Enrico Fermi's team achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at

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Fermi Ignites First Chain Reaction: Dawn of Nuclear Age

Enrico Fermi's team achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at 3:25 p.m. on December 2, 1942, in a squash court beneath the stands of the University of Chicago's Stagg Field. Chicago Pile-1 was a stack of 40,000 graphite blocks and 19,000 uranium fuel elements, assembled in 17 days by a team that included the first African American nuclear physicist, Jesse Ernest Wilkins Jr. Fermi controlled the reaction using cadmium-coated rods that absorbed neutrons. The pile ran for 28 minutes at half a watt before Fermi ordered it shut down. Arthur Compton called James Conant to report the news in coded language: 'The Italian navigator has just landed in the New World.' The experiment proved that a nuclear chain reaction could be controlled, opening the path to both nuclear power and atomic weapons.

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December 2, 1942

84 years ago

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Fermi Ignites First Chain Reaction: Dawn of Nuclear Age

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