Chicago South / University of Chicago / Nuclear Energy, The site of world's First Nuclear Reactor - by Henry Moore

Nuclear Energy - by Henry Moore

Nuclear Energy, site of world's first nuclear reactor Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1)

Sculptor: Henry Moore 

Dedicated: 1967

Location: The campus of the University of Chicago,

on Ellis Avenue, between the Max Palevsky West dormitory and the Regenstein Library

Commissioned by the B.F. Ferguson Monument Fund, to commemorates the first self-sustaining controlled nuclear reaction. It was erected for and dedicated at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the splitting of the atom on the grounds by Enrico Fermi in December 2, 1942. The location commemorates the exact location where the Manhattan Project team devised the first nuclear reactor to produce the first self-sustaining controlled nuclear reaction. It was dedicated at precisely 3:36 p.m. on December 2, 1967 

The site was ...

Designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1965 

Designated a Chicago Landmark in 1971 

Nuclear Energ - by Henry Moore

Nuclear Energy - by Henry Moore

It is one of the four original members to be listed on both the Chicago Registered Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places list, on October 15, 1966, which is the day that the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was enacted.
These four original members are:
# Chicago Pile-1 [site of world's first nuclear reactor]
# Robie House
# Lorado Taft Midway Studios
# Hull House

Nuclear Energy - by Henry Moore

Nuclear Energy - Chicago Landmark 

The plaque reads ...
Chicago Landmark
Site of the First Self-sustaining Controlled Nuclear Chain Reaction
December 2, 1942 

Physicist Enrico Fermi and his colleagues established the first self-sustaining controlled nuclear reaction in makeshift laboratories constructed under the grandstands of Stagg Fild Stadium on December 2, 1942. The success of this experiment urshered in the atomic age, opening tremendous potential to modern science.
Designated a Chicago Landmark on October 27, 1971,
by the City Council of Chicago.
Richard J. Daley, Mayor
Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks

Nuclear Energy - by Henry Moore

Left plaque ...
Nuclear Energy
Henry Moore - Sculptor
Dedicated December 2, 1967
The 25th Anniversary of First Controlled Generation of Nuclear Power
An experiment by Enrico Fermi and his colleagues

Center top plaque ..
Site of First Self-Sustaining Nuclear Reaction
has been designated a
Registered National Historic Landmark ...
under the provision of the Historic Sites Act of August 31, 1935. This site possesses exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating th history of the United States.
U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service, 1965

Center bottom plaque ...
The sculpture was provided by the trustees of the
B. F. Ferguson Monumnet Fund 1967 

Right plaque ..
On December 2, 1942 ..
Man achieved here the fisrt self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction and thereby initiated the controlled release of nuclear energy.

Nuclear Energy