The Historic Moment. The experiment, known as Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1), was conducted in a makeshift laboratory located beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field, the university’s football stadium.

Nicknamed “Chicago Pile-1,” the world’s first nuclear reactor was created on Dec. 2, 1942 at the University of Chicago. On Dec. 2, 1942, Manhattan Project scientists achieved the first sustained ...

Enrico Fermi’s Chicago Pile 1 experiment in 1942 launched an atomic age, an unrivaled national laboratory system, fleets of submarines, cancer treatments and the unending promise of clean ...