Chicago Pile-1 - Significance and Commemoration

Significance and Commemoration

The site of the first man-made self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction received designation as a National Historic Landmark on February 18, 1965. On October 15, 1966, which is the day that the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was enacted creating the National Register of Historic Places, it was added to that as well. The site was named a Chicago Landmark on October 27, 1971. A small graphite block from the pile is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago; another can be seen at the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos, NM. The old Stagg Field plot of land is currently home to the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. A Henry Moore sculpture, Nuclear Energy, in a small quadrangle commemorates the nuclear experiment.