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Chapter 3
Oppenheimer was not fighting alone, he was fighting with Knut Haukelid

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Knut Haukelid got seriously injured

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Chapter 13
Einstein wrote a letter to Roosevelt about creating bombs.

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Achieving the monumental goal of splitting the nucleus of an atom, known as nuclear fission, came through the development of scientific discoveries that stretched over several centuries. Beginning in 1789, when German scientist Martin Klaproth discovered the dense, metallic element he called uranium, exploration of atomic energy and radiation came to fascinate scientific minds. As Marie Curie was conducting her groundbreaking research on uranium in the late nineteenth century, she found that the element was naturally radioactive. Curie created the term "radioactive" to describe the emission of electromagnetic particles from disintegrating atoms. Curie's discovery of radioactivity in elements forever changed the nature of atomic science. Building from this research, British physicist Ernest Rutherford in 1911 formulated a model of the atom in which low-mass electrons orbited a charged nucleus that contained the bulk of the atom's mass.
GERMAN DISCOVERY OF FISSION
The 1930s saw further development in the field. Hungarian- German physicist Leo Szilard conceived the possibility of self- sustaining nuclear fission reactions, or a nuclear chain reaction, in 1933. The following year, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi unknowingly split neutrons within uranium while conducting his own experiments. On the heels of these developments, Austrian- Swedish physicist Lise Meitner, working with German chemist Otto Hahn, was among the first to achieve the successful fission of uranium. However, the anti-Semitism of the Nazi party forced Meitner, who was Jewish, to flee and settle in Sweden. While in Sweden, Meitner identified and named the process of nuclear fission.

Meitner's findings became a tipping point in the development of nuclear weapons, but as the world once more moved into war, it was the Germans who held the potential key to nuclear power. While Hahn chose to remain in Germany and continued to develop his research throughout World War II, scientists across Europe steadily fled. Szilard, a Jewish man, migrated to the United States in 1938 to avoid persecution. Fermi and his wife, Laura Capon, also left Europe at the end of 1938 to escape growing Fascism in Italy. Capon, who was also Jewish, traveled with Fermi to New York City where both applied for permanent residency.
THE UNITED STATES TAKES ACTION
When news of Hahn and Meitner's discovery of fission reached Szilard in his New York City home in early 1939, Szilard began work to confirm their findings. Szilard found help in collaborator Walter Zinn, and together they recreated Hahn's experiment. Recognizing the significance of that moment, Szilard stated, "That night, there was very little doubt in my mind that the world was headed for grief." Szilard began to work with Fermi to construct a nuclear reactor at Columbia University, but as they did so, Szilard feared that scientists in Germany, who were aiding the Nazi war effort, were similarly constructing their own reactors.

In July 1939, Szilard contacted the prominent Jewish German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein at his home on Long Island, New York, to discuss German advances in nuclear development. Together, Szilard and Einstein drafted a letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the letter, dated August 2, 1939, the warning was clear: "This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable-though much less certain-that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed." The letter did not reach Roosevelt until October, but once he learned of the potential risks presented by nuclear weaponry, he responded by forming the Advisory Committee on Uranium, which held its first meeting on October 21, 1939.

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Although formed in 1939, the Advisory Committee on Uranium moved slowly at first. However, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, pushed the Committee into action. With the United States formally at war, the question of uranium development and the potential construction of an atomic bomb gained renewed interest. This interest rose even higher as a report issued by British scientists in March 1941 confirmed the possibility of building a uranium-based bomb, giving American scientists the validation they sought. In spite of this enthusiasm, the limitation of resources quickly became evident and prompted committee leaders to turn to the military for help.

As the United States began its island-hopping campaign in the Pacific, the Army Corps of Engineers took over the effort to produce atomic weaponry on the Home Front. On August 13, 1942, the Army Corps created the Manhattan Engineer District, named for the location of its offices in New York City. The following month, on September 17, Colonel Leslie R. Groves was appointed to head the project and received a promotion to Brigadier General. Within two days of his appointment, Groves made quick decisions to move the project forward, selecting three primary sites for the manufacture of an atomic bomb.

Groves first selected Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as the site for uranium enrichment. Also among the primary project sites was Los Alamos, New Mexico. Designated "Project Y," Los Alamos was the site of the Manhattan Project's weapons research laboratory. This Los Alamos site would become the location for the construction of the atomic bombs. The last primary site Groves selected was Hanford, Washington, which he designated to produce plutonium from the uranium isotope U-238. Though plutonium is not a naturally occurring element, scientists discovered its production within uranium reactors. Plutonium proved to be a more radioactive metal and had a higher possibility of achieving nuclear fission.

