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
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