The X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. state of Tennessee was the world's second artificial nuclear reactor (after Chicago Pile-1), and the first designed for continuous operation. It was built during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project. The production of sufficient plutonium for atomic bombs required reactors a thousand times as powerful as Chicago Pile-1, along with facilities to chemically separate the plutonium bred in the reactors from uranium and fission products. The air-cooled X-10 pilot plant used nuclear graphite as a neutron moderator and pure natural uranium in metal form for fuel. DuPont commenced construction in Oak Ridge in 1943, and the reactor produced its first plutonium in early 1944. It supplied the Los Alamos Laboratory with its first significant amounts of plutonium, and its first reactor-bred product. The reactor and chemical separation plant provided invaluable experience for engineers, technicians, reactor operators, and safety officials, who then moved on to a larger site in Hanford, Washington.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-10_Graphite_Reactor
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1805:
Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptured British-held Diamond Rock, an uninhabited island at the entrance to the bay leading to Fort-de-France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Diamond_Rock
1886:
Grover Cleveland became the only U.S. President to marry in the White House when he wed Frances Folsom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland
1953:
Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_Queen_Elizabeth_II
1962:
One of the most violent football matches ever took place at the World Cup when police had to intervene multiple times as Chile defeated Italy in a group match. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santiago_(1962_FIFA_World_Cup)
2010:
A lone gunman went on a shooting spree in Cumbria, England, killing 12 people and injuring 11 others before committing suicide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbria_shootings
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
inthronization:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inthronization
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Only a man harrowing clods In a slow silent walk With an old horse that stumbles and nods Half asleep as they stalk.Only thin smoke without flame From the heaps of couch-grass; Yet this will go onward the same Though Dynasties pass.Yonder a maid and her wight Come whispering by: War's annals will cloud into night Ere their story die. --Thomas Hardy https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy