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A Brief History in Nuclear Energy

Nuclear energy is newer than most other forms of energy that we use. Not until the early 1930's did scientists discover that the atom is made up of proton and neutron particles. Years later in 1938, two German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman and physicist Lise Meitner of Austria, discovered that they could split the nucleus of a uranium atom by bombarding it with neutrons, this is called fission. As the uranium nucleus split, some of its mass was converted to heat energy.

In 1942, Enrico Fermi of Italy, and a group of other physicists then noticed the fission of one uranium atom gave off more neutrons which could in turn split other uranium atoms, starting a chain reaction. They soon realized that enormous amounts of energy could be produced by this process of nuclear fission. Otto Hahn won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of nuclear fission and Enrico Fermi also receive a Nobel Prize for creating the world's first nuclear chain reaction. In 1966, Lise Meitner was awarded the United States Enrico Fermi Prize.

In the 1940's nuclear fission was first used during World War II which prompted more research into atomic energy. Not until 1953 was the first usable electricity from nuclear fission produced at the National Reactor Station now called the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. Then in 1955, the first U.S. town to be powered by nuclear energy was in Arco, Idaho. Today nuclear energy accounts for only 20% of the electricity generated in the United States.