reaction of uranium fission could be established. For that purpose, control rods of a substance that would easily absorb neutrons and slow the chain reaction were used. The metal, cadmium, served admirably for this purpose.

Then, too, the neutrons released by fission were pretty energetic. They tended to travel too far too soon and get outside the lump of uranium too easily. To produce a chain reaction that could be studied with some safety, the presence of a moderator was needed. This was a supply of small nuclei that did not absorb neutrons readily, but absorbed some of the energy of collision and slowed down any neutron that struck it. Nuclei such as hydrogen-2, beryllium-9, or carbon-12 were useful moderators. When the neutrons produced by fission were slowed, they travelled a smaller distance before being absorbed in their turn and the critical size would again be reduced.

Toward the end of 1942 the initial stage of the project reached a climax. Blocks of graphite containing uranium metal and uranium oxide were piled up in huge quantities (enriched uranium was not yet available) in order to approach critical size. This took place under the stands of a football stadium at the University of Chicago, with Enrico Fermi (who had come to the United States in 1938) in charge.[1]

The large structure was called an “atomic pile” at first because of the blocks of graphite being piled up. The proper name for such a device, and the one that was eventually adopted, was, however, “nuclear reactor”.

On December 2, 1942, calculations showed that the nuclear reactor was large enough to have reached critical size. The only thing preventing the chain reaction from sustaining itself was the cadmium rods that were inserted here and there in the pile and that were soaking up neutrons.

Cutaway model of the West Stands of Stagg Field showing the first pile in the squash court beneath it.

The exterior of the building.

Graphite layers form the base of the pile, left. On the right is the seventh layer of graphite and edges of the sixth layer containing 3¼-inch pseudospheres of black uranium oxide. Beginning with layer 6, alternate courses of graphite containing uranium metal and/or uranium oxide fuel were separated by layers of solid graphite blocks.