Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Early Research on Fission: 1933–1943
- 3 The Early Materials Program: 1933–1943
- 4 Setting Up Project Y: June 1942 to March 1943
- 5 Research in the First Months of Project Y: April to September 1943
- 6 Creating a Wartime Community: September 1943 to August 1944
- 7 The Gun Weapon: September 1943 to August 1944
- 8 The Implosion Program Accelerates: September 1943 to July 1944
- 9 New Hopes for the Implosion Weapon: September 1943 to July 1944
- 10 The Nuclear Properties of a Fission Weapon: September 1943 to July 1944
- 11 Uranium and Plutonium: Early 1943 to August 1944
- 12 The Discovery of Spontaneous Fission in Plutonium and the Reorganization of Los Alamos
- 13 Building the Uranium Bomb: August 1944 to July 1945
- 14 Exploring the Plutonium Implosion Weapon: August 1944 to February 1945
- 15 Finding the Implosion Design: August 1944 to February 1945
- 16 Building the Implosion Gadget: March 1945 to July 1945
- 17 Critical Assemblies and Nuclear Physics: August 1944 to July 1945
- 18 The Test at Trinity: January 1944 to July 1945
- 19 Delivery: June 1943 to August 1945
- Epilogue
- 20 The Legacy of Los Alamos
- Notes
- Name Index
- Subject Index
3 - The Early Materials Program: 1933–1943
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Early Research on Fission: 1933–1943
- 3 The Early Materials Program: 1933–1943
- 4 Setting Up Project Y: June 1942 to March 1943
- 5 Research in the First Months of Project Y: April to September 1943
- 6 Creating a Wartime Community: September 1943 to August 1944
- 7 The Gun Weapon: September 1943 to August 1944
- 8 The Implosion Program Accelerates: September 1943 to July 1944
- 9 New Hopes for the Implosion Weapon: September 1943 to July 1944
- 10 The Nuclear Properties of a Fission Weapon: September 1943 to July 1944
- 11 Uranium and Plutonium: Early 1943 to August 1944
- 12 The Discovery of Spontaneous Fission in Plutonium and the Reorganization of Los Alamos
- 13 Building the Uranium Bomb: August 1944 to July 1945
- 14 Exploring the Plutonium Implosion Weapon: August 1944 to February 1945
- 15 Finding the Implosion Design: August 1944 to February 1945
- 16 Building the Implosion Gadget: March 1945 to July 1945
- 17 Critical Assemblies and Nuclear Physics: August 1944 to July 1945
- 18 The Test at Trinity: January 1944 to July 1945
- 19 Delivery: June 1943 to August 1945
- Epilogue
- 20 The Legacy of Los Alamos
- Notes
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
A comprehensive American program of research on plutonium and 235U isotope separation evolved between mid-1941 and mid-1942. Plans were formulated for the construction of plutonium production reactors, uranium separation plants, and centralized bomb research facilities. The program for producing 235U by gaseous diffusion was slowed both by the technical problem of finding a suitable isotope separation filter, or “barrier,” and by the difficulty of coordinating Kellogg Company employees and Columbia University researchers. Despite such obstacles, plans for providing fissionable materials were well on the way to being implemented by 1943.
Expansion of the American Atomic Bomb Program
In June 1941, Vannevar Bush persuaded President Roosevelt to form the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), under the aegis of the Office of Emergency Management. With Bush as director, the OSRD assumed responsibility for mobilizing scientific resources and applying research to national defense. James Conant replaced Bush as chairman of the National Defense Research Committee, which now operated as a unit of the OSRD. Recommendations for research contracts were channeled through Conant and placed by Bush. The Advisory Committee on Uranium, essentially a research organization, became the S-1 Section of OSRD and remained in place throughout the war. Bush and Conant established three subsections of S-1: one on theoretical research under Fermi; one on power production under George Pegram, physicist and dean of the graduate faculties at Columbia University; and a third on heavy water and isotope separation under Columbia chemist Harold Urey.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Critical AssemblyA Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945, pp. 24 - 39Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993