FIRST - Manmade Self-Sustaining Nuclear Reaction - Chicago, IL
Posted by: 
Shorelander
N 41° 47.545 W 087° 36.075
16T E 450044 N 4626903
The site of the first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction, on the campus of the University of Chicago.
Waymark Code: WMZB8
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 11/21/2006
Views: 65
On December 2, 1942, a team of scientists led by Enrico Fermi gathered under the bleachers of the University of Chicago's Stagg Field to conduct a test that would revolutionize not just science, but human history.
Conducted in secrecy, over the course of the day the control rods would be slowly removed, giving the researchers time to check and recheck their calculations, and see whether the reaction had yet become self-sustaining. At 3:36 PM, the pile finally worked - mankind had unleashed - and controlled - the power of the atom.
Stagg Field was demolished to make way for the Regenstein Library (although a field of the same name exists in the northwest corner of campus). Twenty-five years after this first experiment, the site became the home of Henry Moore's sculpure "Nuclear Energy". Both research buildings (on the west side of Ellis) and a new dormitory were built near the site as well.
However, the physical changes around the immediate location of the first pile (termed CP-1) are insignificant when compared to the monumental repercussions this experiment had on the course of human history. The power, both for good and evil, contained within the force first controlled that day would be honed and refined, leading in part to the end of World War II, the tensions of the Cold War, and myriad other concerns and events in our modern world.
FIRST - Classification Variable: Item or Event
Date of FIRST: 12/02/1942
More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]
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