During the late 1920s scientists began saying that a small amount of matter could supply enough energy to drive a large ship across the ocean. As we know, this prediction has since been borne out by the performance of nuclear submarines and surface vessels.
The NS Savannah was the first cargo-passenger ship to be driven by nuclear power.
Courtesy States Marine Lines
The Nautilus was the Navy’s first atomic-powered submarine.
Courtesy U. S. Navy
CHRONOLOGY
| 1800 | Dalton firmly establishes atomic theory of matter. |
| 1890-1900 | Thomson’s experiments with cathode rays prove the existence of electrons. Atoms are found to contain negative electrons and positive electric charge. Becquerel discovers unstable (radioactive) atoms. |
| 1905 | Einstein postulates the equivalence of mass and energy. |
| 1911 | Rutherford recognizes nucleus. |
| 1919 | Rutherford achieves transmutation of one stable chemical element (nitrogen) into another (oxygen). |
| 1920-1925 | Improved mass spectrographs show that changes in mass per nuclear particle accompanying transmutation account for energy released by nucleus. |
| 1932 | Chadwick identifies neutrons. |
| 1939 | Discovery of uranium fission by German scientists. |
| 1940 | Discovery of neptunium by Edwin M. McMillan and Philip H. Abelson and of plutonium by Glenn T. Seaborg and associates at the University of California. |
| 1942 | Achievement of first self-sustaining nuclear reaction, University of Chicago. |
| 1945 | First successful test of an atomic device, near Alamagordo, New Mexico, followed by the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. |
| 1946 | U. S. Atomic Energy Commission established by Act of Congress. |
| First shipment of radioisotopes from Oak Ridge goes to hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. | |
| 1951 | First significant amount of electricity (100 kilowatts) produced from atomic energy at testing station in Idaho. |
| 1952 | First detonation of a thermonuclear bomb, Eniwetok Atoll, Pacific Ocean. |
| 1953 | President Eisenhower announces U. S. Atoms-for-Peace program and proposes establishment of an international atomic energy agency. |
| 1954 | First nuclear-powered submarine, Nautilus, commissioned. |
| 1955 | First United Nations International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy held in Geneva, Switzerland. |
| 1957 | First commercial use of power from a civilian reactor takes place in California. |
| Shippingport Atomic Power Plant in Pennsylvania reaches full power of 60,000 kilowatts. | |
| International Atomic Energy Agency formally established. | |
| 1959 | First nuclear-powered merchant ship, the Savannah, launched at Camden, New Jersey. |
| Commissioning of first nuclear-powered Polaris missile-launching submarine George Washington. | |
| 1961 | A radioisotope-powered electric power generator placed in orbit, the first use of nuclear power in space. |
| 1962 | Nuclear power plant in the Antarctic becomes operational. |
| 1963 | President Kennedy ratified the Limited Test Ban Treaty for the United States on October 7. |
| 1964 | President Johnson signed law permitting private ownership of certain nuclear materials. |
Fission is Explained
Enrico Fermi 1901-1954
Courtesy Chemical and Engineering News