November 28th marks the passing of Enrico Fermi. Fermi was an Italian physicist who made many advances in the field of nuclear physics. He was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for producing radioactive elements through the bombardment of slow neutrons. During his trip to Sweden to receive his Prize, he took advantage of the situation to move his family to the United States. He became one of the members of the Manhattan Project working on the first atomic reactor.
In the squash courts under Stagg Field of the University of Chicago, Fermi supervised the design and building of the world's first self-sustaining "atomic pile" that produced energy from controlled atomic chain reactions. The reactor consisted of bricks of carbon graphite with uranium with cadmium coated rods to control the number of neutrons produced by the reactions. On December 2, 1942, Fermi's reactor reached critical mass and was allowed to continue the chain reaction for 28 minutes before being shut down.
This achievement is a landmark in the history of atomic research and made Fermi one of the foremost physicists of the 20th Century. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.
In the squash courts under Stagg Field of the University of Chicago, Fermi supervised the design and building of the world's first self-sustaining "atomic pile" that produced energy from controlled atomic chain reactions. The reactor consisted of bricks of carbon graphite with uranium with cadmium coated rods to control the number of neutrons produced by the reactions. On December 2, 1942, Fermi's reactor reached critical mass and was allowed to continue the chain reaction for 28 minutes before being shut down.
This achievement is a landmark in the history of atomic research and made Fermi one of the foremost physicists of the 20th Century. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.
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