ABSTRACT
On December 2, 1942, the ‰rst successful self-sustaining atomic chain reaction was achieved at the University of Chicago, thus ushering in the Nuclear Age and the discipline of nuclear engineering. Rather than being a theoretical endeavor of physicists, “nuclear ‰ssion propelled the subject into the military arena, leading to the enormous Manhattan Project in the United States that produced the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs (McKay, 1984, preface)”. The demands of an undertaking on the scale of the Manhattan Project presented new and unique challenges to the engineering industry. Developing processes to create and re‰ne plutonium and uranium, constructing buildings and reactors to facilitate these processes, and designing nuclear weapons were all immediate challenges made even more imperative by the military threat of Germany and Japan during World War II.
