILT HERE

DYNAMICS ACCEPTS CITY’S OFFER OF SITE NEAR TORREY PINES FIRM WILL GET 15-YEAR LEASE ON 300 ACRES; RESEARCH TO START IMMEDIATELY

General Dynamics announced yesterday it will accept San Diego’s invitation to build its nuclear laboratory on a city-owned site east of Highway 101 and north of Miramar road in the vicinity of Torrey Pines State Park.

The announcement was made in New York by John Jay Hopkins, president of General Dynamics, and by Dr. Frederick de Hoffmann, general manager of General Atomic, a division of General Dynamics, at a City Council meeting here.

Transfer of the 300-acre site to General Atomic is subject to the approval of San Diego voters. Mayor Dail said yesterday the proposition would be placed on the June 5, primary election ballot.

Under the city’s plan, General Atomic would be given immediately a 15-year lease on the laboratory site. Transfer of title to the site would depend on the vote June 5.

De Hoffmann said research would start immediately in the building of the Old Barnard school, which has been made available to the company on the site of the abandoned Frontier Housing project.

“Within six months we shall have 60 scientists at work here,” De Hoffman said.

He said he hopes to move into the new laboratory before the end of 1957.

FOUR-MONTH SURVEY

“We shall get to work on plans immediately,” he said. “Planning will take some time because we want to be sure the plan is adequate for a permanent laboratory.”

In New York, Hopkins said the San Diego site was selected after a four-month survey covering many parts of the United States.

“The combination of physical features need for the laboratory, attractive surroundings, climate and the farsightedness of the San Diego community were principal factors leading to the acceptance by the corporation of the San Diego site,” Hopkins said.

Dail read Hopkins’ announcement to the City Council in its chambers.

“This will short-cut by years our plans for industrial development,” Dail said.

Previously the City Council had voted unanimously and, in the words of its own resolution, “enthusiastically” to invite general Dynamics to locate the laboratory here.

As described by De Hoffmann, the laboratory is to be a building or set of buildings in academic style and will be surrounded by a landscaped campus. It will include a small, laboratory-type nuclear reactor to be used to learn more about the peacetime use of atomic power. Up to 10 million dollars has been budgeted for the laboratory.

Hopkins’ statement described the purpose of the laboratory.

“We shall strive to create a laboratory which will have an impact not only in the technological but also the educational field,” he said.