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Chicago Pile 1

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Curious about Chicago Pile-1? Explore the world's first nuclear reactor with our new interactive 3D model. Inspect the graphite block structure, locate the control rods, and learn how they worked. Dive into the model for descriptions and technical specifications.

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Chicago Pile 1

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Chicago Pile 1

Reactor core

The reactor core comprised tens of thousands of highly purified graphite bricks arranged in layers and assembled on site. Each clean layer of graphite bricks was followed by a layer of graphite into which pressed uranium-oxide spheres had been placed. In this way, the fuel spheres formed a three-dimensional cubic lattice throughout the entire volume.

Fuel

The fuel of the first reactor was natural uranium. As Fermi had only five tonnes of metallic uranium available, nearly forty additional tonnes of uranium oxide were required to complete the fuel charge. The reactor had originally been intended to take on a spherical configuration, but criticality was achieved earlier than expected during construction, and the final assembly therefore formed a sphere flattened at the top.

Control rods

Cadmium control rods were used to regulate the fission chain reaction, being inserted laterally into the central region of the reactor core. In effect, they were flat wooden slats to which cadmium sheets—strong neutron absorbers—had been affixed. The position of the cadmium rods was adjusted on the basis of readings from instruments monitoring the neutron flux.

SCRAM

In the event that the automatic system controlling the regulating rods failed to operate correctly, a further safety measure was available. By cutting the rope holding the cadmium emergency rod in its horizontally withdrawn position, the rod was driven rapidly into the centre of the reactor. Its insertion was driven by the weight attached to the opposite end of the rope, which fell as the line was severed. The abbreviation SCRAM is still used today to denote an emergency reactor shutdown, but at the time of the first reactor it stood for “safety control rod axe man”.

Safety

Safety during the experiment was ensured primarily by an emergency cadmium rod, which could be driven rapidly into the reactor in the event of danger. An additional safeguard was provided by a group of assistants equipped with buckets of cadmium-salt solution, ready to pour it into the reactor if required. Fire protection, meanwhile, was afforded by a large, rubberised balloon that could be used to smother any outbreak of fire.

Enrico Fermi

An Italian theoretical physicist and experimentalist, renowned for his work in nuclear physics and radiation. After emigrating to the United States, he became one of the principal physicists involved in the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1. Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of nuclear reactions induced by the irradiation of materials with thermal neutrons.

Memorial Plaque

The plaque commemorates the site where Chicago Pile-1 achieved the world’s first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942, in a squash court beneath the West Stands of Stagg Field. Unveiled by the University of Chicago on December 2, 1952, it serves as a reminder that the nuclear age began with a simple pile going critical here.

Stagg Field – West Stands

The West Stands of Stagg Field were originally part of a university football stadium. Beneath the seating, unused squash courts provided a discreet and structurally stable space where Chicago Pile-1 was assembled in 1942. After the experiment, the stadium was demolished in the 1950s and replaced by academic buildings, leaving only memorial plaques to mark the birthplace of controlled nuclear energy.

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