Rethinking nuclear power — or not

Italian physicist Enrico Fermi fired up the world’s first nuclear reactor on Dec. 2, 1942, in a squash court beneath Alonzo Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Fermi achieved what scientists call “criticality” –– a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction –– at 3:52 p.m. His graphite-pile reactor, dubbed Chicago Pile-One, ran for 28 minutes and produced enough energy to power a flashlight.

Resembling a brick chimney, CP-1 had no cement-and-steel casing to prevent a catastrophe if Fermi’s experiment went awry, and no one knew precisely what would happen if and when CP-1 began blowing apart atoms through nuclear fission, the process by which stray neutrons fling themselves into uranimum-235 atoms, releasing two more neutrons –– and radiation. Thankfully, nothing went wrong that cold December day, and Chicago’s still here.

It is a well-known story in scientific circles, which I had heard before I recently read it in Dr. James Mahaffey’s brilliant text, “Atomic Awakening: A New Look at the History and Future of Nuclear Power” (Pegasus Books, 2009). But I had never heard the story told in the detail offered by Mahaffey, a former researcher at the Georgia Tech Research Institute who is now in private industry, developing nanotechnology.

“Atomic Awakening” provides clear explanations of arcane scientific principles. Thanks to Mahaffey, I now believe, with only a hint of doubt, that I vaguely understand Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Mahaffey does more than lay out principles, though –– he gives us the stories behind them. He shows us the people who first split the atom, unleashing the elemental forces of the universe. With astonishing detail gleaned from one of Fermi’s assistant’s notes, Mahaffey reconstructs the days and hours leading up to the first nuclear reaction. We see Fermi, anxiety-ridden, exhausted, but strangely full of confidence as CP-1 comes to life.