Atomic Weapons Development (Fall 2013)

7/27/2019 Atomic Weapons Development (Fall 2013)

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L. M. Freer FIT/SUNY Fall 2013

ATOMICWEAPONS:

THEIR DEVELOPMENT,THEIR CONSEQUENCES


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Atomic Weapons Development

Originally a wild idea developedby research scientists, theManhattan Project originatedwithin the National DefenseResearch Committee.

Funded by the government, most ofthe early atomic research continuedto happen at universities. The firstcontrolled atomic chain reactionwas achieved at the University ofChicago in 1942, on the grounds oftheir football field.I wish that the physicist who fished uranium in

the first place had waited a few years before hesprung this particular thing on an unstable world.However, we have the matter in our laps and wehave to do the best we can.

Vannevar Bush

Recent developments indicate, briefly, that thesubject is more important than I believed when Ilast spoke to you about it. The stuff willapparently be more powerful than we thenthought

letter from Vannevar Bush to FDR, March 9 1942

An atomic chain reaction may be compared tothe burning of a rubbish pile from spontaneouscombustion. In such a fire, minute parts of thepile start to burn and in turn ignite other tiny

fragments. When sufficient numbers of thesefractional parts are heated to the kindling points,the entire heap bursts into flames.

Enrico Fermi, Fermis Own Story


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The Manhattan ProjectIn 1942, atomic research was officially transferred to Allied (American)military control. The scale of the operation increased dramatically.

After August 13, 1942, the whole plan became known under the code name of either the DSM (development ofsubstitute materials) or the Manhattan Project. From then on the atomic experts were simply designatedscientific personnel and obliged to submit to the strict rules of military secrecy. ...They accepted as obviousthe rule that they were to publish no more of their discoveries until after the war. ... But the militaryauthorities went much further than this prohibition. They erected invisible walls round every branch ofresearch, so that no department ever knew what any other was doing.

To everyone who is given the opportunity to see for himself the refined laboratory equipment and thegigantic production machinery, it is an unforgettable experience... Today physicists and engineers are, on thebasis of firmly established knowledge, controlling and directing violent reactions by which new materials farmore precious than gold are built up, atom by atom. ... The whole undertaking constitutes, indeed, a fardeeper interference with the natural course of events than anything ever before attempted., and it must berealized that the success of the endeavours has created a quite new situation as regards human resources.The revolution in industrial development which may result in the coming years cannot at present besurveyed, but the fact of immediate preponderance is, that a weapon of devastating power far beyond anyprevious possibilities and imagination will soon become available.

letter from scientist Niels Bohr to British prime minister Winston Churchill, May 22, 1944


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Ghost CitiesNearly 150,000 peopleworked on the ManhattanProject.

Only a handful knew theworks true purpose.

The vast majority of themdid not know what theywere working on until thefirst bomb was dropped onHiroshima.

The three principal Manhattan Project sites were secret cities

where 125,000 people worked and lived and were not on anymaps during World War II. Secrecy was paramount and the sites

were referred to only by their code names, X, Y, and Z.Employees were issued badges and drivers licenses hadnumbers without any names.

The notion of disappearing into the New Mexico desert for anindeterminate period and under quasi-military auspicesdisturbed a good many scientists, and the families of manymore. But there was another side to it. Almost everyonerealized that this was a great undertaking. ... Almost everyoneknew that it was an unparalleled opportunity to bring to bearthe basic knowledge and art of science for the benefit of his

country. Almost everyone knew that this job, if it wereachieved, would be part of history.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (scientist in charge at the Los Alamossite)


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Life at Los Alamos

I was one of the women thus bound for an unknownand secret place. I can tell you nothing about it, my

husband said. Were going away, thats all. ...It is nevereasy to say goodbye to beloved and familiar patterns ofliving. It is particularly difficult when you do not knowwhat substitute for them will be offered you. Where wasI going and why was I going there? I plied my husbandwith questions which he steadfastly refused to answer.... I felt akin to the pioneer women accompanying theirhusbands across uncharted plains westward, alert todanger, resigned to the fact that they journeyed, for

weal or for woe, into the Unknown. ... The world I hadknown of friends and family would no longer be real tome. Why, my parents were not even allowed to come toSanta Fe on a pleasure trip! The only bridge between uswould be a shadowy one of censored letters. By a rapidtransmutation, my husband and I had become differentpeople. He could not even admit that he was a physicist;his profession was engineer.

The fence penning Los Alamos was erected and guarded to keep out the treasonable, the malicious, andthe curious. This fence has a real effect on the psychology of the people behind it. It was a tangible barrier,a symbol of our isolated lives. Within it lay the most secret part of the atomic bomb project. Los Alamoswas a world unto itself, an island in the sky.

Ruth Marshak, wife of physicist Robert Marshak


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The Trinity TestOn July 16, 1945, the firstatomic bomb was tested atAlamogordo, New Mexico.

