See glossary pages 33 to 36 Nuclear safety and radiation protection, a continuous learning process Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) Designer of the first ever operational nuclear reactor, Fermi is considered by his peers to be a giant of modern physics. The Italian physicist, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938, became an American citizen in 1945 and worked intensively on the Manhattan project to produce the atomic bomb. Accidents – random, unexpected and undesired events – are part of the existence of all natural and artificial things. The nuclear sector is no exception to the rule. The discovery of nuclear energy was marred by ill-fated events from the outset. The world’s first uranium-based nuclear reactor, or “atomic pile” as it was referred to at the time, created by Enrico Fermi in 1942 in Chicago, was followed very quickly by the design and then the production of the atomic bomb. Furthermore, it was during the preparatory work on the bomb that the first criticality incident in history took place in Los Alamos in the United States on 11 February 1945. It caused one operator to lose a significant amount of hair but had no lethal effect. In the 1950’s, the civil nuclear activities lent moral support to the nuclear sector: it can be used for other things than killing, such as producing heat. Among the many projects to emerge at that time, the production of electricity by using reactors to heat water to produce steam to rotate a turbine is a concept that is still relevant today. On 20 December 1951, in Idaho Falls in the United States, EBR-1, a fast neutron reactor cooled by liquid sodium produced enough electricity to illuminate the building housing the reactor! The gateway to industrial production was open. 2 • Les cahiers Histoire de l’ASN • November 2023
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