LBST 2102

History 2284

Daniel Valdez

HIST 4000

Dr. Morrill

June 25, 2007

Women and Their Contribution to the Manhattan Project

Introduction

This writer contends that women played an important and key role in the development of the atomic bomb. Their efforts and contributions were not only scientific; these efforts helped many women achieve supportive and strategic roles in all sites and stages of the development of the atomic bomb. Whether directly, or as we will see throughout the essay, indirectly, their roles should not be underestimated.

            The Manhattan Project, as it was named, was a top-secret war Project aimed at creating a deliverable atomic bomb. The man in charge was General Leslie R. Groves. His expertise, as well as being a very trusted and able military leader, made him the ideal candidate for the post. The man Leslie Groves chose to be in charge of the scientific aspect of the Project was J. Robert Oppenheimer. These two men would be indispensable for the development of the atomic bomb; without them the bomb would not have been developed in the short period of time in which it was.

            While much attention had been given to these two key figures of the Manhattan Project, as well as to other men who led the efforts, much less substance has been given to the many women who, in one way or another, provided key support and contribution to the Project. However, it would be erroneous to say that these men do not deserve the recognition they have been given. As stated before, both Leslie Groves and Oppenheimer were the best men for the job and their contribution cannot be ignored.

Science Before the Manhattan Project

            Before immersing full steam into the actual Manhattan Project, it is imperative that those who contributed to the discovery of nuclear energy be given special attention. After all, without the discoveries made by these scientists, the idea that a nuclear weapon was feasible would never have entered into anyone’s mind. Women, here too, were also very involved. In fact, it was Lise Meitner how coined the term “nuclear fission” after having helped discover it in 1938[i]. She brought forth the argument that it was the splitting of an atom into two equal parts that gave off a new energy, or radiation, that had recently been discovered[ii]. With this figured out, the idea that a nuclear chain reaction was possible opened the door to what would culminate on August 6, 1945 with the bombing of Hiroshima.  However, before Meitner could provide a theoretical explanation for nuclear fission, a set of very important discoveries had to take place.

            In 1895, Roentgen discovered a new type of ray, by accident, which he names x-ray. It was this discovery that led many to submerge themselves deeper into the mysteries of this invisible ray. Just a few months after Roentgen’s announcement, in 1896 Henri Becquerel reported that he too had found x-rays but this time there were being emitted by uranium, an element found in nature, rather than by a man made mechanism. He could not explain why or how uranium emitted these invisible rays; he proposed that Marie Curie should do her doctoral research on that very subject[iii].

            Marie Curie was born on November 7, 1867 in Poland. She grew up in a middle class family. Due to the tight Russian control on Poland, women were not allowed to attend a university[iv]; in 1891, she moved to Paris with her sister. Soon after, she started her career at the Sorbonne. In 1895, she met a renowned scientist, Pierre Curie, and married him the same year[v]. After having completed her studies, she wanted to earn a doctorate in physics; which was a feat that only a few women had accomplished at the time. Mentored by her husband, she decided to tackle the subject of the newly discovered Becquerel rays.

            With the help of Pierre, she was able to discover two radioactive elements, a term she coined[vi], and claim that thorium was also radioactive. Polonium and radium were the newly discovered radioactive elements. Her research won her the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903; thus being the first time a woman would obtain this achievement. In 1911, she would win a second Nobel Prize in chemistry. In April of 1906, Marie’s husband, Pierre, would die in a catastrophic traffic accident and would be survived only by his wife and their two daughters, Irene and Eva. Marie went on with her research and held various important positions at a variety of universities. On July 4^th, 1934, she died of leukemia[vii]; the cause of death was suspected to be due to the nature of her work and her unawareness of the effects of radiation.

             In the years to come many more fascinating discoveries would take place. Discoveries such as that of alpha rays, Einstein’s E=mc2, the perfection of the atom model, and the experiments which led to the finding of isotopes and transmutation, all contributed to the ever growing field of nuclear physics. Men like Einstein, Neils Bohr, James Chadwick, and Ernest Rutherford are some of the individuals responsible for many of the discoveries. Most of these men would later go on to work at the Manhattan Project.

Following on her mother’s footsteps, Irene Joliot-Curie won a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1935 for conducting the first chemical proof of transmutation. She also was able to measure the half-life of Radon and became one of the foremost experts on radiation.

