A copy of the Pembroke Observer newspaper from November 04, 1957, announcing the fact that, on the day before publication, the NRU reactor at Chalk River achieved first criticality. The announcement shared from page coverage with the release of information by Russia on the status of their dog, Laika, who had successfully survived one month in space. The large-format (16” by 24”) paper featured three photographs of Chalk River scientists involved in the start-up as well as a cutaway view of NRU on the front page and two additional photographs on page 3. An additional by-line on the front page concerned an armed German immigrant, who had been apprehended in Toronto with a vail of high concentration radium which he had been using to paint numbers on wrist-watch dials. Both his clothing and his residence were found to be highly contaminated.
