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Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) was the world's first artificial nuclear reactor.On 2 December 1942, the first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated in CP-1 during an experiment led by Enrico Fermi.
Plaque at Fermi's birthplace. Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, on 29 September 1901. [3] He was the third child of Alberto Fermi, a division head in the Ministry of Railways, and Ida de Gattis, an elementary school teacher. [3] [4] [5] His sister, Maria, was two years older, his brother Giulio a year older.
The FERMIAC employed the Monte Carlo method to model neutron transport in various types of nuclear systems. Given an initial distribution of neutrons, the goal of the process is to develop numerous "neutron genealogies", or models of the behavior of individual neutrons, including each collision, scattering, and fission.
If k = 1, the chain reaction is critical and the neutron population will remain constant. In an infinite medium, neutrons cannot leak out of the system and the multiplication factor becomes the infinite multiplication factor, k = k ∞ {\displaystyle k=k_{\infty }} , which is approximated by the four-factor formula.
The discovery of the neutron by James Chadwick in 1932 created a new means of nuclear transmutation. Enrico Fermi and his colleagues in Rome studied the results of bombarding uranium with neutrons, and Fermi concluded that his experiments had created new elements with 93 and 94 protons, which his group dubbed ausenium and hesperium.
In 1934, Enrico Fermi published his classic paper describing the process of beta decay, in which the neutron decays to a proton by creating an electron and a (as yet undiscovered) neutrino. [75] The paper employed the analogy that photons , or electromagnetic radiation, were similarly created and destroyed in atomic processes.
Fermi's goal was to determine critical mass necessary to sustain neutron generation. Fermi defined the reproduction factor k for assessing the chain reaction, with a value of 1.0 denoting a sustained chain reaction. In September 1941, Fermi's team was only able to achieve a k value of 0.87.
Enrico Fermi himself was at the controls. LOPO was dismantled to make way for a second Water Boiler that could be operated at power levels up to 5.5 kilowatts. Named HYPO (for high power), this version used solution of uranyl nitrate as fuel whereas the earlier device had used enriched uranyl sulfate. This reactor became operative in December 1944.