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The history of the Atomic Bomb (Read 697 times)
Aug 3rd, 2005 at 11:55am

Theis   Offline
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The History of the Atomic Bomb.

Development and History of the Atomic Bomb and The Manhattan Project


"My God, what have we done?" - Robert Lewis, the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb.
...
On August 2, 1939, just before the beginning of World War II, Albert Einstein wrote to then President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Einstein and several other scientists told Roosevelt of efforts in Nazi Germany to purify uranium-235, which could be used to build an atomic bomb. It was shortly thereafter that the United States Government began the serious undertaking known then only as "The Manhattan Project." Simply put, the Manhattan Project was committed to expediting research that would produce a viable atomic bomb.

The most complicated issue to be addressed in making of an atomic bomb was the production of ample amounts of "enriched" uranium to sustain a chain reaction. At the time, uranium-235 was very hard to extract. In fact, the ratio of conversion from uranium ore to uranium metal is 500:1. Compounding this, the one part of uranium that is finally refined from the ore is over 99% uranium-238, which is practically useless for an atomic bomb. To make the task even more difficult, the useful U-235 and nearly useless U-238 are isotopes, nearly identical in their chemical makeup. No ordinary chemical extraction method could separate them; only mechanical methods could work.

A massive enrichment laboratory/plant was constructed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Harold C. Urey and his colleagues at Columbia University devised an extraction system that worked on the principle of gaseous diffusion, and Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the Cyclotron) at the University of California in Berkeley implemented a process involving magnetic separation of the two isotopes.

Next, a gas centrifuge was used to further separate the lighter U-235 from the heavier, non-fissionable U-238. Once all of these procedures had been completed, all that needed to be done was to put to the test the entire concept behind atomic fission ("splitting the atom," in layman's terms).

Over the course of six years, from 1939 to 1945, more than $2 billion was spent during the history of the Manhattan Project. The formulas for refining uranium and putting together a working atomic bomb were created and seen to their logical ends by some of the greatest minds of our time. Chief among the people who unleashed the power of the atom was J. Robert Oppenheimer, who oversaw the project from conception to completion.

Finally, the day came when all at Los Alamos would find out if "The Gadget" (code-named as such during its development) was going to be the colossal dud of the century or perhaps an end to the war. It all came down to a fateful morning in midsummer, 1945.

At 5:29:45 (Mountain War Time) on July 16, 1945, in a white blaze that stretched from the basin of the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico to the still-dark skies, "The Gadget" ushered in the Atomic Age. The light of the explosion then turned orange as the atomic fireball began shooting upwards at 360 feet per second, reddening and pulsing as it cooled. The characteristic mushroom cloud of radioactive vapor materialized at 30,000 feet. Beneath the cloud, all that remained of the soil at the blast site were fragments of jade green radioactive glass created by the heat of the reaction.

The brilliant light from the detonation pierced the early morning skies with such intensity that residents from a faraway neighboring community would swear that the sun came up twice that day. Even more astonishing is that a blind girl saw the flash 120 miles away.

Upon witnessing the explosion, its creators had mixed reactions. Isidor Rabi felt that the equilibrium in nature had been upset -- as if humankind had become a threat to the world it inhabited. J. Robert Oppenheimer, though ecstatic about the success of the project, quoted a remembered fragment from the Bhagavad Gita. "I am become Death," he said, "the destroyer of worlds." Ken Bainbridge, the test director, told Oppenheimer, "Now we're all sons of bitches."

After viewing the results several participants signed petitions against loosing the monster they had created, but their protests fell on deaf ears. The Jornada del Muerto of New Mexico would not be the last site on planet Earth to experience an atomic explosion.

Scientists Who Invented the Atomic Bomb under the Manhattan Project: Robert Oppenheimer, David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Otto Frisch, Rudolf Peierls, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs and Edward Teller. View a copy of the letter Einstein wrote Roosevelt that prompted the Manhattan Project.
 

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Reply #1 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 11:56am

Theis   Offline
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Hiroshima

...

As many know, the atomic bomb has been used only twice in warfare. The first was at Hiroshima. A uranium bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" (despite weighing in at over four and a half tons) was dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945. The Aioi Bridge, one of 81 bridges connecting the seven-branched delta of the Ota River, was the target; ground zero was set at 1,980 feet. At 0815 hours, the bomb was dropped from the Enola Gay. It missed by only 800 feet. At 0816 hours, in an instant, 66,000 people were killed and 69,000 injured by a 10-kiloton atomic explosion.

The area of total vaporization from the atomic bomb blast measured one half mile in diameter; total destruction one mile in diameter; severe blast damage as much as two miles in diameter. Within a diameter of two and a half miles, everything flammable burned. The remaining area of the blast zone was riddled with serious blazes that stretched out to the final edge at a little over three miles in diameter.

Nagasaki

On August 9, 1945, Nagasaki fell to the same treatment. This time a Plutonium bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" was dropped on the city. Though "Fat Man" missed its target by over a mile and a half, it still leveled nearly half the city. In a split second, Nagasaki's population dropped from 422,000 to 383,000. Over 25,000 people were injured.

