Skip to main content
Ingenium Logo

You are leaving IngeniumCanada.org

✖


This link leads to an external website that Ingenium does not control. Please read the third-party’s privacy policies before entering personal information or conducting a transaction on their site.

Have questions? Review our Privacy Statement

Vous quittez IngeniumCanada.org

✖


Ce lien mène à un site Web externe qu'Ingenium ne contrôle pas. Veuillez lire les politiques de confidentialité des tiers avant de partager des renseignements personnels ou d'effectuer une transaction sur leur site.

Questions? Consultez notre Énoncé de confidentialité

Ingenium The Channel

Langue

  • Français
Search Toggle

Menu des liens rapides

  • Ingenium Locations
  • Shop
  • Donate
  • Join
Menu

Main Navigation

  • Browse
    • Categories
    • Media Types
    • Boards
    • Featured Stories
  • About
    • About The Channel
    • Content Partners

Harnessing a power: the story of the second nuclear reactor

This article was originally written and submitted as part of a Canada 150 Project, the Innovation Storybook, to crowdsource stories of Canadian innovation with partners across Canada. The content has since been migrated to Ingenium’s Channel, a digital hub featuring curated content related to science, technology and innovation.

Share
Feb 26, 2016
Categories
Engineering & Technology
Categories
Sciences
Media
Article
Profile picture for user Algonquin College
By: Algonquin college
George Lawrence built the world’s second nuclear reactor.
George Lawrence built the world’s second nuclear reactor.

Bryson Masse

Algonquin College Journalism Program

As the curtain of World War II fell over Europe, George C. Laurence began working against the clock to harness the future of energy and warfare. He was going to build the world’s second nuclear reactor.

Born in Charlottetown, P.E.I., Laurence graduated from Dalhousie University with a bachelor’s and master’s in physics. After completing his doctorate in England with the greatest minds in nuclear research, Laurence returned to Canada in 1930. He began working with the National Research Council of Canada to create a uranium-graphite nuclear reactor. He attempted to build the device in 1939, years before Enrico Fermi’s Chicago Pile-1 went critical – sustaining a true fission chain reaction.

Later, Laurence was teamed with European scientists who escaped the horrors of the war. The work of the so-called Montréal Laboratory meant that the Allies were able to harness nuclear energy before the Germans could build an effective prototype. Laurence developed a successful reactor in 1945 when the Zero Energy Experimental Pile came online in Chalk River, Ontario. But unlike its American cousins, the reactor and its successors were never used to create weapons. Instead, Canada had become a leader in creating peaceful applications for nuclear technology.

Laurence’s contributions were key to creating a world where we can fight cancer and power our cities while not using limited natural resources. Laurence died in 1987 and was inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame in 2010.

Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario. Source: Canadian Nuclear Laboratories.

Tags
Innovation Storybook
Author(s)
Profile picture for user Algonquin College
Algonquin college
Follow

Algonquin’s organizational philosophy is defined by its mission, vision and core values. The following are intended to serve as points of inspiration, carefully articulating our purpose

Mission: To transform hopes and dreams into lifelong success.

Vision: To be a global leader in personalized, digitally connected, experiential learning.

Our values: Caring, Integrity, Learning, Respect

https://www.algonquincollege.com/

More Stories by

Profile picture for user Algonquin College
Algonquin college
E.W.R. (Ned) Steacie.

Chemist’s war-time research leads to discovery

Related Stories

Spliced image, from left to right: a seismometer on mars, a heap of red rhubarb stalks with green leaves, a copper roof of the Canaian Parliament

3 Things you should know about marsquakes, the value of urine, and the chemistry of rhubarb

A spliced photo, from left to right: Shaun the Sheep in front of a model of ESA’s European Service Module, a top view into a red bucket containing thousands of light-brown, rod-shaped pellets, and a toddler wearing a wool hat and wool sweater holds a grownup’s finger.

3 things you should know about why wool keeps us warm, and about its surprising uses in the garden and in space.

A Woolery Machine Company runway de-icing device in action at Cologne-Wahn airport, Cologne, West Germany. Anon., “Ancillary Review – Flame-throwing – On Ice.” The Aeroplane and Commercial Aviation News, 28 February 1963, 29.

Come on, PB, light my fire. Try to set the ice on fire: A peek at the American firm Woolery Machine Company and some of its ideas and products

Three images side by side: a toilet bowl expelling a cloud of droplets, a gloved hand holding a test tube containing a small plant, and an infrared view of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io showing spots of volcanic activity covering the moon.

3 things you should know about flushing the toilet, artificial photosynthesis, and volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon

Headshots of 33 women, showing the diversity of women in AI and Robotics

Women in AI & Robotics: An interview with Founder and CEO, Sheila Beladinejad

Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Sergeant Bob Electro caught in the act of saluting the commanding officer of RCAF Station Clinton, Group Captain John Gordon Mathieson, Clinton, Ontario. Anon., “Six-Year-Old Sergeant.” The North Bay Nugget, 7 January 1963, 15.

Dōmo arigatō, gunsō Electro, mata au hi made: The electronic adventures of Royal Canadian Air Force / Canadian Armed Forces Sergeant Bob Electro

The 10-inch flight impact simulator of the National Research Council of Canada at some point during its long career, Uplands / Ottawa, Ontario. NRC.

A great Canadian success story you should know about: A brief look at the National Research Council of Canada flight impact simulators donated to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Part 3

The 3.75- / 3.5-inch flight impact simulator of the National Research Council of Canada at some point during its long career, Uplands / Ottawa, Ontario. NRC.

A great Canadian success story you should know about: A brief look at the National Research Council of Canada flight impact simulators donated to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Part 2

The 10-inch flight impact simulator of the National Research Council of Canada at some point during its long career, Uplands / Ottawa, Ontario. NRC.

A great Canadian success story you should know about: A brief look at the National Research Council of Canada flight impact simulators donated to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Part 1

A rear view of a person wearing a yellow coat and backpack in winter, a close-up view of bright red poinsettias with small yellow central flowers.

Two things you should know about the science of wind chill, and the Orion spacecraft's selfies.

Three images side by side: A little girl smells a sunflower, the DART spacecraft’s impact into the asteroid Dimorphos, and a candy apple

3 things you should know about how the DART spacecraft changed the orbit of an asteroid, how we have more than five senses, and how the science of caramel can make you a better cook!

Colourful Eckert IV map projection generated by AI

Art to Critically Examine AI & Robotics

Footer

About The Channel

The Channel

Contact Us

Ingenium
P.O. Box 9724, Station T
Ottawa ON K1G 5A3
Canada

613-991-3044
1-866-442-4416
contact@IngeniumCanada.org
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Channel

    • Channel Home
    • About the Channel
    • Content Partners
  • Visit

    • Online Resources for Science at Home
    • Canada Agriculture and Food Museum
    • Canada Aviation and Space Museum
    • Canada Science and Technology Museum
    • Ingenium Centre
  • Ingenium

    • Ingenium Home
    • About Ingenium
    • The Foundation
  • For Media

    • Newsroom
    • Awards

Connect with us

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest Ingenium news straight to your inbox!

Sign Up

Legal Bits

Ingenium Privacy Statement

© 2023 Ingenium

Symbol of the Government of Canada
  • Browse
    • Categories
    • Media Types
    • Boards
    • Featured Stories
  • About
    • About The Channel
    • Content Partners