As Groves made these moves, a breakthrough in nuclear research beneath the squash courts at the University of Chicago created a model for the future production of atomic weapons.

Early in 1942, Fermi and Szilard, who had been working to build a reactor at the University of Columbia, moved their effort to Chicago. After construction was complete, on December 2 of that year, the scientists began removing the calcium control rods from the uranium pile. Following the removal of the final control rod, the pile went critical. The resulting nuclear reaction became self-sustaining and continued at an increasing pace for a few minutes until Fermi ordered the reactor shut off. Although the reaction only produced enough energy to power a light bulb, this moment marked the first instance in history of a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. The event also gave nuclear scientists a model for the production of large amounts of plutonium, which would eventually become the basis of the B Reactor built at Hanford.

After receiving formal approval from President Roosevelt on December 28, 1942, the Manhattan Project developed into a massive undertaking that spread across the United States. With over 30 project sites and over 100,000 workers, the Manhattan Project came to cost approximately $2.2 billion. Even though encompassing such a massive scale, the project largely remained a secret, and many of the people working on the construction of the atomic bomb did not fully know the purpose behind their jobs. Following Fermi's successful experiment in Chicago, there appeared to be two possible paths toward building atomic bombs: uranium and plutonium. The Manhattan Project built both kinds of bombs, ultimately resulting in the construction of Little Boy, a gun-method uranium bomb, and Fat Man, an implosion-method plutonium bomb.

The responsibility of bringing these bombs into existence fell to the man Groves selected to head the secret weapons laboratory at Los Alamos: J. Robert Oppenheimer. A theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer became involved early in the scientific research that ultimately led to the Manhattan Project. Under Oppenheimer's direction, Manhattan Project workers constructed a plutonium bomb.

The plutonium bomb relied upon the implosion of the reactive plutonium rather than on the piercing of the plutonium with a bullet, which was common in gun-method bombs and which worked better with uranium. While the gun-method was a more familiar method conceptually to its creators, the implosion-method was not. Due to the unprecedented nature of such a bomb, Oppenheimer felt a test was necessary. Groves initially hesitated because plutonium was both expensive and rare. However, Groves relented and approved moving forward with a test.

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75th anniversary of the end of world war ii

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"Destroyer of Worlds": The Making of an Atomic Bomb | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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At 5:29 a.m. (MST), the world's first atomic bomb detonated in the New Mexican desert, releasing a level of destructive power unknown in the existence of humanity. Emitting as much energy as 21,000 tons of TNT and creating a fireball that measured roughly 2,000 feet in diameter, the first successful test of an atomic bomb, known as the Trinity Test, forever changed the history of the world.

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Nuclear Bombs and Hydrogen Bombs

A discovery by nuclear physicists in a laboratory in Berlin, Germany, in 1938 made the first atomic bomb possible, after Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered nuclear fission.

In nuclear fission, the nucleus of an atom of radioactive material splits into two or more smaller nuclei, which causes a sudden, powerful release of energy. The discovery of nuclear fission opened up the possibility of nuclear technologies, including weapons.

Atomic bombs get their energy from fission reactions. Thermonuclear weapons, or hydrogen bombs, rely on a combination of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is another type of reaction in which two lighter atoms combine to release energy.

Manhattan Project

On December 28, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the formation of the Manhattan Project to bring together various scientists and military officials working on nuclear research.

The Manhattan Project was the code name for the American-led effort to develop a functional atomic bomb during World War II. The project was started in response to fears that German scientists had been working on a weapon using nuclear technology since the 1930s.

Who Invented the Atomic Bomb?

Much of the work in the Manhattan Project was performed in Los Alamos, New Mexico, under the direction of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the " father of the atomic bomb."

On July 16, 1945, in a remote desert location near Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated-the Trinity Test. It created an enormous mushroom cloud some 40,000 feet high and ushered in the Atomic Age.

Hiroshima And Nagasaki Bombings

Scientists at Los Alamos had developed two distinct types of atomic bombs by 1945-a uranium-based design called "the Little Boy" and a plutonium-based weapon called "the Fat Man." (Uranium and plutonium are both radioactive elements.)

While the war in Europe had ended in April, fighting in the Pacific continued between Japanese forces and U.S. troops. In late July, President Harry Truman called for Japan's surrender with the Potsdam Declaration. The declaration promised "prompt and utter destruction" if Japan did not surrender.

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb from a B-29 bomber plane called the Enola Gay over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The "Little Boy" exploded with about 13 kilotons of force, leveling five square miles of the city and killing 80,000 people instantly. Tens of thousands more would later die from radiation exposure.

When the Japanese did not immediately surrender, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb three days later on the city of Nagasaki. The "Fat Man" killed an estimated 40,000 people on impact.

