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Atomic history at U. of C. BY JOHN SIMPSON

The mysterious, secret project at the University of Chicago had an ordinary-sounding name: "Metallurgical Laboratory." But there was nothing ordinary about its mission. The U. of C. was headquarters for much of the early work in the Manhattan Project, the program to build the atom bomb. I was among more than 2,000 scientists and workers from across the country who came to Chicago to work in the "Met Lab." Scientists made rapid progress designing and acquiring materials for an experimental nuclear reactor. Members of Manhattan Project team with the unveiling plaque honoring the first controlled nuclear chain reaction, December 1947. (L to R): Walter H. Zinn, Sumner T. Pike, Robert F. Bacher, Samuel K. Allison, Farrington Daniels, William W. Waymack, and Enrico Fermi. In August 1942, the first pure sample of plutonium was isolated. By December, the first nuclear reactor was assembled in a squash court under the stands of Stagg athletic field. Crude by today's standards, the reactor was a pile of black bricks that contained 22,000 pieces of uranium oxide and 800,000 pounds of graphite. Under the direction of Italian-born physicist Enrico Fermi, scientists produced the first nuclear chain reaction Dec. 2. In a chain reaction, the nucleus of a uranium atom splits apart, releasing subatomic neutrons. These neutrons smash into other uranium atoms and split them apart, releasing more neutrons, which split more atoms, and so on. Each time an atom splits, it releases energy. Nuclear power plants control the reaction and harness the energy to generate electricity. An atom bomb is a runaway chain reaction. Fermi initiated the chain reaction by withdrawing a control rod. Excitement gripped the small group of scientists and engineers as the intensity of the chain reaction built up. Fermi, using his slide rule, calculated that the recordings agreed with what was expected. Hungarian physicist Eugene Wigner brought paper cups and a bottle of Chianti wine to celebrate the beginning of the Nuclear Age. Sketch of the first nuclear reactor. Met Lab director Arthur Compton telephoned the news, in code, to Harvard University President James Conant, the head of the National Defense Research Council. "The Italian navigator has just landed in the New World," Compton said. "Is that so?" replied Conant. "Were the natives friendly?" "Everyone landed safe and happy," Compton replied. I joined the Met Lab in 1943, staying in a room in Compton's Hyde Park home. I invented an instrument that detected plutonium amid other radioactive products. I was amazed by the atmosphere of two cultures on campus. On one hand, students and faculty freely went to classes with military cadets training as meteorologists. On the other hand, the Met Lab occupied the physics and mathematics buildings with its secret purpose. The dichotomy was a challenge, but it was successful. After Germany was defeated and two atom bombs were dropped on Japan in 1945, I was concerned about the future of the new weapon. I became chairman of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago. I remain as president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the magazine with the symbolic doomsday clock on the cover, now set at nine minutes to midnight. After the war, civilians gained control of the development of nuclear energy in the United States. However, we failed to prevent the international buildup of nuclear weapons and their proliferation by many nations. The good news is that, 54 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there has been no further use of nuclear weapons in anger by any nation. The bad news is that we have not been able to reduce or eliminate existing nuclear weapons.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR January * Heavyweight boxer Joe Louis volunteers for the Army, a day after knocking out challenger Buddy Baer and two days before he was to report for the draft in Chicago. March * An interracial group of University of Chicago students founds the Congress of Racial Equality and holds sit-ins at restaurants that refuse to serve blacks. July * Police Capt. Martin E. McCormick and three officers of the "morals squad" are acquitted by the Civil Service Commission of failing to shut down Loop gambling. A report later says the four are guilty and should have been fired. * Former Chicagoan Herbert Hans Haupt, 22, is the youngest of eight Nazi saboteurs sentenced to death by a military commission. The eight sneaked ashore at night from German U-boats in the Atlantic, carrying explosives to bomb factories and bridges. August * The biggest blackout test in the country begins at 10 p.m. The half-hour blackout affects 12 million people in the Chicago area and along Lake Michigan. September * A Story magazine poll names onetime Chicago newsman Carl Sandburg "the greatest living American writer" over John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway and others. October * Frederick A. Stock, 69, director of the Chicago Symphony since 1905, dies. November * University of Chicago student John Johnson uses a $500 loan on his mother's furniture to start Negro Digest, the first publication of Johnson Publishing Co. This was followed three years later by Ebony, the world's most successful black-oriented and -owned magazine. * Backed by Mayor Ed Kelly, Republican-turned-Democrat William L. Dawson defeats GOP nominee William E. King in the 1st Congressional District, the only black-occupied seat in the U.S. House. December * Bears lose in an upset to Washington Redskins, 14-6, in football's championship game. The Bears had won 24 straight. * FBI agents capture the last three of seven "Touhy gang" mobsters who escaped from Stateville prison Oct. 9.

November 3, 1999

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