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Pre 1914
By this point, Radium, Thorium, Uranium, and Polonium had been discovered as radioactive elements. Marie and Pierre Curie had recieved a Nobel Prize in 1903 for their discoveries of radium and polonium.
Also, by this point, Georg von Hevesy conceived the idea of using radioactive tracers for medical purposes. The overall idea of nuclear chemistry was in full swing. -
Nuclear Medicine
Herman Blumgart first uses radioactive tracers to diagnose a heart disease. -
Fission
Two German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, demonstrated nuclear fission. They found they could split the nucleus of a uranium atom by bombarding it with neutrons, the uncharged part of atoms. As the uranium nucleus split, some of its mass was converted to energy. News of the discovery spread through the scientific community. Other physicists noticed the fission of one uranium atom gave off extra neutrons which could in turn split other uranium atoms, starting a chain reaction. In the -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project is formed to secretly build the atomic bomb before the Germans -
Sustaining Chain Reaction
Enrico Fermi demonstrates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in a lab under the squash court at the University of Chicago. Soon after, a complex of top-secret nuclear production and research facilites are built by the Manhattan Project across the country. -
Atomic Energy Commision
Atomic Energy Act (AEA) is passed, establishing the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The AEC replaces the Manhattan Project on December 31, 1946. The AEA places further development of nuclear technology under civilian (not military) control. -
Russians go Boom
The Soviet Union detonates its first atomic device -
Usable Electricity
The first usable electricity from nuclear fission is produced at the National Reactor Station, later called the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. -
Civilian Reactor
On July 12, 1957, the Sodium Reactor Experiment in Santa Susana, California generated the first power from a civilian nuclear reactor. -
Rainier
The United States set off the first underground nuclear test, code-named Rainier, in a mountain tunnel in the remote desert 100 miles from Las Vegas on September 19, 1957. Rainier was part of a series, known as Operation Plumbob, conducted at the Nevada Test Site to test warheads scheduled for production. Seismic waves from Rainier were detected 2,300 miles away in Alaska -
Nuclear Pennsylvania
The first U.S. large-scale nuclear powerplant begins operating in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. -
CAT scans
1972
Computed axial tomography, commonly known as CAT scanning, was introduced. During a CAT scan, a large coil of x-ray tubes rotates around the patient's body, taking x-rays from all angles. A computer integrates all of these x-rays into a single, three-dimensional image on a television screen. The data can be saved on the computer. A British engineer, Godfrey Hounsfield, and an American physicist, Allan Cormack, developed the CAT scan in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Both men received th -
Chernobyl
Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor meltdown and fire occur in the Soviet Union. Massive quantities of radioactive material are released.
