Wiktionary
n. (context physics English) an early nuclear reactor fuelled by uranium and moderated with graphite
WordNet
n. a nuclear reactor that uses controlled nuclear fission to generate energy [syn: atomic reactor, pile, chain reactor]
Usage examples of "atomic pile".
Every nation on earth must know how to construct an atomic pile by this time.
So he'd go on to Hanford and see if it made a good place for building an atomic pile to blow them to hell and gone.
So far, no atomic pile in the United States had even managed a self-sustaining chain reaction.
Some of these were easily converted into fissionable uranium 235, and thorium 232 itself was an enormously valuable breeder material for an atomic pile.
The pulsating violence of the atomic pile in the engine room stammered its soft story to his nervous system.
After all, when anything's put into an atomic pile it becomes radioactive, and a radioactive substance isn't immune to ordinary chemical effects.