Compton said: "Jim, you'll be interested to know that the Italian navigator has just landed in the new world."
Conant, who knew of the experiments that had been going on, understood at once. He said: "Is that so? Were the natives friendly?"
And Compton replied: "Everyone landed safe and happy."
This was the first day of the atomic age. The reactor had been started, had been stopped—and had produced enough power to light one small flashlight bulb!
7
TINY ATOMS, BIG POWER
Atomic power has grown quickly since that day in 1942. Atomic power plants now make electricity to light large cities in many parts of the world.
Atomic power doesn't make electricity directly. It makes heat. The heat turns into steam. Then the steam turns turbines and the spinning turbines drive the generators which make electric current.
Ordinary steam power plants depend on fossil fuels—coal, oil, or gas—to make heat. It has been figured out that if only coal were used for fuel, the world's supply would be used up in 350 years. Oil and gas would last for 40 years. But there are enough nuclear fuels to last for at least 8,500 years!
There are several kinds of atomic power plants, but the best known is the Pressurized Water Reactor. This long name is usually abbreviated to PWR.
The PWR isn't really very different from Fermi's pile in Chicago. There is the same big stack of atomic fuel—usually uranium—with control rods sticking out of holes in the fuel bars. Just like Fermi's pile, when the control rods are pushed in they soak up the flying neutrons and there is no reaction. When the control rods are pulled out, the chain reaction takes place.