Nuclear Energy Timeline
Discovery, Development, and Use
1898 — Marie Curie discovers the radioactive elements radium and polonium.1905 — Albert Einstein develops a theory about the relationship of mass and energy.1938 — Two German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, demonstrate nuclear fission.1942 — The Manhattan Project is formed to secretly build the atomic bomb before the Germans.1943 — The Hanford Site is built in Richland, Washington, by the Manhattan Project to produce plutonium. The first reactor begins operation in September 1944.1946 — The Atomic Energy Act (AEA) establishes the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The AEC replaces the Manhattan Project and places further development of nuclear technology…
