1942 Fermi's Nuclear Reactor
At the university of Chicago, Enrico Fermi led a team of scientists in building a test "pile". This test "pile" consisted of alternating uranium fuel layers and graphite layers. Inside it, uranium atoms would be bombarded with neutrons. It helped the scientists to decide the exact combination of ingredients and arrangements necessary for a nuclear chain reaction to be self-sustaining.This pile led to the design of the world's first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile Number One (CP-1).
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left: photo of Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954)
right: the world's first nuclear reactor (CP-1 Chicago Pile no.1) |
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This reactor used naturally occurring uranium. The uranium layers
could promote the reaction whereas the graphite layers in between
them slowed down the neutrons.
On December 2, 1942, Fermi slipped the [control
rods] out of the pile and the chain reaction began. The
unstable uranium-235 nuclei were split by the neutrons. Disintegration
of the split atoms produced more neutrons. These neutrons were
shot out from the uranium block into the graphite, which slowed
them, and then into the next block where they split more uraniyum-235
nuclei. Great amount of heat energy was produced at the same time.
Chicago Pile Number One became the world's first nuclear
reactor.
(C)1999 ThinkQuest Team 27954