developed to produce both uranium and plutonium, each of which would provide the critical material for the atomic bombs develoned hy the United States. The process of the splitting of the atom, or "fission," is nearly impossible to imagine, smell, understand, or explain. touch, or hear because they are so small, Atoms, which we cannot see, have a fantastic amount of potential energy which, when released in the form of an explosion of a single bomb, is canable of flattening buildings and scorching earth over hundreds of square miles; of killing and maiming millions of people immediately, and more millions in the near and distant future. In effect, however, things: the basic pover of the atomic bomb comes from two the force which binds the atom together and a chain reaction, though atoms are very tiny, the amount of force binding the atom and its Parts together is very great for its size, fissionable atom, Even the atom may split, When a neutron strikes a and following the splitting, may produce additional neutrons. In turn, these neutrons may produce splitting of nearly fissionable atoms. A chain reaction is said to exist when the splitting of one atom produces on an average the splitting of more than one nearby atom. An example of a "chain reaction" is where a ball is tossed into a room in which the floor is covered by mouse traps set with ping pong balls, The ball trips one mouse trap, which in turn sets off its neighbors, which in turn set off still more, until all have been sprung, When this chain reaction is slow and controlled, it can be used for electricity-generating atomic power plants. The reaction heats water and turns. it into steam, which drives turbines connected to generators, which produce electricity, When, however, explosion, this reaction is “uncontrolled,” it results in an atomic The tremendous relative energy contained by fissionable material as opposed to regular sources of energy might be illustrated this way: lOl4bd4 10 the