Nuclear Chain Reaction - History

History

Chemical chain reactions were first proposed by German chemist Max Bodenstein in 1913, and were reasonably well understood before nuclear chain reactions were proposed. It was understood that chemical chain reactions were responsible for exponentially increasing rates in reactions, such as produced chemical explosions.

The concept of a nuclear chain reaction was first hypothesized by Hungarian scientist Leó Szilárd on Tuesday, September 12, 1933. The neutron had been discovered in 1932, shortly before. Szilard realized that if a nuclear reaction produced neutrons, which then caused further nuclear reactions, the process might be self-perpetuating. Szilárd, however, did not propose fission as the mechanism for his chain reaction, since the fission reaction was not yet discovered or even suspected. Instead, Szilard proposed using mixtures of lighter known isotopes which produced neutrons in copious amounts. He filed a patent for his idea of a simple nuclear reactor the following year.

In 1936, Szilárd attempted to create a chain reaction using beryllium and indium, but was unsuccessful. After nuclear fission was discovered by others in 1938, Szilárd and Enrico Fermi in 1939 searched for, and discovered, neutron multiplication in uranium, proving that a nuclear chain reaction by this mechanism was indeed possible. This discovery prompted the letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning of the possibility that Nazi Germany might be attempting to build an atomic bomb.

Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilárd created the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, called Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1), in a racquets court below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago on December 2, 1942. Fermi's experiments at the University of Chicago were part of Arthur H. Compton's Metallurgical Laboratory, part of the Manhattan Project; the lab was later moved outside Chicago, renamed Argonne National Laboratory, and tasked with conducting research in harnessing fission for nuclear energy.

In 1956, Paul Kuroda of the University of Arkansas postulated that a natural fission reactor may have once existed. Since nuclear chain reactions only require natural materials (such as water and uranium), it is possible to have these chain reactions occur where there is the right combination of materials within the Earth's crust. Kuroda's prediction was verified with the discovery of evidence of natural self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions in the past at Oklo in Gabon, Africa in September 1972.