---
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
tags:
  - Person
  - Nuclear
  - Physicist
  - Israel
summary: "American physicist and Nobel laureate who visited Israel's Dimona reactor in 1961 and reported no evidence of a weapons facility."
born: 1898-07-29
died: 1988-01-11
location: "Rymanów, Galicia (Austria-Hungary)"
---

I. I. Rabi was an American physicist and Nobel laureate. He, along with [[Eugene Wigner]], was asked by the Israelis to visit the still-incomplete reactor at [[Dimona]] sometime early in 1961. They reported seeing no evidence of a weapons facility, and President [[John F. Kennedy]] expressed satisfaction with their conviction that the reactor was designed for peaceful purposes.[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 8.