Electrical Engineer Wrote Key Nuclear Reference Manual

Louis Costrell, 93, an electrical engineer who wrote a fundamental reference manual for nuclear equipment, died June 8 at the Ring House independent living facility in Rockville. He had prostate cancer.

In 1946, Mr. Costrell joined what is now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where he worked in the radiation-detection field. He retired in 1982 as chief of the radiation measurement technology section but stayed on until his death as an engineer, helping to develop internationally standardized equipment for gauging nuclear power output and measuring radiation emission.

In 1964, Mr. Costrell wrote a reference manual that became the authoritative textbook on the standardized electrical specifications for radiation-measuring components. It is still used in laboratories worldwide today.

Louis Costrell was born in Bangor, Maine, to Jewish Lithuanian immigrants. He graduated with an electrical engineering degree from the University of Maine in 1939 and received a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland in 1949.

During World War II, he worked in the Navy Department's Bureau of Ships as an electrical engineer under the guidance of Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, who became known as the father of the nuclear navy.

In 1951, as a National Bureau of Standards employee, Mr. Costrell helped measure radiation emitted from surface nuclear bomb blasts for the Defense Department and the Atomic Energy Commission at what is now the Nevada Test Site.

Mr. Costrell served as a nuclear measuring equipment representative for the Atomic Energy Commission at the historic 1955 Atoms for Peace conference in Geneva. Negotiations there led to creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the anti-proliferation watchdog.

Mr. Costrell received numerous awards and honorary positions for his achievements in the nuclear technology field. The Department of Commerce awarded him top medals for his work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He also served as chairman of what is now the Department of Energy's Nuclear Instrument Module Committee from 1964 until his death, and he was a life fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

He participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He was a Silver Spring resident before moving to Ring House a few years ago.

Mr. Costrell's wife, the former Esther Klaiman, whom he married in 1942, died in 2006.

Survivors include three sons, James Costrell of Bethesda, Daniel Costrell of Colorado Springs and Robert Costrell of Fayetteville, Ark.; a brother, Edwin Costrell of Gaithersburg; a sister, Natalie Frazis of Farmington Hills, Mich.; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.