THE UNITED STATES NUCLEAR
WEAPON PROGRAM:
A SUMMARY HISTORY
Introduction
The origins of the United States' nuclear weapon program can be
traced to the discovery of fission in 1939.
After scientists discovered
’ that an atom of uranium could be split, they also realized that fission
could release huge amounts of energy.
If a fission bamb could be
developed, weapons of tremendous explosive power could be producedé.
weapons
potential
of
fission was as
The
apparent to American nucl
physicists as to their counterparts in Nazi Gemmany .+
Because German
scientists had discovered fission, Hitler seemed to have a significant
head start on the road to a weapon which could terrorize Eurcse and
perhaps even the United States.
American scientists organized ther
selves into research teams in an urgent effort to develop an atomic bamb
before Germany.
their efforts.
Hitler's attack on Poland and the fall of France Sueled
When the United States entered the war in December1941,
the atemic effort already had became a large project involving teams of
researchers directed by scientist-administrators Vannevar Bush and James
B. Conant.
Thereafter the Manhattan Engineer District under General Leslie
Groves built the plants and laboratories required to produce a bomb.
At
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Groves' engineers erected a huge gaseous diffusicn
plant to produce enriched uranium.
At Hanford, Washington they built
three reactors to produce the recently discovered fissionable element
plutonium.
Finally at Los Alamos Groves created a weapon laberatcry
under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer to design atomic barbs.
Oppenheimer and his colleagues were certain that a "gum" bom usins
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