Abstract
The aim of this contribution is that of presenting a simple, elementary description of the nuclear reactor physics, a science which had its beginning more than half a century ago with the Enrico Fermi and his collaborators’ pioneering work, culminated with the construction of the Chicago Pile 1 reactor. Starting from those first experiments, the developments that followed, and those foreseeable in the next future, are shortly discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Let us recall the first two basic “official” treatises on reactor physics which were published during those years: “The Elements of Nuclear Reactor Theory” , by S. Glasstone and M.C. Edlund (Van Nostran) 1952; “The Physical Theory of Neutron Chain Reactors” , by A.M. Wienberg and E. Wigner (The University of Chicago Press) 1958.
See, in particular: C. Rubbia et al., Conceptual design of a fast neutron operated Energy Amplifier, CEN/AT/95–44 (ET) (1995). These systems adopt many important features of the metal-cooled Integrated Fast Reactor (IFR) concept, developed at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) from the 1960s (see fig. 4), in particular: the closed, on-site fuel cycle strategy reprocessing and the repeated recycling of actinides, up to their elimination by fission. ANL built in those years the fast experimental reactor EBR II which demonstrated the potentiality of this concept.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gandini, A. (2004). From the Chicago Pile 1 to next-generation reactors. In: Bernardini, C., Bonolis, L. (eds) Enrico Fermi. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-01160-7_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-01160-7_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-06053-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-01160-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive