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The reactor was a pile of Uranium and Graphite blocks, assembled under the supervision of the renowned Italian physicist Enrico Fermi . It contained Critical Mass of the fissile material, together with Control Rod s, and was built as a part of Manhattan Project research done by the University Of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory . The shape of the pile was intended to be roughly spherical, but as work proceeded, Fermi calculated that critical mass could be achieved without finishing the entire pile as planned. A labor strike prevented the construction of the pile at a laboratory in the Argonne forest preserve, so Fermi and his associates Martin Whittaker and Walter Zinn set about building the pile (the world's first "nuclear reactor," although that term was not used until 1952 ) in a racquets court under the abandoned west stands of the university’s Stagg Field. The pile consisted of uranium pellets as a Neutron –producing "core" separated from one another by graphite blocks To Slow The Neutrons . Fermi himself described the apparatus as "a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers." The controls consisted of Cadmium -coated rods that absorbed neutrons. Withdrawing the rods would increase neutron activity in the pile to lead to a self-sustaining chain reaction. Re-inserting the rods would dampen the reaction. On December 2 , 1942 , Chicago Pile 1 (CP-1) was ready for a demonstration. Before a group of dignitaries, a young scientist named George Weil worked the final control rod while Fermi carefully monitored the neutron activity. The pile went Critical at 3:20 p.m. Fermi shut it down 33 minutes later. In 1943, he rebuilt the pile as CP-2 at the Argonne Laboratory. A small graphite block from the pile is on display at the Museum Of Science And Industry In Chicago . SEE ALSO ILLUSTRATIONS (EXTERNAL SITE)
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