ipl-logo

Atomic Bomb: The Oak Ridge Tennessee Site

839 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The effects of the atomic bomb

Most people know the story of Atomic Bomb, on August 6, 1945, during World War II an American B-29 bomber the Enola Gay dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima killing 60,000 people instantly. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, killing or injure ding more than 65,000 people. Shortly thereafter Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II. The part of the story that is left untold is the how the atomic bomb came to be.
In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt received a letter warning of the plausibility of nuclear weapons, and of German experimentation with uranium and fission. President Roosevelt took the warning seriously, …show more content…

The project grew into three primary locations which where Hanford Washington, Los Alamos New Mexico, and Oak Ridge Tennessee. Each location was chosen for a specific purpose. The Oak Ridge Tennessee site mainly produced uranium-235 and was chosen because it had large quantities of cheap hydroelectric power which would be necessary to produce uranium-235. The site was large and covered more than 60,000 acres. Hanford Washington was the plutonium production center. The site was chosen because it was near a river and that was essential for cooling the reactors responsible for producing the plutonium. Hanford Site grew to almost 1000 square miles. The Los Alamos National Laboratory site Y of the Manhattan Project site was chosen primarily for its remoteness. Los Alamos was responsible for final assembly of the bombs. Many communities were built around these location to help ensure the security the facilities and personnel. The residents of Los Alamos lived very restricted lives. As their mail was censored, phone calls monitored and their interaction with family members was tightly …show more content…

Groves in managing the Manhattan Project. General Groves was the only person that had knowledge of the entire project and he took security measures to new heights. He managed to convinced Congressional leaders to sign a secret budget processes with no legislative oversight. He also created separate organizations to carry out intelligence, counterintelligence, and surveillance programs. Each site had multiple security checkpoints and were guarded twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Potential employees underwent a rigorous background check conducted by the FBI ensuring they had no criminal history or suspicious connections with Axis sympathizers and also had to sign a form pledging silence about the Manhattan Project. Officials took extraordinary measures to ensure that no one without the proper clearance was allowed access to site buildings or facilities. Employees maintained security badge’s that displayed their picture, their job position, and their level of clearance. No one could travel from one site to another without Gen. Groves

Show More
Related
809 Words | 4 Pages

September, 1942 was the date that Groves was appointed head of this experiment. The main reason of this was because of his previous work at creating camps, depots, air bases, munitions plants, hospitals, airplane plants, and the massive Pentagon. Groves was a leader The Fat man and Little boy changed the world today, how we fight and what we use, the nukes opened a whole new generation of chemical warfare. In addition, The Bombs took a few years to complete with the help of many scientist. He was a fighter and lead america to victory.

Read More
1889 Words | 8 Pages

The Manhattan Project was started in fears that Nazi Germany was going to create the ultimate weapon, powered by the natural forces of fission. As President and wartime Commander, Roosevelt

Read More
1030 Words | 5 Pages

This decision was on the shoulders of President Truman. It was on him to decide if The United States were to invade Japan and have millions and millions of lives fall or kill thousands by dropping the newly designed atomic bomb on Japan. The Manhattan Project proved successful when the atomic bomb was first tested exploding at the trinity test site in Los Alamos, New Mexico. After finding the success of the project the only thing needed was the decision

Read More
1485 Words | 6 Pages

The Manhattan Project Helpless. Vulnerable. Defeated. But not cowards. After the U.S. faced a lethal attack at their naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, it was the clear the U.S. needed far more power to defend against their international opponents.

Read More
611 Words | 3 Pages

In an attempt to get Japan to surrender to the Allies, in August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the nation. The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the second on Nagasaki. Although these bombs did contribute to Japan’s surrender and the end of the war, the use of this atomic weapon was an irrational and horrible decision. The United States should have abstained from using the two atomic bombs on Japan for the sake of civilian lives and possible alternatives to their decision. These bombs not only had detrimental effects on Japan, they also led to an arms race amongst several nations.

Read More
538 Words | 3 Pages

ATOMIC BOMB: HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI The end of world war II brought the extensive discussion to the world. On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped by an American B29 bomber over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later a second B-29 dropped the second atomic bomb over Nagasaki. On August 15, Japan's emperor announced Japan's unconditional surrender, which led to the end of the war. After several years, doubt about the use of these atomic bombs has appeared, and the debate about if the dropping of the atomic bomb was the right and necessary decision.

