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Answer to Radiation People and Events
The ancient Greeks
first believed that all matter in the universe is made of tiny building blocks,
or atoms. In 1869, Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev
proposed a chart of elements called the periodic table. In 1895,
German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Roetgen announced the discovery of x-rays, which
can penetrate sheets of lead. In 1896, French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel
found that certain substances, such as uranium salts, give off penetrating rays
of mysterious origin. Marie and Pierre Curie coined
the word radioactivity in 1898. In 1905, Albert Einstein
developed his mass-energy equation, E=mc2, as part of his special theory of relativity.
The British Roentgen Society adopted a resolution in 1915 to protect people from
overexposure to x-rays. In 1942, the Manhattan Project
is formed to secretly build the atomic bomb before
the Germans. Also in 1942, Italian-born American physicist Enrico
Fermi succeeded in producing the first nuclear chain reaction. In 1944, The first
large-scale nuclear reactor was built at Hanford, Washington, for the production
of nuclear weapons materials. In 1946, the Atomic
Energy Act was passed, establishing the Atomic Energy
Commission. In 1951, the first electricity was generated
by atomic power in Idaho Falls. The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is passed to promote
the peaceful uses of nuclear energy through private enterprises and to implement
President Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace Program.
In 1954, the first nuclear submarine, U.S.S. Nautilus,
is launched. In 1955, Arco, Idaho, becomes the first U.S. town to be powered by
nuclear energy. In 1979, Three
Mile Island nuclear power plant suffers hydrogen
explosions and a partial core meltdown. In 1986, Chernobyl
Nuclear Reactor meltdown and fire occur in the Soviet Union releasing much radioactive
material. In 1996, the United Nations approves the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
which bans nuclear test explosions. In 1999, an accident
at the uranium processing plant at Tokaimura, Japan, exposed fifty-five works
to radiation, and one worker later dies.
For more information, visit our Radiation Top Page.
National Safety Council
1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1200,
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 293-2270 (tel); (202) 293-0032 (fax)
