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
S1W reactor S1W reactor The S1W reactor was the first prototype naval reactor used by the United States Navy to prove that the technology could be used for electricity generation and propulsion on submarines. The S1W designation stands for The land-based nuclear reactor was built at the National Reactor Testing Station, later called Idaho National Engineering Laboratory near Arco, Idaho. The plant was the prototype for the USS "Nautilus" (SSN-571), the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. The specific location within the vast Idaho National Laboratory where the S1W prototype was located was the Naval Reactors Facility. Under the leadership of Admiral Hyman G.