On December 2, 1942, a team led by Fermi (and including Szilárd) produced the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction with the Chicago Pile-1 experimental reactor in a racquets court below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Fermi's experiments at the University of Chicago were part of Arthur H. Compton 's Metallurgical Laboratory of the Manhattan Project ; the lab was renamed Argonne National Laboratory and tasked with conducting research in harnessing fission for nuclear energy.