Atomic pile

An atomic pile is a device in which physicists can create a sustained nuclear reaction. In the United States, construction on such a pile was beginning under the football field of the University of Chicago when the Race invaded and forced the American physicists to ecacuate Chicago. They relocated to Denver where Enrico Fermi successfully built an atomic pile and controlled a sustained nuclear reaction.

A similar pile was built in Munich, Germany under the leadership of Werner Heisenberg. The German team also created a sustained nuclear reaction but were unable to control it, and the consequences were disastrous. However, this setback did not prevent Germany from becoming the first Tosevite not-empire to build an atomic bomb that did not contain material captured from the Race.