The reactor itself, nicknamed “Chicago Pile-1” or CP-1 for short, was a 20-foot-tall pile of graphite blocks studded with hundreds of smaller blocks of uranium. Crews worked round the clock for two ...

Led by Enrico Fermi, one of many scientists who had fled fascism in Europe, they worked day and night to build the world’s first nuclear reactor—a 20-foot-tall structure of graphite and uranium known ...

Scientists built Chicago Pile 1, the world’s first nuclear reactor, layer by layer beneath the University of Chicago’s Stagg Field. In this photo, the layer shows graphite bricks with small ...

with a natural uranium device moderated with graphite. Fermi conducted the process using the first demonstration reactor, known as Chicago Pile 1. August — The United States, at the order of ...