The Trinity test, as it wasknown, spread radioactivefallout over 1000 milesor

as far away as Indiana.

Sand fused into glass by the Alamogordotest, 1945


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HiroshimaThe first atomic bomb usedin wartime, Little Boy, wasdropped on Hiroshima by theairplane Enola Gay on August6, 1945, at 8:15 AM local time.

140,000 people were

immediately killed, and79,000 injured. Over 50,000buildings were completelydestroyed.

With President Trumans warm support I struck off the list of suggestedtargets the city of Kyoto. Although it was a target of considerable militaryimportance, it had been the ancient capital of Japan and was a shrine ofJapanese art and culture. We determined that it should be spared.

Henry L. Stimson, then Secretary of War

It took forty-three seconds from the time the bomb left the airplane to thetime it exploded. Everyone was counting to forty-three. One-thousand one,one-thousand two... I was fortunate, I had a watch. But I think we had allconcluded that it was a dud. We were nervous, counting fast or somethingbecause all of a sudden we saw the bright flash inside the airplane and knewthat the bomb had exploded.

Theodore Van Kirk, navigator on the Enola Gay

The first to hear the news that distant Monday were those who happened tobe near a radio at middayhousewives, children, the elderly, war workersenjoying a vacation day at home. ... the news spread by word of mouth. Manyimmediately perceived the nightmarish possibilities... The carefullyorchestrated government press releases, illustrated with a set of officiallyapproved photographs, only partially allayed the gathering fear anduncertainty.

Paul Boyer, By the Bombs Early Light

The battle of the laboratories held fateful risks for us as

well as the battles of the air, land, and sea, and we havenow won the battle of the laboratories as we have wonthe other battles.

President Truman, August 6 1945


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Bombs and Consequences The second atomic bomb used in

wartime, Fat Man, was dropped

on Nagasaki by the airplaneBockscaron August 9, 1945, at11:02 AM local time.

73,000 people were immediatelykilled, and 74,000 injured. Over

12,000 buildings were completelydestroyed.

Initially, the decision to drop thebombs was approved by 85% ofAmericans. This number waned in

the years following the war, as theconsequences of the bombings(radiation sickness, birth defects,etcetera) emerged.

Disease X: ...it is possible that the atomic bombs rarerays may cause deaths in the first class, as with delayed

X-ray burns. But the second class has [Dr. Nakashima]totally baffled. These patients begin with slight burnswhich make normal progress for two weeks. They differfrom simple burns, however, in that the patient has ahigh fever. ...where fever is present after two weeks,the healing of burns suddenly halts and they get worse.The burns come to resemble septic ulcers. .... Four tofive days from this turn to the worse, they die. Theirbloodstream has not thinned as in the first class, and

their organs after death are found in a normal conditionof health. But they are deaddead of the atomicbomband nobody knows why.

George Weller, First Into Nagasaki, September 1945

This marble St. Agnes statue from Nagasaki fellfacedown during the initial blast; its front was

protected and its back scarred by radiation.


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The Most Important Piece of Journalism of the

Twentieth Century

May 1946: reporter John Herseytravels to Japan to research anarticle for the New Yorker.

His story, Hiroshima, told thestory of the bombing from thepoint of view of six survivors.

It took up the entirety of theAugust 31, 1946 issue of the

magazine, became a bestsellerwhen published in book form,and was later judged the mostimportant piece of journalismof the twentieth century.

When I was 12, I was so excited afterhearing my friends dad tell heroic storiesabout his WWII adventures in Europe, Iran home to ask my dad what he did in thewar. He simply replied, I was on theManhattan Project. I wanted a heroic

story so I prodded further: But what didyou actually do? He quietly took JohnHerseys Hiroshima from the bookshelfand handed it to me. Read this. The storyhas haunted me ever since, and my dadhas always refused to talk about the workhe did as a young chemist on the

Manhattan Project.

John Martin Taylor, son of Thomas S.

Taylor


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Postwar Nuclear Concerns

The Germans never masterednuclear fission during the war, butby 1949, the Soviets had atomicbombs of their own.

One of the most pressingconcerns of the United Nationsduring the immediate postwar

period was the regulation ofnuclear materials.

After WWII, the United Statescontinued to develop and testatomic weaponry.

In 1963, the U.S. and the SovietUnion signed the Limited Test BanTreaty, which banned the testingof nuclear devices on land, at sea,or in space.

The situation calls for the most

unprejudiced attitude towards all questionsof international relations. Indeed, properappreciation of the duties andresponsibilities implied in world citizenship isin our time more necessary than ever before.On the one hand, the progress of science andtechnology has tied the fate of all nations

inseparably together, on the other hand, it ison a most different cultural background thatvigorous endeavors for national self-assertion and social development are beingmade in the various parts of our globe.

Niels Bohr, letter to the United Nations, June

9 1950

Atomic Weapons Development (Fall 2013)

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