private_messaging comments on Being Half-Rational About Pascal's Wager is Even Worse - Less Wrong
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Yes, Fermi engineered the nuclear reactor (and very carefully too, with very well thought out safety system for it, just in case there would be a positive feedback of some kind), using natural uranium and graphite. Other neutron emitters would be very very very expensive. edit: e.g. an accelerator would need ridiculous amounts of electrical energy. The lab emitter used radium in combination with lithium, beryllium, or some other light nuclei, which isn't a viable route either.