Enrico Fermi of his life, Fermi questioned his faith in society at large to make wise choices about nuclear technology. He said: Fermi underwent an exploratory operation in Billings Memorial Hospital on 9 October 1954, after which he returned home. 50 days later, Fermi died at age 53 of stomach cancer in his home in Chicago. His memorial service was held at the University of Chicago chapel, where colleagues, Samuel K. Allison, Emilio Segrè, and Herbert L. Anderson spoke, mourning the loss of one of the world's "most brilliant and productive physicists." His body was interred at Oak Woods Cemetery. Fermi received
Enrico Fermi a much larger scale. Fermi and Szilárd collaborated on a design of a device to achieve a self-sustaining nuclear reaction—a nuclear reactor. Owing to the rate of absorption of neutrons by the hydrogen in water, it was unlikely that a self-sustaining reaction could be achieved with natural uranium and water as a neutron moderator. Fermi suggested, based on his work with neutrons, that the reaction could be achieved with uranium oxide blocks and graphite as a moderator instead of water. This would reduce the neutron capture rate, and in theory make a self-sustaining chain reaction possible. Szilárd came up with