![]() Researchers believed this could lead to a chain reaction that would release massive amounts of energy almost instantaneously. Under the right conditions, the neutrons produced would bombard other uranium atoms, which in turn would release neutrons to strike even more atoms, expanding the fission process exponentially. The results showed that uranium could undergo nuclear “fission,” a previously unknown nuclear reaction in which an atom absorbs a neutron and then splits into two lighter atoms, while emitting energy.Įach incoming neutron enables the release of two or more neutrons. What led to this unprecedented situation? In early 1939, German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, and Austrian physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch, reported on experiments in which uranium (U) was bombarded with neutrons, subatomic particles with no charge. Landmark dedication and acknowledgments.Their little-known story is an integral and essential part of the Manhattan Project, which was a decisive factor in ending World War II. Those achievements resulted from a heroic effort by a dedicated group of scientists and technicians at a college in the middle of Iowa. This Landmark honors the advances that overcame the first two of those three challenges. The war could potentially be won by the first nation to solve the puzzles of large-scale production and purification of uranium, and separation of its isotopes. believed the metal could be used to create a powerful new weapon. The year was 1942 - deep into World War II - and almost overnight, uranium had become a very important element to top-secret groups. Dedicated at the Ames Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, on May 17, 2022.
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