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The first reactor
Chicago, December 2, 1942: a pile of graphite and uranium under a stadium grandstand goes critical. Twelve years later, Obninsk connects the first reactor to a grid.
Chicago Pile-1 was a 360-tonne pile of graphite with uranium metal and uranium oxide, without cooling or shielding, built under the stands of Stagg Field stadium at the University of Chicago. Enrico Fermi's team took it critical on December 2, 1942, at a power of half a watt. It was the first controlled chain reaction in history.
The first reactor to deliver electricity to a grid was Obninsk, near Moscow, on June 27, 1954: 5 MWe with a graphite-and-water design, a distant ancestor of the RBMK. Calder Hall in the United Kingdom followed in 1956, with four 50 MWe Magnox units, and Shippingport in the United States in 1957, the first commercial PWR, derived from submarine reactors.
Argentina arrived in 1974 with Atucha I, the first power reactor in Latin America. The atlas timeline starts in 1954 precisely because of Obninsk.
Quick facts
| First criticality | Chicago Pile-1, December 2, 1942 |
|---|---|
| First electricity to a grid | Obninsk, USSR, June 27, 1954, 5 MWe |
| First commercial plant | Calder Hall, United Kingdom, 1956 |
| First commercial PWR | Shippingport, United States, 1957 |
| First in Latin America | Atucha I, Argentina, 1974 |