Nagasaki had not been the primary target for the second bomb. American bombers initially had targeted the city of Kokura, where Japan had one of its largest munitions plants, but smoke from firebombing raids obscured the sky over Kokura. American planes then turned toward their secondary target, Nagasaki.

Citing the devastating power of "a new and most cruel bomb," Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced his country's surrender on August 15-a day that became known as ' V-J Day '-ending World War II.

The Cold War

The United States was the only country with nuclear weaponry in the years immediately following World War II. The Soviet Union initially lacked the knowledge and raw materials to build nuclear warheads.

Within just a few years, however, the U.S.S.R. had obtained-through a network of spies engaging in international espionage-blueprints of a fission-style bomb and discovered regional sources of uranium in Eastern Europe. On August 29, 1949, the Soviets tested their first nuclear bomb.

The United States responded by launching a program in 1950 to develop more advanced thermonuclear weapons. The Cold War arms race had begun, and nuclear testing and research became high-profile goals for several countries, especially the United States and the Soviet Union.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Over the next few decades, each world superpower would stockpile tens of thousands of nuclear warheads. Other countries, including Great Britain, France, and China, developed nuclear weapons during this time, too.

To many observers, the world appeared on the brink of nuclear war in October of 1962. The Soviet Union had installed nuclear-armed missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. This resulted in a 13-day military and political standoff known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

President John F. Kennedy enacted a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the United States was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize the perceived threat.

Disaster was avoided when the United States agreed to an offer made by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the United States promising not to invade Cuba.

Three Mile Island

Many Americans became concerned about the health and environmental effects of nuclear fallout-the radiation left in the environment after a nuclear blast-in the wake of World War II and after extensive nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific during the 1940s and 1950s.

The antinuclear movement emerged as a social movement in 1961 at the height of the Cold War. During Women Strike for Peace demonstrations on November 1, 1961 co-organized by activist Bella Abzug, roughly 50,000 women marched in 60 cities in the United States to demonstrate against nuclear weapons.

The antinuclear movement captured national attention again in the 1970s and 1980s with high profile protests against nuclear reactors after the Three Mile Island accident-a nuclear meltdown at a Pennsylvania power plant in 1979.

In 1982, a million people marched in New York City protesting nuclear weapons and urging an end to the Cold War nuclear arms race. It was one of the largest political protests in United States history.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

The United States and Soviet Union took the lead in negotiating an international agreement to halt the further spread of nuclear weapons in 1968.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (also called the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT) went into effect in 1970. It separated the world's countries into two groups-nuclear weapons states and non-nuclear weapons states.

Nuclear weapons states included the five countries that were known to possess nuclear weapons at the time-the United States, the U.S.S.R., Great Britain, France and China.

According to the treaty, nuclear weapons states agreed not to use nuclear weapons or help non-nuclear states acquire nuclear weapons. They also agreed to gradually reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons with the eventual goal of total disarmament. Non-nuclear weapons states agreed not to acquire or develop nuclear weapons.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, there were still thousands of nuclear weapons scattered across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Many of the weapons were located in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. These weapons were deactivated and returned to Russia.

Illegal Nuclear Weapon States

Some countries wanted the option of developing their own nuclear weapons arsenal and never signed the NPT. India was the first country outside of the NPT to test a nuclear weapon in 1974.

Other non-signatories to the NTP include: Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan. Pakistan has a known nuclear weapons program. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though has never officially confirmed or denied the existence of a nuclear weapons program. South Sudan is not known or believed to possess nuclear weapons.

North Korea

North Korea initially signed the NPT treaty, but announced its withdrawal from the agreement in 2003. Since 2006, North Korea has openly tested nuclear weapons, drawing sanctions from various nations and international bodies.

North Korea tested two long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2017-one reportedly capable of reaching the United States mainland. In September 2017, North Korea claimed it had tested a hydrogen bomb that could fit on top an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Iran, while a signatory of the NPT, has said it has the capability to initiate production of nuclear weapons at short notice.

Sources

Pioneering Nuclear Science: The Discovery of Nuclear Fission. International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Development and Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. NobelPrize.org.
Here are the facts about North Korea's nuclear test. NPR.

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Atomic Bomb: Nuclear Bomb, Hiroshima & Nagasaki - HISTORY

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The atomic bomb and nuclear bombs, powerful weapons that use nuclear reactions as their source of explosive energy, are regulated by international agreements.

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Bomb is mostly about the race to build the atomic bomb against Germany.

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Bomb is mostly about the race to build the atomic bomb against Germany.

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The story about the creation of the Atomic Bomb, told by the man who helped create it

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Russian spy