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4. What is the significance of Oak Ridge, TN?

5. Why was Oak Ridge the perfect location?

6. What happened to those who lived there?

7. What are examples of the secrecy of the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, TN?

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1. What was the nickname of the atomic bomb?

2. What secret led to the development of the atomic bomb?

3. What was the Manhattan Project?

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Oak Ridge had three large factories where workers worked on the nuclear material used in atomic bombs. The workers knew enough to complete their tasks, but they had no idea of the plans for the items that they were making. If questions were asked, the response was the same - “Don’t ask questions, just do your job.”

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Even for people who lived in Anderson County, no one knew what was going on with the new building projects. Workers built a large fence around the area and everything was top secret. The government hired different groups to build each of the sections of the city. The workers knew they were working for the government but they also knew that they could not discuss what they did on their job. Only five people really knew what was going on in Oak Ridge. The city never appeared on a map until 1949 - after the dropping of the atom bomb.

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For people who were living there - they had to move. The government land agents gave landowners $50 per acre and 2 weeks to move. Many families were not happy because their land had been in their families for generations.

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The area was a perfect spot because it was located in a valley, it was inland, and there was a river on three sides. It was easy to “hide” from the rest of the world and it had good roads, railroads and power - from the TVA!

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After the Manhattan project began, there was a need for a safe spot where testing and manufacturing could happen. About 50,000 acres of land in Anderson and Roane Counties in East Tennessee was selected and the area was named Oak Ridge.

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Enrico Fermi, a physicist who left fascist Italy for America, encouraged the U.S. to begin atomic research. The result was the top-secret "Manhattan Project."

After this milestone, funds were allocated more freely, and the project advanced at breakneck speed. Nuclear facilities were built at       Oak Ridge, Tennessee      and Hanford, Washington. The main assembly plant was built at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Robert Oppenheimer was put in charge of putting the pieces together at Los Alamos. After the final bill was tallied, nearly $2 billion had been spent on research and development of the atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project employed over 120,000 Americans.

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Leaving nothing to chance, Los Alamos atomic scientists conducted a pretest test in May 1945 to check the monitoring instruments. A 100-ton bomb was exploded some 800 yards from the Trinity site where Gadget would be detonated a few weeks later.

Einstein penned a letter to President Roosevelt urging the development of an atomic research program later that year. Roosevelt saw neither the necessity nor the utility for such a project, but agreed to proceed slowly. In late 1941, the American effort to design and build an atomic bomb received its code name — the Manhattan Project.

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This once classified photograph features the first atomic bomb — a weapon that atomic scientists had nicknamed "Gadget." The nuclear age began on July 16, 1945, when it was detonated in the New Mexico desert.

Early in 1939, the world's scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting a uranium atom. Fears soon spread over the possibility of Nazi scientists utilizing that energy to produce a bomb capable of unspeakable destruction.

Scientists Albert Einstein, who fled Nazi persecution, and Enrico Fermi, who escaped Fascist Italy, were now living in the United States. They agreed that the President must be informed of the dangers of atomic technology in the hands of the Axis powers. Fermi traveled to Washington in March to express his concerns on government officials. But few shared his uneasiness.