Japan offered to surrender on August 10, 1945.

NOTE: Physicists who have studied these two atomic explosions estimate that the bombs utilized only 1/10th of 1 percent of their respective explosive capabilities.

Byproducts of Atomic Bomb Detonations

While the explosion from an atomic bomb is deadly enough, its destructive ability doesn't stop there. Atomic bomb fallout creates another hazard as well. The rain that follows any atomic detonation is laden with radioactive particles, and many survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts succumbed to radiation poisoning.

The atomic bomb detonation also has the hidden lethal surprise of affecting the future generations of those who live through it. Leukemia is among the greatest of afflictions that are passed on to the offspring of survivors.

While the main purpose behind the atomic bomb is obvious, there are other by-products of the use of atomic weapons. While high-altitude atomic detonations are hardly lethal, one small, high-altitude detonation can deliver a serious enough EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) to scramble all things electronic, from copper wires to a computer's CPU, within a 50-mile radius.

During the early history of The Atomic Age, it was a popular notion that one day atomic bombs would be used in mining operations and perhaps aid in the construction of another Panama Canal. Needless to say, it never came about. Instead, the military applications of atomic destruction increased. Atomic bomb tests off of the Bikini Atoll and several other sites were common until the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was introduced.

Cheers Theis
 

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Reply #2 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 12:04pm

Jimbo   Offline
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Interesting stuff Theis..
The film "threads" VERY realistically show's how a Nuclear bomb drops on Sheffield, and the After math.
Sheffield was once a heart for steel production thats whay it was hit in the film, but sheffield hardly makes any more steel anymore.
The film was made many many years ago, but its is VERY frightening and because im from Sheffield it makes it even more frightening. It shows the streets i very walk on this day, and people seeing this great mushroom cloud from the centre of Sheffield.
It has got to be one of the most horrific films i have ever seen, and the film is also made in a documentry way, no drama, it gets you in the middle of the action.
Anyone who has seen this film will reassuringly understand me, and understand that the film is so realistic, you start to worry, big style.

Thanks again for the info.

James Wink

P.s...Mod's, in any way you feel my post or the topic is unappropriate, please by any means delete.

 

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Reply #3 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 12:07pm

Theis   Offline
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im happy that my work wasnt for no reason Smiley
 

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Reply #4 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 12:09pm

Jimbo   Offline
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Quote:
im happy that my work wasnt for no reason Smiley


Your work is very good Theis, and i understand much more about the bomb now, but im just saying that before people start on the topic "they should be banned", that it should be locked. Wink before people start to argue. Smiley

Thanks again Theis.

James
 

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Reply #5 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 12:48pm
Heretic   Ex Member

 
Fascinating things, those atomic bombs. Maybe one of the very few moments when man can really be the crown of the evolution...vaporizing any living thing.

On February 28th, 1954, the US set a new "record" concerning nuclear weapons: A 15 megaton burst shook the Bikini islands.

Quote:
The Bravo crater in the atoll reef had a diameter of 6510 ft, with a depth of 250 ft. Within one minute the mushroom cloud had reached 50,000 feet (15 km), breaking 100,000 feet (30 km) two minutes later. The cloud top rose and peaked at 130,000 feet (almost 40 km) after only six minutes. Eight minutes after the test the cloud had reached its full dimensions with a diameter of 100 km, a stem 7 km thick, and a cloud bottom rising above 55,000 feet (16.5 km).

The Bravo test created the worst radiological disaster in US history. Due to failure to postpone the test following unfavorable changes in the weather, combined with the unexpectedly high yield and the failure to conduct pre-test evacuations as a precaution, the Marshallese Islanders on Rongerik, Rongelap, Ailinginae, and Utirik atolls were blanketed with the fallout plume. They were evacuated on March 3 but 64 Marshallese received doses of 175 R. In addition, the Japanese fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Fifth Lucky Dragon) was also heavily contaminated, with the 23 crewmen receiving exposures of 300 R (one later died - apparently from complications). The entire Bikini Atoll was contaminated to varying degrees, and many operation Castle personnel were subsequently over-exposed as a result. Personnel in the firing bunker on Nan Island were trapped for a time when external radiation levels reached 250 roentgens/hr an hour after the shot. After this test the exclusion zone around the Castle tests was increased to 570,000 square miles, a circle 850 miles across (for comparison this is equal to about 1% of the entire Earth's land area).

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Castle.html
 
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Reply #6 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 12:48pm
Heretic   Ex Member

 
But in 1961, the USSR detonated the largest bomb ever constructed, the "Tsar" bomb, which had a 50 Mt yield - and it was only it's "light version". The actual bomb was constructed for a 100 Mt yield.

