Editing Atomic Age (section)

== Early years ==
In 1901, [[Frederick Soddy]] and [[Ernest Rutherford]] discovered that [[Radioactive decay|radioactivity]] was part of the process by which atoms changed from one kind to another, involving the release of energy. Soddy wrote in popular magazines that radioactivity was a potentially "inexhaustible" source of energy and offered a vision of an atomic future where it would be possible to "transform a desert continent, thaw the frozen poles, and make the whole earth one smiling [[Garden of Eden]]." The promise of an "atomic age," with nuclear energy as the global, utopian technology for the satisfaction of human needs, has been a recurring theme ever since. But "Soddy also saw that atomic energy could possibly be used to create terrible new weapons".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.princeton.edu/~aglaser/2006aglaser_nuclearcrowd.pdf |title=Life in a Nuclear Powered Crowd |author1=Zia Mian |author2=Alexander Glaser |name-list-style=amp|date=June 2006 |work=INESAP Information Bulletin No.26 }}</ref><ref>The two words atomic and nuclear are synonymous in the context of atomic power and weapons. The atom consists of a nucleus and one or more electrons. All atomic reactions involve changing one atom into another by changing the nucleus. Historically atomic power is an older term, and nuclear power is newer.[http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/Deterrence/Atomsforpeace.shtml President Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" Speech]</ref>

The concept of a [[nuclear chain reaction]] was hypothesized in 1933, shortly after [[James Chadwick]]'s [[discovery of the neutron]]. Only a few years later, in December 1938 [[nuclear fission]] was [[Discovery of nuclear fission|discovered]] by [[Otto Hahn]] and his assistant [[Fritz Strassmann]]. Hahn understood that a "burst" of the atomic nuclei had occurred.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Discovery of Nuclear Fission |url=https://www.mpic.de/4469988/die-entdeckung-der-kernspaltung |website=www.mpic.de |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Hahn´s Nobel was well deserved |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/383294b0.pdf?origin=ppub |journal=Nature| date=September 1996 | volume=383 | issue=6598 | pages=294 | doi=10.1038/383294b0 | last1=Oelering | first1=Jan H. J. | bibcode=1996Natur.383..294O }}</ref> {{citation needed span|text=[[Lise Meitner]] and [[Otto Frisch]] gave a full theoretical interpretation and named the process "nuclear fission".|date=May 2022}} The first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction took place at [[Chicago Pile-1]] in December 1942 under the leadership of [[Enrico Fermi]].<ref name="Holl"/>

In 1945, the pocketbook ''The Atomic Age'' heralded the untapped atomic power in everyday objects and depicted a future where [[fossil fuels]] would go unused. One science writer, David Dietz, wrote that instead of filling the gas tank of your car two or three times a week, you will travel for a year on a pellet of atomic energy the size of a vitamin pill. [[Glenn T. Seaborg]], who chaired the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]], wrote "there will be nuclear powered earth-to-moon shuttles, nuclear powered artificial hearts, plutonium heated swimming pools for SCUBA divers, and much more".<ref>Benjamin K. Sovacool, ''The National Politics of Nuclear Power'', Routledge, p. 68.</ref>