Milestones

Amore in depth and detailed history of nuclear energy is on the nuclear past page.

• December 2, 1942: The Nuclear Age began at the University of Chicago when Enrico Fermi made a chain reaction in a pile of uranium.

• August 6, 1945: The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing over 100,000.

• August 9, 1945: The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing over 40,000.

• November 1, 1952: The first large version of the hydrogen bomb (thousands of times more powerful than the atomic bomb) was exploded by the United States for testing purposes.

• February 21, 1956: The first major nuclear power plant opened in England.