B Reactor History Room: Slow Neutrons

The Slow Neutrons exhibit panel in the History Room.

See exhibit panel for specific image credits.

Main Text
Text at the top right reads: “Enrico Fermi illustrates the process of nuclear fission and how two to three neutrons are released when an atom is split.”

At the bottom, text continues: “Slow Neutrons - Enrico Fermi, a brilliant Italian physicist and professor teaching in Rome, received the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics partly for his discovery of the effects of slow neutrons on the fission process. After receiving the Nobel Prize, Fermi and his family fled to New York to protect his Jewish wife from rising anti-Semitism in Italy. Fermi continued experimental work with slow neutrons and soon theorized that a self-sustaining chain reaction was possible. Based on his discoveries, he led the design and construction of the very first self-sustaining nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago, known as Chicago Pile-1, in 1942.”

Exhibit Panel Description
A 1938 black-and-white photograph on the poster shows a middle-aged, balding man in a tweed jacket drawing at a blackboard with mathematical equations above.

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