Painting depicting the moment at which the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurred, at pm on December 2, 1942. The pile was built b

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Painting depicting the moment at which the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurred, at pm on December 2, 1942. The pile was built by a team led by the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in a squash court under the stands of Chicago University's Stagg Field, and consisted of a complex lattice of bricks of graphite & \slugs\" of uranium. At bottom centre is George Weil, operating one of the control rods. At top right is the 'liquid control squad', armed with buckets of a solution of a cadmium salt (in case of mechanical failure of the control rods)."

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Size: 4340px × 2480px
Photo credit: © ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: atomic, bomb, chain, early, energy, fermi, field, historical, manhattan, nuclear, pile, power, project, reaction, research, stagg, technology, weapon, weapons