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
Aqueous homogeneous reactor hoped to design liquid-fuel reactors that would dispense with the costly destruction and processing of solid fuel elements. The formation of gas bubbles in liquid fuels and the corrosive attack on materials (in uranyl sulfate base solutions), however, presented daunting design and materials challenges. Enrico Fermi advocated construction at Los Alamos of what was to become the world’s third reactor, the first homogeneous liquid-fuel reactor, and the first reactor to be fueled by uranium enriched in uranium-235. Eventually three versions were built, all based on the same concept. For security purposes these reactors were given the code name "water boilers".