Nuclear graphite

Nuclear graphite is any grade of graphite, usually synthetic graphite, specifically manufactured for use as a moderator or reflector within a nuclear reactor. Graphite is an important material for the construction of both historical and modern nuclear reactors, due to its extreme purity and its ability to withstand extremely high temperatures.

The potential for creating a nuclear chain reaction in uranium became apparent in 1939 following the nuclear fission experiments of Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman, and the interpretation of these results by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch. The exciting possibilities that this presented rapidly spread throughout the world physics community. In order for the fission process to chain react, the neutrons created by uranium fission must be slowed down by interacting with a neutron moderator (an element with a low atomic weight, that will "bounce", when hit by a neutron) before they will be captured by other uranium atoms. It became well known by late 1939 that the two most promising moderators were heavy water and graphite.

In February 1940, using funds that were allocated partly as a result of the Einstein-Szilard letter to President Roosevelt, Leo Szilard purchased several tons of graphite from the Speer Carbon Company and from the National Carbon Company (the National Carbon Division of the Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation in Cleveland Ohio) for use in Enrico Fermi's first fission experiments, the so-called exponential pile. Fermi writes that "The results of this experiment was [sic] somewhat discouraging" presumably due to the absorption of neutrons by some unknown impurity. So, in December 1940 Fermi and Szilard met with Herbert G. MacPherson and V. C. Hamister at National Carbon to discuss the possible existence of impurities in graphite. During this conversation it became clear that minute quantities of boron impurities were the source of the problem.

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