City of the Future | Chicago Part 3: The Atomic King

Chicago has always been on the cutting edge of industries. Today, it is the epicenter of quantum technology research, the country’s leading nuclear energy producer, the logistics hub of the United States, the capital of Black America, and the forefront of the battle against rising coastlines and urban flooding. Watch Part 1 Now https://youtu.be/pNdX0Dm-J8Y Part 2 https://youtu.be/V9LQ2oWZlZI Subscribe to TDC: https://www.youtube.com/TheDailyConversation/ Main sources: University of Chicago’s Atomic Ambitions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCvLuKqv9-s&pp=ygUPY2hpY2FnbyBxdWFudHVt Nuclear Industry of Illinois https://apnews.com/article/illinois-nuclear-moratorium-modular-reactors-solar-wind-225d14cefb03793e08f0802745df4e02 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Illinois Demographics of Chicago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Chicago Timuel Black Interview on The Great Migration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqn5OmF23HY&pp=ygUUY2hpY2FnbyB0aW11ZWwgYmxhY2s%3D Create Rail Improvement Projects https://www.createprogram.org/projects/ Renovating Union Station https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS2veYdpjEk Chicago is America’s Rail Hub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYfxo2otxCw&t=6s&pp=ygUld2FsbCBzdHJlZXQgam91cm5hbCBjaGljYWdvcyByYWlsIGh1Yg%3D%3D Chicago by L https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wXB8htl3Zo&t=381s&pp=ygUMY2hpY2FnbyBieSBs City at War: Chicago’s Steel Industry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMvSoMkT1iQ&t=1416s&pp=ygUTY2l0eSBhdCB3YXIgY2hpY2Fnbw%3D%3D NYT: A Battle Between a Great Lake and a Great City https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/07/07/climate/chicago-river-lake-michigan.html Metro Water Reclamation Department Virtual Tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__yXMrBYek4&pp=ygURbXdyZCB2aXJ0dWFsIHRvdXI%3D NBC: How Chicago drains its river during flooding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVSvoIQjin4&pp=ygUXbmJjIHJpdmVyIGxha2UgbWljaGlnYW4%3D Air temperature increase https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/national/202313 Hydrologist Drew Gronewold on Lake Michigan’s High Water Level https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBCA209dWOk&t=1s&pp=ygUOZHJldyBncm9uZXdvbGQ%3D True to its innovative spirit, the Chicago area is home to several cutting-edge industries, like the emerging field of quantum technology. Fermilab is America’s premier particle physics research facility, Argonne National Laboratory, connected by a fiber-optic cable to the University of Chicago. Scientists there are trying to apply atomic principles to improve communications and computing. Four of the ten quantum labs in the United States are located in Illinois, which receives roughly four of every 10 dollars the federal government invests. Illinois also produces far more nuclear power than anywhere else in America. 75% of Chicago’s electricity needs are now met by the state’s 11 reactors. Chicago was where the dawn of the Nuclear Age happened, as America’s Manhattan Project raced the Germans during World War 2. It did just that on December 2, 1942, when Enrico Fermi’s team achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in a facility hidden underground on campus. Waves of European immigrants during the 1800s made the city’s population 98.1% white in 1900. But over the next 60 years, in a period known as The Great Migration, six million African Americans left the South to settle in Chicago and other cities in the North. By the 1990s, Chicago's South Side and its adjoining suburbs had become the largest African American majority region in the country, fostering all sorts of talent, from academics, activists, and rappers, to global icons like Michael Jordan (arguably the most successful American pro athlete), Oprah Winfrey (the richest African American of the 20th century), and the Obamas. Create projects. 70 rail improvement projects are in various stages of completion, with more than two dozen already finished. Renovating Union Station. With 8 lines, the amount of metal required to build the L turbo-charged Chicago’s steelmaking industry. During World War 2, it nimbly shifted to producing bombs, jeeps, tanks, and planes, and was a vital contributor to the Allied cause, producing more tons of the super-strong metal than the entire United Kingdom every year from 1939 to 1945, and all of Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945. The city has transformed itself into the Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics leader of the world’s largest consumer economy. Vast warehouses are clustered all along the canal and river, around its many large railyards, and to the west of O’Hare–the world’s second-busiest airport in terms of aircraft movements per day. Since the 1970’s it has been adding massive tunnels, cavernous holding chambers, and gigantic lagoons like this one–a repurposed old mine. When this latest round of extreme engineering capacity to store 20 billion gallons Lower Wacker Drive to flood and key buildings like Willis Tower to lose power. Part 3 1 2 4