Nuclear Fission Reactors

Abstract

The story of fission is a story of drama and emotion, and it is a story that demonstrates possibly better than any other the overwhelming importance of modern physics to the events of this past century. Its discovery, or more properly, its identification, was delayed for a surprisingly long time after the phenomenon had in fact been induced in several of the first-rank laboratories in the world. Over four years passed without its recognition, but when recognition did come, it came at the most dramatic possible time. It was just before the war that engulfed the world, and knowledgeable physicists in every country were in a position to guess at its possible military significance.