atomic pile

American  

noun

Physics.

1. reactor.

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atomic pile British  

noun

1. the original name for a nuclear reactor

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atomic pile Scientific  

1. An early type of nuclear reactor whose core consisted of layers of graphite block interspersed with uranium, designed to create a sustained fission reaction.

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Etymology

Origin of atomic pile

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

But when Greenewalt landed in Chicago, where the first atomic pile was being built at the University of Chicago, the scientists thought differently.

From Time Magazine Archive

But the polonium, which is made by radiating bismuth in an atomic pile, costs about $10 per curie.

From Time Magazine Archive

Tracerlab also began marketing elements which had been made radioactive by insertion in the Oak Ridge atomic pile.

From Time Magazine Archive

Ordinary steel rings are put in the AEC's atomic pile at Oak Ridge and "cooked" for a month in neutrons.

From Time Magazine Archive

Sure enough, conflict between them broke open at the end of January, when Lawrence appeared in Chicago with a proposal to centralize all the plutonium and isotope work, including the atomic pile, at Berkeley.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik