16 Facts About Metallurgical Laboratory

1.

Metallurgical Laboratory was a scientific laboratory at the University of Chicago that was established in February 1942 to study and use the newly discovered chemical element plutonium.

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2.

Metallurgical Laboratory was established as part of the Metallurgical Project, known as the "Pile" or "X-10" Project, headed by Chicago professor Arthur H Compton, a Nobel Prize laureate.

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3.

The Metallurgical Laboratory was successively led by Richard L Doan, Samuel K Allison, Joyce C Stearns and Farrington Daniels.

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4.

The Metallurgical Laboratory designed the X-10 Graphite Reactor at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the B Reactor at the Hanford Engineer Works in the state of Washington.

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5.

The Metallurgical Laboratory became the first of the national laboratories, the Argonne National Laboratory, on 1 July 1946.

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6.

Metallurgical Laboratory proposed an ambitious schedule that aimed to achieve a controlled nuclear chain reaction by January 1943, and to have a deliverable atomic bomb by January 1945.

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7.

The Metallurgical Laboratory was administered by the University of Chicago under contract to the Office of Scientific Research and Development.

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8.

Metallurgical Laboratory was later succeeded by Herbert McCoy, and then by James Franck.

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9.

Metallurgical Laboratory was succeeded by Captain Arthur V Peterson in December 1942.

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10.

At first, most of the Metallurgical Laboratory facilities were provided by the University of Chicago.

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11.

The Metallurgical Laboratory eventually occupied 205,000 square feet of campus space.

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12.

The Metallurgical Laboratory tested various additives to the water to determine their effect.

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13.

The Metallurgical Laboratory investigated production and testing regimes for the canning process.

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14.

On 1 July 1946, the Metallurgical Laboratory became Argonne National Laboratory, the first designated national laboratory, with Zinn as its first director.

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15.

The work of the Metallurgical Laboratory led to the founding of the Enrico Fermi Institute, as well as the James Franck Institute, at the University of Chicago.

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16.

Stagg Field had been demolished in 1957, but 23 locations in Kent Metallurgical Laboratory were decontaminated in 1977, and another 99 at the Eckhart, Ryerson, and the Jones Metallurgical Laboratory in 1984.

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