This is Red Gate Woods which makes up just
a small part of the almost 70,000 acres of
the Forest Preserves of Cook County.
Buried below me are the remains of two very
important nuclear reactors, one of which was
the worlds first successful nuclear reactor.
How it ended up being buried here is a peculiar
story, especially considering it was built
over 15 miles away in the city of Chicago.
Why?
Well, that's because of a letter from Albert
Einstein.
August 2nd 1939, Albert Einstein sent a letter
to President Franklin D Roosevelt informing
him of the work done by two scientists, Enrico
Fermi, and Leo Szilard.
Which showed that Uranium could be turned
into a new and important source of energy
which could lead to the creation of a new
type of devastating bomb.
He noted that Germany knew this too and had
already started stockpiling Uranium This set
in motion a series of events that would lead
to the creation of the Manhattan project.
A top secret and multinational effort to beat
the Nazi’s to the creation of an
atomic bomb
At the University of Chicago in 1942, the
metallurgical laboratory or Met Lab opened.
It was just one of the many secret Manhattan
project sites operating across the country.
There, Enrico Fermi continued his work on
experimental piles and creating a nuclear
chain reaction.
This video was made possible by the great
support of Novel Coworking.
Novel Coworking rents private offices, office
suites and coworking memberships so local
businesses and content creators can thrive!
Novel Coworking started in Chicago and, in
only five years, has grown to five Windy City
locations, 1,400 Chicagoland members and 30
locations nationwide.
If you are looking for an a new workspace
already equipped with the amenities and resources
needed for your team and business, follow
the link in the description to find out more.
The Met Lab expanded rapidly at the University,
eventually consuming over two hundred thousand
square feet of space.
The university wasn't an ideal location to
build a full-size pile or reactor as they
are called today.
The army leased 1088 acres here at the Argonne
Forest to build a secure facility for the
Met Labs operations.
Construction was planned to start immediately,
but due to a union dispute and lack of readily
available skilled workers, the contractors
failed to meet the October deadline.
Time was of the essence and without a dedicated
site to build a full-size reactor Fermi decided
to build it on a squash court under the west
stands of the universities football field,
Stagg Field.
Over forty thousand graphite blocks were used
to build Chicago Pile 1, nineteen thousand
of which had holes bored into them to hold
the uranium.
Working around the clock, it took the team
of scientist, labors and some thirty or so
high school students who were recruited from
Back of The Yards.
Almost 50 days to complete the reactor.
On December 2nd, 1942, Fermi and 41 others
gathered at the reactor to see if their experimental
pile would work.
From the balcony above, Fermi gave the orders
to remove the Zip and all but one control
rod.
Those long rods were coated in cadmium which
hindered a reaction from taking place.
The last control rod was slowly removed as
Fermi and his team monitored the reactions
taking place inside the reactor.
The needle climbed but soon leveled off as
the reaction failed to self sustain.
Inching the control rod out further after
each attempt yield more and favorable results
for a chain reaction.
On the verge of success, Fermi halted the
experiment and ordered the team to lunch.
They returned to work and at 3 pm the control
rod was pulled out one more foot which delivered
the desired result.
The reaction gained momentum, generating heat
and throwing off radiation without showing
any signs of stopping.
It was the first self-sustaining controlled
nuclear reaction.
The atomic age had begun, under the stands
of a football field, on the South Side of
Chicago.
Those who were present celebrated with a bottle
of Chianti.
The reactor ran for 4 minutes at only half
a watt enough to power a couple of LED Christmas
lights.
Ten days later they increased the power level
to 200 watts, which was more than enough to
cover your house in lights.
In February of 1943, Chicago Pile 1 was disassembled
and transferred here to the completed laboratory.
It was reconfigured as Chicago Pile 2.
Chicago Pile 3, the first heavy water reactor,
was also constructed here and reached criticality
on May 15th, 1944.
The Argonne Laboratory became a central location
for atomic reactor research and development.
The work provided vital information and guidance
to the larger reactors which were focused
on the mass production of fuel for an atomic
bomb.
After their success in Chicago, many of the
scientists were called away to work on other
parts of the Manhattan Project.
Enrico Fermi would become the associate director
at the Los Alamos laboratory where the atomic
bomb was being constructed.
He along with several others from Chicago
witnessed the Trinity bomb explosion.
Leona Woods and others went to work at the
larger reactors in Hanford and Oak Ridge.
While Walter Zinn and Leo Szilard continue
work at the Argonne Laboratory.
Remarkably, physicist Harold Agnew, saw the
completion of the atomic bomb from start to
finish.
He was present when Chicago Pile One achieved
the first controlled nuclear reaction and
was a scientific observer to the bombing of
Hiroshima.
Capturing the explosion on camera.
After the war, the Argonne National Laboratory
continued its research into nuclear reactors.
They outgrew this site, which was only meant
to be temporary, and established a new location
in DuPage County where they still operate
today.
By 1954 the reactors and facilities here were
obsolete.
To return the land back to the forest preserve
in the condition it was received, they dug
a big hole and buried everything in it.
The radioactive material was removed from
the reactors and a ditch, 100 feet wide and
50 feet deep was dug between them.
Concrete was poured into Chicago pile 3 to
seal it up, this also brought its total weight
to around 800 tons.
Unable to be moved, they dug the ditch around
it and exploded the pedestal of dirt supporting
it.
Chicago pile 2 along with the remaining buildings
were leveled and pushed into the ditch.
Another ditch, Plot M, was dug on the other
side of the compound.
There the radioactive waste was buried and
capped with concrete to prevent anyone from
digging it up.
What was once Argonne Forrest is now Red Gate
Woods and is completely accessible to the
public, quite possibly making it the only
nuclear disposal site that is.
The site poses no risk to visitors, but due
to public concern, a few cleanups did take
place and several monitoring wells were installed.
The area is monitored by the department of
energy, who concluded that your odds of radiation
exposure from visiting the site is the same
as being killed by lightning.
The only remnants of what happened here are
marked by two large rocks which not only serve
as monuments to the history but as tombstones
to what lies beneath the ground.
Back at the University of Chicago, Stagg Field
was demolished in 1957.
This sculpture, “Nuclear Energy” by Henry
Moore and the adjacent library mark the original
location where the first nuclear reactor was
built.
Although Chicago Pile 1 wasn't the last reactor
to be unconventionally built at the University.
Since 1987 the students have held an annual
scavenger hunt and in 1999, 500 points were
offered for a breeder reactor build in a shed.
A laughable, if not impossible task to say
the least.
Well, two physics students, Justin Kasper,
and Fred Neill, successfully constructed a
plutonium-producing reactor from parts they
gathered at the Physics Lab.
Thanks to Vincent for suggesting this story,
if you would like to suggest your own you
can hit me up in the comments or on social
media.
Don’t forget to like and subscribe and share
this video with your Chicago friends.
