Controlled nuclear chain reaction (Chicago Pile-1)
Reacción nuclear en cadena controlada (Chicago Pile-1)
- Date
- 1942 · confidence high
- Place
- Stagg Field, University of Chicago, United States
- Credited to
- Enrico Fermi; Leó Szilárd
- People
- 👤 Enrico Fermi1901–1954👤 Leó Szilárd1898–1964
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
On 2 December 1942 a pile of uranium and graphite reaches criticality: each fission triggers others in a self-sustaining, controllable way. It demonstrates that nuclear energy can be released on a large scale.
Szilárd patented the chain reaction in 1934 in London, before knowing it was possible.
What it led to
- Plutonium production reactors and the atomic bomb
- Nuclear power plants (1954-1956)
- Nuclear naval propulsion
- Production of medical isotopes
Built on
- Nuclear fission1938
- Szilárd's chain-reaction idea (1933)
- Emission of secondary neutrons (Joliot, Fermi, 1939)