Enrico Fermi of a self-sustaining nuclear reaction were unknown, so it seemed inadvisable to build the first nuclear reactor on the University of Chicago campus in the middle of the city. Compton found a location in the Argonne Woods Forest Preserve, about from Chicago. Stone & Webster was contracted to develop the site, but the work was halted by an industrial dispute. Fermi then persuaded Compton that he could build the reactor in the squash court under the stands of the University of Chicago's Stagg Field. Construction of the pile began on 6 November 1942, and Chicago Pile-1 went critical on 2
TOPAZ nuclear reactor TOPAZ nuclear reactor The TOPAZ nuclear reactor is a lightweight nuclear reactor developed for long term space use by the Soviet Union. Cooled by liquid metal, it uses a high-temperature moderator containing hydrogen and highly enriched fuel and produces electricity using a thermionic converter. In initial discussions, it was unclear that TOPAZ and the somewhat similar YENISEI reactors were different systems, and when the existence of the two Russian thermionic reactors became generally known, US personnel began referring to TOPAZ as TOPAZ-I and YENISEI as TOPAZ-II. The first thermionic converter reactors were discussed by scientists at the Los Alamos Scientific