Read More
1014 Words | 5 Pages

It was a project between the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Over 100,000 chemists, physicists, and researchers worked on the atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project, but only a few of them knew the true purpose of the project. The Manhattan Project was tightly kept a secret. Only officials such as President Roosevelt and some scientists knew. Truman himself was not aware of the Manhattan project until he became President.

Read More
998 Words | 4 Pages

The atomic bomb is one of the most powerful and efficient bombs available. The atomic bomb would eventually bring World War II to an end due to Japan’s surrender to the United States of America. Without the development of the atomic bomb during World War II, many more American lives would have been lost to defeat the Japanese. The atomic bomb played an immense role during World War II and led to the Allied victory of the war. New developments and technological advances are very important, as well as necessary, to war.

Read More
1131 Words | 5 Pages

From only trying to help end a vicious war, to killing a total of 215,000 people with two atomic bombs. The Manhattan Project, developed by President Harry. S Truman the 33th president of the United States began a project alongside J. Robert Oppenheimer by bombing the two cities of Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki causing complete eradication and slaughtering many innocent people. The development of the atomic bombs started in Los Alamos, New Mexico during World War 2 in Sep 1, 1939 – Sep 2, 1945, a project called The Manhattan Project to end World War 2 by dropping two atomic bombs in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki of Japan to get the Japanese to surrender and to show the power of the atomic bomb, but also the destruction it could cause

Read More
1723 Words | 7 Pages

General Groves, the Engineer Director of the Manhattan Project was desperate to see fruits of his labours before the end of the war. The cost to develop the bomb was $2 billion dollars was taken into great account as it would have been difficult to justify not using it after such a vast financial investment. The project produced 2 bombs, the one dropped on Nagasaki, however, was simply an unnecessary experiment to just try it out. So finally, I believe that the dropping of the first bomb was justified, however, the second dropping was

Read More
225 Words | 1 Pages

In the United States, the Manhattan Project inflicted significant tension onto its citizens. During World War II, the various nations involved became extremely competitive in their efforts to successfully engineer an atomic bomb. For this reason, a desperation arose in The United States to keep information regarding the Manhattan Project absolutely secret. At the same time, propaganda spread fears of foreigners, especially of spies involved in America's defense or government. The most well known and most controversial outcome of this tension was the conviction of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Read More
680 Words | 3 Pages

Zoellner wrote the book Uranium to give people who do not have much knowledge as to what happened during the Manhattan Project, a deeper understanding of the “uranium era” and to show the hidden business transactions that were made by the United States to become the “powerhouse” country that it is today. Zoellner later goes into detail about the aftermath of the dropping of the Atom Bomb. As well as explains how the whole process of the Manhattan Project affected other countries needs for uranium for instance, “But every speck of it had to be counted and hoarded; it was, at the time, the most valuable matter on the planet” (64). He then goes into detail describing which countries wanted bombs and what they were willing to do to get them. When

Read More
626 Words | 3 Pages

The Manhattan Project became one of the largest weapon development programs in history. General Leslie R. Groves and US physicist Robert Oppenheimer were assigned to oversee this massive project (“Manhattan Project”2014). The project originally was headquartered in an office at the federal building at 90 Church Street in Manhattan. The project was devised in the Manhattan District Office of the Army Corps and Engineers which led to the name of the project. The initial research began at Columbia University in New York City (“The Trinity Test”

Read More
548 Words | 3 Pages

The Manhattan Project started in 1942 was a secret government program used to make atomic bombs (“Manhattan Project”). Leading physicists, including Enrico Fermi, Albert Einstein, and Leó Szilárd thought that it would be in the U.S.’s best interest to work on this technology (Manhattan Project). Because intelligence led to the conclusion that Germany had begun making their own atomic weapons (“Nagasaki and Hiroshima”). Roosevelt took their advice, and the exploratory committee developed into the Manhattan Project, a top-secret government effort that funneled $2 billion into building an atomic weapon (“Nagasaki and Hiroshima”). The project was managed by Brigadier General Leslie Richard Groves (Manhattan Project).

Read More
581 Words | 3 Pages

President Harry Truman gave an executive order in 1945 to drop to atomic bombs in popular downtown cities in Japan. With the guidance of many scientists and political leaders President Truman made the extremely tough decision to drop the bombs. After listening to arguments from both sides President Truman came to the conclusion that dropping bombs would be the best thing to do for this war. It would also show that the United States had an extreme military power. Many American politicians were for the idea of dropping the bomb, because they believed that it was the only way to end the war and get Japan to surrender.

Read More

More about Atomic Bomb: The Oak Ridge Tennessee Site

Related Topics

Open Document