Atomic Age

The Atomic Age describes the research and developments of nuclear technology. The beginning of this era is marked by the first nuclear reactor "Chicago Pile-1" in December 1942. In the decades that followed, numerous further developments in nuclear technology took place, both in the military and in the civilian sectors. To this day, the use of atomic energy is of great importance and set various milestones in the technological development of mankind.

VE's Atomic Age collection combines 3 lines dedicated to three great nuclear physicists of the 20th century:
 

• Enrico Fermi (automatic line). Enrico Fermi was an American physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor. He is also called the "architect of the nuclear age". Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938; made significant contributions to the development of statistical mechanics, quantum theory and nuclear and particle physics.
   
• Andrei Sakharov (chrono line). The chrono line is dedicated to Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, Nobel laureate, and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights. Being a chief-designer of the Soviet thermonuclear weapons, Sakharov later became an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union, for which he faced state persecution. These efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.
   
• J. Robert Oppenheimer (multifunctional line). J. Robert Oppenheimer was the former head of the Los Alamos laboratory and the "Manhattan Project" that took place to develop the first nuclear weapon. After WWII Oppenheimer became chairman of the influential General Advisory Committee of the newly created US Atomic Energy Commission. He used that position to lobby for international control of nuclear power, to avert nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.