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Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, German, demonstrate nuclear fission.
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Nuclear energy in the United States
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Manhattan Project is formed to secretly build the atomic bomb before the Germans
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The first nuclear reactor begins operation in Richland, Washington
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The U.S. explodes the first atomic device near Alamagordo, New Mexico
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The U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders
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The Atomic Energy Act is passed, establishing the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The AEC places further development of nuclear technology under civilian (not military) control
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The first electricity producing breeder reactor is built by the Atomic Energy Commission
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President Kennedy advises Americans to build fallout shelters in case of a nuclear war
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The Atomic Energy Commission is abolished. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is developed
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The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act is passed to protect human health and the environment from the potential hazards of nuclear waste disposal
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The Voyager 2 spacecraft's electricity is generated by the decay of plutonium pellets
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Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania suffers a partial core meltdown
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The U.S. looks into a high-level nuclear waste repository (storage)
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Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor meltdown and fire occur in the Soviet Union. Massive quantities of radioactive material are released. Winds carry radioactivity across western Europe
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Former President Bush approves an energy policy that looks at nuclear energy as a significant part of America's energy
