Manhattan Project
When people hear the topic of the Manhattan Project, they would say that it was the group that created the atomic bomb. This is partially correct however, due to the fact that not only did the Manhattan Project create the atomic bomb, but they started a revolution of nuclear weapons that spread worldwide, with countries fighting to overpower others in terms of amount. The Manhattan Project consisted of three main countries, the United States, Canada, and the Great Britain.
Starting September 23, 1942, the Manhattan Project was officially started by President Roosevelt and was to be directed by Colonel Leslie Groves. Groves acquired sites at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington to be production sites for the different elements needed for the project. Oak Ridge, Tennessee was to produce uranium enriched in the self-fissioning (splitting) isotope uranium-235, and Hanford, Tennessee were to use nuclear reactors to produce the plutonium that was also involved in the reaction. The production of the uranium was heavily focused on the theory of gaseous diffusion, where Groves dealt with the motions of particles of different masses. This theory was accepted into the Manhattan Project as the idea of effusion was applied; lighter gases travel faster than heavier gases. Uranium-235 hexafluoride, lighter than uranium-238 hexafluoride, diffuses faster. The reaction consisted of the self-fissioning uranium-235 isotope and plutonium, which is produced by processes that were developed to chemically separate and purify the plutonium isotopes of Pu-239 and Pu-240.
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| Diagram of Atomic Bomb Fission |
The reaction that occurs in the atomic bombs of the Manhattan Project is basically a huge chain reaction. When a neutron strikes the nucleus of an atom of the uranium-235 or plutonium-239 isotopes, it causes the nucleus to fission or split into two fragments, each both having about half the protons and neutrons from the original. In this process of fissioning, a great amount of thermal energy, gamma rays, and two or more neutrons are released. Those neutrons, depending on the conditions, can strike other surrounding nuclei and cause them to fission, causing them to release more neutrons. This then causes the chain reaction that occurs in the bomb until all the material that is fissionable is used up, thus creating the explosion of the atomic bomb. To put this all in perspective, when completely fissioned, 1 kg (2.2 pounds) of uranium-235 releases the energy equivalently produced by 17,000 tons, or 17 kilotons, of TNT. The process of fission releases an enormous amount of energy relative to the material involved.
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| Atomic bomb explosion of Nagasaki |
The Manhattan Project was started by Roosevelt in 1942 as a response to Einstein that the Germans were researching about creating an atomic bomb, and he suggested that they should do the same. By the year of 1944, the Manhattan Project had over six thousand scientists and engineers from all around the nation to help develop the first nuclear weapon. When the office was handed to Truman, World War II was at hand for the United States, and Truman wanted to drop atomic bombs on Japan in hopes to shorten the war and save American lives fighting on the ground and as well as Japanese soldiers and civilians. The first atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, and Truman hoped that the Japanese would surrender to them, thus ending the war. However, they did not, and another bomb was dropped in Nagasaki, killing over 210,000 civilians in both blasts.
In the end, the Manhattan Project was a major step in the advancement for the future of nuclear weapons and usage by countries, and as time and time pass by, countries are constantly working to improve the quality and numbers of their nuclear weapons in the case that another war breaks out. The Manhattan Project was also a major step in the advancement of nuclear chemistry as it allowed the branch of chemistry to be the main focus of the production of the bomb, and therefore spread around the world in the race for nuclear arms.
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