Oak Ridge National Laboratory was completed, later renamed to "Oak Ridge National Laboratory". The site was chosen for the X-10 Graphite Reactor, used to show that plutonium can be created from enriched uranium. Enrico Fermi and his colleagues developed the world's second self-sustaining nuclear reactor after Fermi's previous experiment, the Chicago Pile-1. The X-10 was the first reactor designed for continuous operation. After the end of World War II the demand for weapons-grade plutonium fell and the reactor and the laboratory's 1000 employees were no longer involved in nuclear weapons. Instead, it was used for scientific research. In 1946 the first medical isotopes were
Nuclear reactor core nuclear-power reactor. This was the type of reactor involved in the Chernobyl disaster. In the advanced gas-cooled reactor, a British design, the core is made of a graphite neutron moderator where the fuel assemblies are located. Carbon dioxide gas acts as a coolant and it circulates through the core, removing heat. There have also been several experimental reactors that use graphite for moderation, such as the pebble bed reactor concepts and the molten-salt reactor experiment. Nuclear reactor core A nuclear reactor core is the portion of a nuclear reactor containing the nuclear fuel components where the nuclear reactions take place