How Did the First Nuclear Chain Reaction Occur?

💡 The Answer

• Enrico Fermi and his team built Chicago Pile-1 under the University of Chicago's football stadium.
• On December 2, 1942, they achieved the world's first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
• The reactor used natural uranium and a graphite moderator to slow neutrons.
• Control rods made of cadmium absorbed excess neutrons to regulate the reaction.