Quote:
The Tsar Bomba was the largest nuclear weapon ever constructed or detonated.
[...]
The effect of this bomb at full yield on global fallout would have been tremendous. It would have increased the world's total fission fallout since the invention of the atomic bomb by 25%.
[...]
The nickname Tsar Bomba is a reference to the Russian proclivity for making gigantic but useless artifacts for show. The world's largest bell and cannon, neither of which are actually useful for anything, are on display at the Kremlin. During its development, the bomb was actually nicknamed Ivan.
[...]
The test was conducted by air dropping the bomb from a specially modified Tu-95 "Bear A" strategic bomber piloted by mission commander Major Andrei E. Durnovtsev. It was released at 10,500 meters, and made a parachute retarded descent to 4000 meters before detonation. By that time the release bomber was already in the safe zone some 45 km away. The drop area was over land at the Mityushikha Bay test site, on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya Island. The time of the test is given by as 11:32 AM Moscow Time; it is listed as occurring at 06:33 Moscow Decree time.
[...]
The effects were spectacular. Despite the very substantial burst height of 4,000 m (13,000 ft) the vast fireball reached down to the Earth and engulfed the ground below it, and swelled upward to nearly the height of the release plane. The blast pressure below the burst point was 300 PSI, six times the peak pressure experienced at Hiroshima. The flash of light was so bright that it was visible at a distance of 1,000 kilometers, despite cloudy skies. One participant in the test saw a bright flash through dark goggles and felt the effects of a thermal pulse even at a distance of 270 km.
[...]
"The clouds beneath the aircraft and in the distance were lit up by the powerful flash. The sea of light spread under the hatch and even clouds began to glow and became transparent. At that moment, our aircraft emerged from between two cloud layers and down below in the gap a huge bright orange ball was emerging. The ball was powerful and arrogant like Jupiter. Slowly and silently it crept upwards.... Having broken through the thick layer of clouds it kept growing. It seemed to suck the whole earth into it. The spectacle was fantastic, unreal, supernatural."
[...]
In districts hundreds of kilometers from ground zero, wooden houses were destroyed, and stone ones lost their roofs, windows and doors; and radio communications were interrupted for almost one hour. The atmospheric disturbance generated by the explosion orbited the earth three times. A gigantic mushroom cloud rose as high as 64 kilometers (210,000 ft).

Some time after the explosion, photographs were taken of ground zero. "The ground surface of the island has been levelled, swept and licked so that it looks like a skating rink," a witness reported. "The same goes for rocks. The snow has melted and their sides and edges are shiny. There is not a trace of unevenness in the ground.... Everything in this area has been swept clean, scoured, melted and blown away."
[...]
The area of effectively complete destruction extended to 25 km, and ordinary houses would be subjected to severe damage out to 35 km. The destruction and damage of buildings at much greater ranges than this which occurred was due to the effects of atmospheric focusing, an unpredictable but unavoidable phenomenon with very large atmospheric explosions that is capable of generating localized regions of destructive blast pressure at great distances (even exceeding 1000 km).


http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html

Oh, if I could only see one of those tests...
 
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Reply #7 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 1:15pm

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Quote:
Oh, if I could only see one of those tests...


Hopefully, not while it's happening....
 

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Reply #8 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 2:28pm

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That giant ball of fire would be cool to see! I'm not a big fan of WMDs, but that just sounds amazing.
 

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Reply #9 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 2:39pm
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Quote:
Hopefully, not while it's happening....


Si. But from a safe distance.
 
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Reply #10 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 3:20pm

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Having lived through the time these atmospheric tests were going on I can only hope that I never see anything like it ever again. There was a very real possibility these terrible weapons might be used against my country with ME well within range of the most likely targets. If I ever saw anything like that for real it would probably be the last thing I ever saw. Shocked

It was bad enough watching all this on the newsreels & TV. I can't imagine what it was like for the unsuspecting servicemen ordered to watch these tests without proper protection. All done without anyone knowing the potential effects on the human body or the environment.
 

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Reply #11 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 3:54pm

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I knew a guy who was in either the US Navy, or the CIA* who had whitnessed an H-bomb test in the pacific. He ended up getting skin cancer as well as another kind of tumor in his back. However he lived to be in his 90s.

* He was in the Navy first, and then joined the CIA later, I just don't know when.
 

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Reply #12 - Aug 3rd, 2005 at 4:15pm

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i watched a video on a where the first atomic bomb was dropped..... i dont know the web adress.... found it on google. wow that was intense
 

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Reply #13 - Aug 12th, 2005 at 9:08pm

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Quote:
Fascinating things, those atomic bombs. Maybe one of the very few moments when man can really be the crown of the evolution...

Certainly a pinnacle of  a sort, but it depends on how you look at it.  In a way, it makes us the dumbest primates ever. While  very economical and effective weapons, fission and fusion bombs produce fallout and other aftereffects ("nuclear winter") that threaten friend and foe alike for (potentially) thousands of miles downwind. The devices used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were pipsqueaks compared to some of the warheads produced during the era of M.A.D.D.- many of which are supposedly "missing" since the collapse of the Soviet Union; there's another problem with having such powerful weapons lying around.
"What have we done?", indeed...
  Tongue
 

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Reply #14 - Aug 13th, 2005 at 3:35am

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Quote:
On February 28th, 1954, the US set a new "record" concerning nuclear weapons: A 15 megaton burst shook the Bikini islands.

To think some people actually thought the bikini swimsuit came about naturally by fashion designers Wink 8).
 
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