atomic pile

See synonyms for atomic pile on Thesaurus.com
nounPhysics.

Origin of atomic pile

1
First recorded in 1940–45

Words Nearby atomic pile

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use atomic pile in a sentence

  • Inside this anchor tube ran the thick coaxial cable that fed three-phase electric power from the atomic pile to the ship.

    Where I Wasn't Going | Walt Richmond
  • Trailing the wheel ten miles off, was the atomic pile, directly attached to its anchor tube.

    Where I Wasn't Going | Walt Richmond
  • Look, you know how an atomic pile works—essentially just like an atomic bomb.

    The K-Factor | Harry Harrison (AKA Henry Maxwell Dempsey)
  • The atomic pile levers were still at their proper calibration.

    Atom Drive | Charles Louis Fontenay
  • This ship is powered by a nuclear reactor—in other words, an atomic pile.

    Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet | Harold Leland Goodwin

British Dictionary definitions for atomic pile

atomic pile

noun
  1. the original name for a nuclear reactor

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for atomic pile

atomic pile

  1. An early type of nuclear reactor whose core consisted of layers of graphite block interspersed with uranium, designed to create a sustained fission reaction.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.