From the bomb to the power plant
How nuclear fission went from weapon to energy source.
Nuclear fission was discovered in 1938 by German scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, with the theoretical interpretation by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch. The discovery was quickly weaponised: in 1945, the USA detonated the first atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The fear generated by that military use still haunts public perception of nuclear technology — even decades later. But as early as 1953, President Eisenhower launched the "Atoms for Peace" programme, proposing civilian use of nuclear energy for electricity generation.
The first commercial nuclear power plant was connected to the grid in 1956, in the United Kingdom. Since then the technology has evolved: modern reactors are far safer than those at Chernobyl (1986), which used a specific Soviet design (RBMK) with safety flaws that do not exist in Western or Brazilian reactors.
Chernobyl was not a "typical nuclear accident". It was the result of a specific design and deliberate violations of safety protocols during a poorly planned test.