class notes

- Jan 1939: fission discovered (Hahn, Meitner, Frisch)
- Sept 1939: War (Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo) o 1945: 2 bombs dropped
 Framed the introduction of fission to the world
- 1940: Heavy water (Kowarski, Joliot-Curie, von Halban) o D2O = 1/7000 particles within H2O
- 1941-42: George Laurence performed world’s first large-scale fission experiments in graphite o Not a full-scale nuclear reactor o Done before E Fermi built the first nuclear reactor in 1942 in Chicago
- Aug 1942: CD Howe “minister of everything” – “Okay, let’s go”  Canada entered nuclear field
- 1944: Chalk River selected as site for nuclear testing?
- Sept 5, 1945: Canada = 2nd nation to control nuclear fission o ZEEP reactor in Chalk River = 1st self-sustaining fission reactor outside the USA
- 1945: o 2nd largest nuclear infrastructure on the planet (US=1st) o Atomic bomb knowledge o World experts on heavy-water reactor ( most efficient way to make a nuclear reactor work) o Uranium supplies o World’s most powerful research reactor (NRX) under construction
- [post war,] Canada = 1st country to non-proliferate: o Peaceful applications of nuclear energy
 “Mecca” for nuclear research (for 10-15 years) o NRX (started working in 1947) = machine built to create large quantity of radioactive material for nuclear medicine
- 1951: o First cobalt cancer therapy machines (Cobalt 59  Cobalt60) as part of nuclear medicine @ UWO & USaskatchewan
 Hailed as “the atom bomb that saves lives” (Mcleans magazine, 1952)
• Cobalt cancer therapy method was called “Cobalt atom bomb” even though it was only used in nuclear med o Canada helps create the International Atomic Energy Agency (IEAE)
 1953: Eisenhower’s ‘atoms for peace’ speech marks the end of US secrecy surrounding atomic knowledge and methods
• NOTE that it wasn’t “atoms ONLY for peace” – the US was also still interested in the possibility of creating more nuclear weapons
- 1962: Nuclear power demonstration (NPD-2)
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