What part did Chicago play in the Manhattan project?
In 1939, the Nazis were rumored to be developing an atomic bomb. The United States initiated its own program under the Army Corps of Engineers in June 1942. America needed to build an atomic weapon before Germany or Japan did. Meanwhile, experiments in a small laboratory beneath the University of Chicago’s abandoned Stagg Field were expanding understanding of atomic theory. The first controlled nuclear reaction occurred under Stagg Field. Italian physicist Enrico Fermi managed the University of Chicago reactor, called Chicago Pile 1 (CP-1). Nobel Prize-winner Fermi had fled Fascist Europe. On December 2, 1942, under the abandoned west stands of Stagg Field, the first controlled nuclear reaction occurred. Mankind had controlled energy released from the nucleus of the atom. CP-1 paved the way for Oak Ridge and Hanford to develop ways of obtaining nuclear fuel for atomic weapons.
Related Questions
- What role does Magnolia play in the creation of the tapestries for the Magnolia Tapestry Project? Are the tapestries woven in-house?
- What role will IFC play by supporting this project? Can Tata Power raise the necessary financing from commercial lenders?
- What part did Chicago play in the Manhattan project?
