Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne traces its birth from Enrico Fermi's secret charge, "the Manhattan Project" to create the world's first self-sustaining nuclear reaction. Code-named the "Metallurgical Lab", the team constructed Chicago Pile-1, which achieved criticality on Dec. 2, 1942, underneath the University of Chicago's Stagg Football Field Stands. Because the experiments were deemed too dangerous to conduct in a major city, the operations were moved to a spot in nearby Palos Hills and renamed "Argonne" after the surrounding forest.
On July 1, 1946, the laboratory was formally chartered as Argonne National Laboratory to conduct "cooperative research in nucleonics." At the request of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, it began developing nuclear reactors for the nation's peaceful nuclear energy program. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the lab moved to a larger location in Lemont, Ill., and established a remote location in Idaho, called "Argonne-West," to conduct further nuclear research.