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Manhattan District The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project on 16 July 1945 was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. Active 1942–1946 Disbanded 15 August 1947 Country United States United Kingdom Canada Branch U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Garrison/HQ Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S. Anniversaries 13 August 1942 Engagements Allied invasion of Italy Allied invasion of France Allied invasion of ...
In February 1940, Glenn Seaborg and Edwin McMillan produced plutonium-239 by bombarding uranium with deuterons. This produced neptunium, element 93, which underwent beta-decay to form a new element, plutonium, with 94 protons. [4] Kennedy built a series of detectors and counters to verify the presence of plutonium.
Manhattan Project scientists had identified two fissile isotopes for potential use in bombs: uranium-235 and plutonium-239. [7] Uranium-235 became the basis of the Little Boy bomb design, first used (without prior testing) in the bombing of Hiroshima ; the design used in the Trinity test, and eventually used in the bombing of Nagasaki ( Fat Man ...
Details on who reported to who as part of the war effort behind the Manhattan Project. ... construction and operation of all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the ...
The 1945 photo shows Manhattan Project physicist Harold Agnew holding the heart of one of the most devastating weapons in the world.
The project was a key part of the Manhattan Project, the United States nuclear weapons development program during World War II. Its purpose was to convert natural (not isotopically enriched) uranium metal into plutonium-239 by neutron activation , as plutonium is simpler to chemically separate from spent fuel assemblies, for use in nuclear ...
Initially the Manhattan Project gun-type effort was directed at making a gun weapon that used plutonium as its source of fissile material, known as the "Thin Man" because of its extreme length. It was thought that if a plutonium gun-type bomb could be created, then the uranium gun-type bomb would be very easy to make by comparison.
Plutonium was handled extensively by chemists, technicians, and physicists taking part in the Manhattan Project, but the effects of plutonium exposure on the human body were largely unknown. [2] A few mishaps in 1944 had caused certain alarm amongst project leaders, and contamination was becoming a major problem in and outside the laboratories. [2]