Chapter One

'A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies' -Oscar Wilde

In the early 1940s, nuclear technology in America was a burgeoning field rife with possibilities for potential weaponry to be put to use in World War II. The year 1942 saw the world's first nuclear reactor, which was fashioned from a crude pile of uranium and graphite out of which cadmium rods (able to absorb neutrons) protruded. This ambitious experiment-stacked on the floor of a squash court at the University of Chicago and surrounded by concrete walls-was inauspiciously referred to as Chicago Pile-1.

When the cadmium rods were removed from the pile, neutrons were released, which caused fission and the splitting of atoms-hence, the creation of the first man-made nuclear reactor. In that same moment, something in the world shifted imperceptibly: Nuclear energy had gone from being hypothetical formula to practical device and thereby a historical fact.

Those humble beginnings in the lower level of an amateur sports arena belied the significance of what had just occurred: The world's first manmade self-sustaining nuclear reactor had been developed, ushering with it the birth of a new, nuclear age.

The public's initial reaction to this achievement was subdued. After all, what kind of impact could splitting a few atoms have on anything?

Within 3 years, the government's wartime efforts with atomic weaponry had sufficiently answered that question. Defense measures based on the principles of nuclear fission had steppe