The Manhattan Project Essay, Research Paper

The Manhattan Project was the codification name of the U.S. & # 8217 ; s try to build an atomic bomb during

World War II. It was named after the Manhattan Engineer District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,

because a batch of it & # 8217 ; s earlier research was done in New York City. An atomic bomb is a arm that uses

the energy from a atomic reaction called Fission for its devastation.

The thought that mass could be changed into energy was predicted by Albert Einstein in the earlier

portion of the 1900 & # 8217 ; s. John D. Cockcroft and Ernest Walton confirmed this by experiments in 1932. Then in

1938, atomic fission was discovered by German scientists, and it was feared by many of the U.S.

scientists, that Hitler would seek to construct a fission bomb. Three Hungarian-born physicists, Leo Szilard,

Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller asked Albert Einstein to direct a missive to Franklin Roosevelt.

Compelled by the missive in late 1939, Roosevelt ordered an attempt to obtain an atomic arm before

Germany.

At foremost, this plan was led by Vannevar Bush, caput of the National Defense Research commission

and the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Then it came under control of Leslie Groves of

the Army Corps of Engineers. Groves rapidly bought a site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as a topographic point for

treating the Uranium-235 from the more common Uranium-238. Uranium-235 is used because it is

fissile, it releases many neutrons, and does non capture many. However, 99.3 % of U in nature

is the U-238 isotope, and merely.7 % is the igniter, more & # 8220 ; fissile & # 8221 ; isotope U-235. Next, he gathered

and combined research from many East Coast universities under way of Arthur Compton, at the

University of Chicago. He appointed theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer as the manager of the

arms research lab, which was built on an stray table located at Los Alamos, New Mexico.

After much work, a porous barrier that could divide the isotopes of U was made, and it

was installed in the Oak ridge gaseous diffusion works. In 1945, uranium-235, pure plenty for usage in a

bomb was green goods and sent to Los Alamos, where it was made into a gun-type arm. One little piece of

Uranium-235, which was non large plenty to keep a concatenation reaction itself, was fired at another little

piece. This was done by agencies of a explosive charge, inside a cylinder shaped tubing, which formed a

supercritical mass that exploded immediately. They were so certain that this would work, that they did non

even prove it. It & # 8217 ; s first usage was made in military action over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. The

bomb uses a device called an altimeter to mensurate how far it is from the land. It sends out wireless

frequences which are bounced back to it. Microchips in the bomb find how far it still has to fall,

and when to explode. The bombs besides have fuses in the forepart which arm!

the bomb. They are non inserted until the bomb is ready to be launched.

Before this bomb was developed, another sort was proposed. Uranium-238 could capture a neutron

and go Uranium-239. All U has 92 protons. U-238 has 146 neutrons, and the added neutron raised

the mass to 239. But U-239 is really unstable and it decays to neptunium-239 ( 93 protons, 146 neutrons ) ,

and plutonium-239 ( 94 protons and 145 neutrons ) . Plutonium-239 was fissile, and could be separated

from U by chemical techniques ( much easier than physical procedure of dividing the different

isotopes of 235 and 238 of the same component ) .

The first successful reactor was made at the University of Chicago under the Italian physicist

Enrico Fermi. On December 2, 1942 it made a controlled concatenation reaction. Five big reactors were built at

Hanford, Washington, where U-238 was blasted with neutrons to do Pu. It was so sent to Los

Alamos. Since another isotope of Pu was besides fissile, there was a fright that a concatenation reaction

could get down to shortly when the pieces of Pu where brought together, doing it blow apart before it

was consumed. To subvert this job, the Pu would hold to be brought together much faster

than the methods usage for the uranium bomb.

A technique called implosion was used to do the Pu bomb work. A noncritical shell of

Pu was surrounded by chemical high-explosives. When detonated, it squeezed the Pu into a

really heavy supercritical mass, that in concatenation reaction lasted long plenty for a big and destructive

detonation. This type of bomb was tested 60 stat mis north-west of Alamogor

make on what is now the White Sands

Missile Range on July 16, 1945. This bomb was used on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945.

