B Reactor History Room: Nuclear Fission

The Nuclear Fission exhibit panel in the History Room.

See exhibit panel for specific image credits.

Main Text
Text at the left reads: “While Lise Meitner was the first to explain the process of nuclear fission, she refused to participate in the Manhattan Project. She did not want to be part of the construction of an atomic bomb.”

Text at the bottom right continues: “Nuclear Fission - Lise Meitner was the first woman to become a full professor of physics in Germany. She lost her position due to the anti-Jewish laws in Nazi Germany and fled to Sweden in 1938. Despite this, Meitner continued working with her German colleagues, Fritz Strassman and Otto Hahn, by correspondence. In Berlin, Hahn achieved nuclear fission during an experiment but did not realize it. Hahn asked Meitner for help in explaining his puzzling results. Meitner, aided by her nephew Otto Frisch, correctly interpreted that Hahn had split the atom. Meitner was the first person to articulate the process of nuclear fission.”

Exhibit Panel Description
The poster shows a black-and-white photograph of a middle-aged woman seated in a white lab coat before a laboratory table. Her wavy dark hair is pulled back in a bun.

Visit This Exhibit Panel
In-person visitation of the B Reactor is only authorized on guided tours offered by the Department of Energy.