The World's First Human-Made Nuclear Reactor
Today on SciShow, Hank brings us a little science history, telling us the tale of the world's first human-made nuclear reactor, which was built by a team of scientists and students led by Enrico...
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The world's first self-sustaining nuclear reaction did not take place in a laboratory nor did it occur in some remote desert, though that might make sense if you're about to attempt to control a power that no one has ever attempted to control before! Instead, on December 2nd, 1942, a team of forty-nine scientists and students, led by Enrico Fermi, activated the world's first nuclear reactor in a converted squash court beneath the football stands of Stag Field, at the University of Chicago. Yes, "Chicago" Chicago. Dubbed "Chicago Pile 1", the nuclear reactor built by Fermi's team, was hardly the complex machine you might expect. It contained no mechanical parts, or wires, and in the twenty-or-so minutes it operated...
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The world's first self-sustaining nuclear reaction did not take place in a laboratory nor did it occur in some remote desert, though that might make sense if you're about to attempt to control a power that no one has ever attempted to control before! Instead, on December 2nd, 1942, a team of forty-nine scientists and students, led by Enrico Fermi, activated the world's first nuclear reactor in a converted squash court beneath the football stands of Stag Field, at the University of Chicago. Yes, "Chicago" Chicago. Dubbed "Chicago Pile 1", the nuclear reactor built by Fermi's team, was hardly the complex machine you might expect. It contained no mechanical parts, or wires, and in the twenty-or-so minutes it operated...
