Sentences with phrase «sustaining nuclear chain»

In December 1942 Enrico Fermi achieved the first self - sustaining nuclear chain reaction, harnessing the process that would be used to lay waste to the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945.

Forty - five years after Humanae Vitae, it now seems clear that the invention of the oral contraceptive pill (to adopt one reference point for the broader contraceptive revolution) was one of the three achievements of 20th - century science with truly world - historical impact, the other two being the creation of the self - sustaining nuclear chain reaction and the unraveling of the DNA double helix.

The reactor in an ADS contains too little fissile material in its core to sustain a nuclear chain reaction.

Not exact matches

For one thing, there's a chance that enough plutonium could congregate to trigger a nuclear chain reaction, or criticality — the self - sustaining cascade of atomic fission that releases massive amounts of energy.