Dr. Harold C. Urey

K-12 The Gaseous Diffusion Separation Plant at Oak Ridge

Magnetic Separation

Ernest O. Lawrence of the University of California at Berkeley devised a system whereby huge magnets were constructed at Oak Ridge.  An electrically-charged  Uranium Tetrachloride mixture was projected at high velocity in a magnetic field, and the the lighter U235 isotope would pass closer to the magnets and be collected.  The process consumed vast amounts of money and never proved to be successful in producing more than a few grams of U235.

2.  Chicago, Illinois.  The essential purpose of the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago was to provide facilities for scientists to conduct the fundamental research to support the Manhattan Project.  

Physicist Arthur Holly Compton organized the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago in 1942.  Manned by brilliant scientists, the Laboratory performed two essential functions.  The first was to develop means for separation of plutonium from irradiated uranium.  The second was to demonstrate the possibility of controlled chain reactions and thereby create nuclear reactors.

Chemist Glen Seaborg had discovered Plutonium in February 1941.  At first available only in microscopic portions, Plutonium could be produced in substantial portions by cooking U238 for an extended period of time in a nuclear reactor, if such a reactor could be built.  Plutonium results from bombarding U238 with neutrons.  It is a man-made, not a natural element.  But, most importantly, Seaborg found that P239 was fissionable.

On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi sustained the first controlled nuclear chain reaction, thereby opening the door for the production of Plutonium.

3.  Plutonium Plant at Hanford, Washington.  The essential purpose of the 600 square mile reservation on the Columbia River was to produce Plutonium.

Plutonium Reactor At Hanford, Washington Designed By Enrico Fermi

4.  Los Alamos National Laboratory.  Los Alamos, New Mexico. The purpose of this facility was to complete the design of atomic bombs.

Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves

Leslie Groves selected Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer of the University of California at Berkeley to head the Weapons Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.  It was established on the grounds of a private school in 1943.  The Uranium 235 bomb or Little Boy Bomb did not have to be tested, because its success was virtually assured.  A powder charge propelled a mass of Uranium into two masses of Uranium at the opposite end of a barrel, thereby creating a critical mass.

The Plutonium 239 or Fat Man Bomb was more complex and less certain to work.  A powder charge was ignited, and a series of mirrors forced the energy inward.  The Plutonium was compressed from the size of a grapefruit to the size of a tennis ball, thereby setting off a chain reaction in the Plutonium.