When the & # 8220 ; U based & # 8221 ; atomic bomb, ( nick-named Little Boy ) , was dropped ( by the Enola Gay,

flown by Colonel Paul Tibbets ) , on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m. , five square stat mis

of the metropolis were wholly destroyed in seconds, and most edifices in the metropolis were destroyed or

damaged. The bomb weighed 9,700 lbs. It detonated 1900 pess above the metropolis, and exploded with a force

of 20,000 dozenss of TNT. About 75,000 people ( including 20 American aviators held as POWs ) were killed.

Another 70,000 were injured. By the terminal of the twelvemonth the decease figure had risen to 140,000 from radiation

illness. Five old ages later it had reached 200,000.

The Peace Memorial park was made in memory of the bombardment. It has a memorial and a marble grave,

in memory of the bomb & # 8217 ; s victims, and the remains of the Industrial Exhibition Hall. The Peace Memorial

Museum in the park has relics of the onslaught. Nearby is the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, which

surveies the effects of radiation. Clinics have been set up to contend radiation unwellness and other effects

of the bomb.

The & # 8220 ; plutonium-based & # 8221 ; atomic bomb ( nicked-named Fat Man ) was dropped ( by Bock & # 8217 ; s Car, flown by

Charles Sweeney ) on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945, at 11:01 a.m. The original mark was Kokura

Arsenal on Kyushu Island, but hapless conditions conditions and flak artillery forced the pilot to

alteration to his secondary mark, Nagasaki. Fat Man weighed 10,000 lbs. It exploded 1650 pess above

the metropolis, and with a force of 21,000 dozenss of TNT. Three square stat mis of the metropolis were destroyed, less

than Hiroshima because of the hills around the metropolis. The U.S. bomber was taking for the shipyards, and

though it missed the mark, it devastated the metropolis and killed approximately 40,000 people, and injured 60,000

more. By January 1946, 70,000 people died from radiation. The entire finally reached 140,000, with a

decease rate similar to Hiroshima & # 8217 ; s. A Peace Park was set up in memory of the victims.

There is still controversy today on grounds for destructing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Those

in favour of utilizing the bomb claim that invasion of the Nipponese islands would hold caused 1,000,000

military deceases and unknown civilian deceases. Those who opposed dropping the bombs, including many

scientists who built them, argue that the U.S. & # 8217 ; s usage of the bomb was the first act of the cold war.

Even after the bombs had destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Nipponese leading was fighting

to come to a determination on whether or non they should give up. They had military extremists pleading for

a policy of opposition to the terminal. Word of their resignation eventually reached Washington on August 10th.

They would accept the footings of resignation, supplying the emperor would retain his place. The U.S.

acknowledged the emperor & # 8220 ; by saying his authorization after the resignation would be exercised under the

authorization of the Supreme Commander of Allied Powers. & # 8221 ; ( Gosling 54 ) The U.S. answered on August 11, with

Russia, China, and Britain in understanding. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945, stoping the war that had

started when the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Formal documents were signed

aboard the U.S.S. Missouri on September 2.

After 1945, the U.S. reinforced 1000s of atomic bombs, and different types of smaller of fission

arms. A much more powerful bomb, the Hydrogen Bomb, became the leader of the U.S. atomic armory.

In general, the Hydrogen Bomb was like an atomic bomb with a Hydrogen fuel. The fuel would fusion

( antonym of fission ) from the bomb & # 8217 ; s fission detonation, which would farther beef up the original

fission, doing a much larger concatenation reaction. The United States was the lone state that had atomic

arms in 1945. Then in 1949, the USSR learned how to do them. Great Britain followed in 1952,

France in 1960, the People & # 8217 ; s Republic of China in 1964, and India ( it was claimed that they were for

peaceable intents merely ) in 1974. In 1968, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which was signed by the

U.S. , the USSR, and Britain. It set up precise demands for any & # 8220 ; non-nuclear & # 8221 ; states that want to

build atomic energy industries.

However, several other states are believed to hold some atomic arms, like Israel and South

Africa. North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan may be on the brink of atomic find. When the Soviet

Union broke up it added to hazards of the spreading of atomic power.