Who is credited with constructing the first working nuclear

Who is credited with constructing the first working nuclear reactor? Who is credited with the \"discovery\" of radioactivity? Who is credited with first suggesting/explaining fission?

Solution

(1) Chicago Pile 1 (CP-1) is the first artificial nuclear reactor. It was built as a part of Manhattan Project. It was a project aimed to create atomic bombs during second world war at Chicago university. It was assembled in Novemeber 1942 by a team leaded by Enrico Fermi and they carried out a self sustaining nuclear chain reaction on 2 December 1942. Next year, it was reconfigured to Chiocago Pile 2(CP-2) and in 1954 it stopped operating.

(2) Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896 when he was studying the properties of x-rays. He was using uranium for the same and accidently found that a strong radiation was comming from uranium without any application of external source of energy. He confirmed this radiation is not x-rays hence discovered radioactivity.

(3) Nuclear fission is the radioactivity process in which the nucleus of heavier elements get splits into the lighter nuclei. It was first discovered by Otto Hann in December 17 1938. In 1939, January a theoritical explanation was given to nuclear fission by Lise Meitner.