Topic > World War II: the atomic bomb

60 million men, women and children dead. World War II was quite simply the bloodiest war the world has ever known. Without any previous war having been so profound in its technological advances to the point of still being current. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Numerous inventions were made, including rocketry, the jet engine, radar, and even the first computer, but one invention that triumphed over them all was the first atomic bomb invention. This superweapon today can destroy the world as we know it and send us into the next ice age. Therefore, the development and use of the first atomic bombs caused a change in military, political, and public functions that we can still see in our world today. During World War II the United States government launched a $2 billion project. This project, known as the Manhattan Project, which lasted from 1939 to 1946, was an effort to produce an atomic bomb. This project was only possible because with the discovery of fission in 1939, scientists realized that nuclear and radioactive materials could be used to make bombs of epic proportions. The idea of ​​​​building such a weapon originated with Albert Einstein, sharing his idea with the president “In the fall of 1939, Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning him of the great potential for use peace of atomic energy. He also warned him of the devastating consequences if Hitler's scientists succeeded in building an atomic bomb before the Americans. Roosevelt immediately understood Einstein's warning. “What you're after is to make sure the Nazis don't blow us up.” Roosevelt replied. “This requires action.” (Relin,1992) Roosevelt quickly assigned his top security advisors to form committees on this project and determine what should be done and how. By 1944, work on the Manhattan Project was in full swing. The process consisted of achieving the actual development of the weapons, the construction of the fissile material and the transportation of the weapon. In July 1944, the Manhattan Project was awarded the first priority project in the United States. The project cost $2 billion to obtain the materials and equipment needed to make the Manhattan Project a success. The Manhattan Project had many laboratories throughout the United States, but three of the main ones were located in Hanford, Washington, Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Each of these was assigned different responsibilities during the Manhattan Project. Oak Ridge Laboratories was to supply the element uranium-235, while Hanford scientists supplied the United States with plutonium used for weapons. The Los Alamos laboratory was the essential site used to assemble the nuclear weapons used in the war. . Four of the atomic bombs produced by the United States were produced at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Uranium-235 is the main component in the manufacture of an atomic bomb. Chemically, uranium-235 cannot be separated from its most abundant group, uranium-238. The only way these two elements can be separated from each other is physically. The Manhattan Project tried many different means to divide the two elements, settling on two of the processes. One means of splitting the two elements is the electromagnetic process. The other process is the diffusion process which was made available at Columbia University. Both processes mentioned require huge and difficult structures and buildings, and both processes require usesextremes of electricity to be realized. The diffusion method primarily required large amounts of electricity to be successful. “During the Manhattan Project of World War II, over 14,000 tons of silver borrowed from the U.S. Treasury were used to create magnetic coils used in the separation of uranium-235” (History of Science and Technology, 2012). Another essential element in the atomic bomb manufacturing process is plutonium-239. The method for obtaining this element was developed by Arthur Compton in a laboratory at the University of Chicago. The procedure involves alteration in a reactor mound of uranium-238. In December 1942, Enrico Fermi finally managed to build and operate a fission chain reaction in this reactor in Chicago. Valuable production of plutonium-293 required the construction of a large, energy-efficient building capable of discharging 25,000 kilowatt-hours of heat for every gram of plutonium produced. It involved creating chemical removal methods that would work in a way that had never been done before. An intermediate step in the realization of this process relied exclusively on the production of the Oak Ridge laboratory, while the larger reactors were built in the Washington laboratory at the Hanford Engineering Works. During the summer of 1945, the Manhattan Project finally received enough plutonium-239 to produce a quality nuclear explosion from Hanford Engineering. Progress in weapons development and weapon design innovation, along with obtaining the necessary elements for the nuclear bomb, were completed enough that a test of the nuclear weapon could be planned. The test was not simple to carry out, having to obtain complicated and highly structured equipment that had to be built in an area where no one for hundreds of miles could get hurt. In 1945, the Manhattan Project achieved its goal of producing an atomic bomb. After six years, scientists working on the Manhattan Project were able to harness and control the nuclear fission reaction. Thanks to the efforts of many people over these years, the first nuclear bomb was produced. Code-named Trinity, the first nuclear test exploded in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, leading to what is now known as the atomic age. After the successful testing of the bombs, nearly seventy scientists had signed a petition not to use the bombs for moral and ethical reasons. Scientists did not morally believe that nuclear weapons should ever be used. However, President Harry S. Truman ignored the scientists' warnings and petitions and decided to use the bombs on Japan to send them the message that the United States had these weapons and was willing to use them. On August 6, 1945, near the end of World War II, the United States dropped the first nuclear bomb ever used in warfare. The United States used a B-29 bomber to drop an atomic bomb called "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima. “The bomb exploded with the energy equivalent of approximately 13 kilotons of TNT. The total death toll was estimated at 192,020, including those who later died from the aftermath of the explosion” (Askew,2017). Since Japan's surrender never came, just three days after the bombing of Hiroshima a 21-kiloton plutonium bomb known as "Fat Man" was dropped. soldiers and 400 prisoners of war Before August 9, Nagasaki had been the target of small-scale bombing by the United States. Although the damage from these bombings was relatively small, it created considerable concern in Nagasaki and many people.