On 2 December 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi and his team at the University of Chicago achieved the world's first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction using Chicago Pile-1, an experimental reactor constructed under the stands of Stagg Field. Built as part of the secretive Manhattan Project during World War II, the graphite-uranium pile demonstrated the feasibility of nuclear fission for energy and weapons. This breakthrough laid the foundation for nuclear power and atomic bombs, fundamentally transforming science, technology, geopolitics, and global energy prospects in the atomic age.

The first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, initiated the atomic age in 1942, evoking a complex mix of awe and dread in poetry. Writers like Robert Lowell and Adrienne Rich began to address nuclear themes, exploring the moral implications of scientific advancement and its existential threats.