Neutron trail — true and untrue — about nuclear energy and weapons. Enrico Fermi built the first nuclear reactor (Chicago Pile-1) in an abandoned squash court at the University of Chicago. He ran the historic experiment for 28 minutes. In April 2009 artist Matthew Day Jackson invited Olivia to participate in a ceremonial game of squash. Jackson and the younger Fermi’s game tied “the physics of a squash ball to the physics of the first nuclear reactor”; was filmed in Los Alamos, New Mexico and displayed in a 28–minute video loop at the M.I.T. List Visual Arts Center and the Contemporary Arts
Enrico Fermi December. The shape of the pile was intended to be roughly spherical, but as work proceeded Fermi calculated that criticality could be achieved without finishing the entire pile as planned. This experiment was a landmark in the quest for energy, and it was typical of Fermi's approach. Every step was carefully planned, every calculation meticulously done. When the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction was achieved, Compton made a coded phone call to James B. Conant, the chairman of the National Defense Research Committee. To continue the research where it would not pose a public health hazard, the reactor was disassembled