Back in Sweden, Lise Meitner, after fleeing Germany, received a letter from Otto Hahn. Meitner had been working with Hahn at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on the effects the bombardment of uranium with neutrons would have. In the letter, Hahn stated that the chemical tests showed that the bombarded uranium had turned into barium and he was very perplexed about his findings[viii]. Meitner, along with her nephew Otto Frisch, tried to figure out the puzzle. She finally came to the conclusion that the nucleus was not completely solid but rather it could be split apart. This splitting causes uranium to transform into two atoms of barium and that the mass lost in the process was released in the form of energy[ix]. Finally, Lise Meitner was able to calculate the amount of energy given off by the splitting of a uranium nucleus with the formula Einstein had produced, E=mc2. According to her, about two hundred million electron volts of energy were released in the splitting of a uranium nucleus[x].  What this meant was that the energy emitted could be used to create a chain reaction and produce massive amounts of energy[xi].

            This new discovery turned the world of physics upside down. Many of these scientists knew that a new and extremely destructive bomb could be developed with this newly acquired knowledge.

By the time Meitner had provided an explanation for nuclear fission, Hitler had come to power and would in 1939 start World War Two. His ambitions were immense and his path of destruction was unimaginable. By this time, most scientists knew the discovery of nuclear fission and its consequences; many of which like Meitner had lived and studied in Germany.

A Hungarian scientist, Leo Szilard, who like Meitner and Einstein was also a Jew, feared that Hitler would gain control of a nuclear bomb. Szilard immigrated to the United States and urged Einstein to generate a letter to send to President Roosevelt to inform him of the possibility of Hitler getting a nuclear bomb. Einstein signed a letter drafted by Szilard and it was sent to Roosevelt. Immediately the president set up a committee to investigate uranium nuclear energy and set forth money to begin the research. While Roosevelt did start research of nuclear energy, the resources awarded for that Project were minimal. However, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States started putting enormous amount of resources and money into the Manhattan Project. It would then become one of the largest and most impressive projects ever undertaken in the history of the world.                                    [xii]

 [xiii]

The Manhattan Project

In 1942, General Groves was put in charge of the Project. He chose four main sites for the Project. Oak Ridge, Tennessee would be the place where isotope separation would take place. Hanford, Washington on the banks of the Columbia River would be responsible for the production of plutonium. Los Alamos, New Mexico would be the most secretive of all the sites; it was here that the actual assembly of the bomb took place.  Finally, the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago would be where the scientific experiments and calculations, or the basic scientific research, would take place. This is not to say, however, that these four locations were the only places that were involved in the Manhattan Project. Countless universities participated and places all over the country were established for the purpose collaborating in the development of the atomic bomb.

Oak Ridge, Hanford and Los Alamos were communities that were created by the army specifically for the purpose of developing the bomb. These sites were built in a few months in isolated and deserted places. The enormity of the Project was unimaginable; in Hanford, roughly one hundred thousand people worked at the site over the period of time it took to build the bomb[xiv]. Los Alamos, the smallest of the three sites, had at its peak a population of about six thousand.  Kathleen Mark, a wife at the site of Los Alamos said: “It had been expected originally that the Project might involve as many as five hundred people…by V-J day the population was nearer to five thousand[xv].” At Oak Ridge, the population peaked in 1945 to seventy-five thousand[xvi]. 

Not only was the Project enormous, it was also extremely dangerous. Although the individuals were not partaking on the forefront of the war in Europe, or likewise in Japan, casualties happened nonetheless at each of the different construction sites. People died working at each of the different sites. At Hanford, a total number of nineteen died; all during the construction of the site. At Oak Ridge, there were forty-two fatalities; most during construction but some during operation[xvii].

Joan Hilton, who worked with Enrico Fermi at Los Alamos, helped build two reactors to test assemblies of enriched uranium and plutonium. She witnessed first hand the effects of radiation when one of her colleagues died from the effects. According to her account, Harry Daghlian, who had been working with her group, was playing around with pieces of paraffin. He took a piece of the paraffin and it slipped out of his hand landing on the plutonium sphere which started turning blue. Harry then removed the paraffin and almost immediately after, his hand started hurting and went numb. Harry was taken to the hospital but there was nothing the doctors could do. While on the subject of Harry, Joan Hilton said: “he just gradually disintegrated. All the cells in his body had been damaged way down inside…it took Harry a month to die[xviii].”

The Project being of utmost importance was given priority in the allocation of resources and personnel. One example, to highlight the importance to the Project, was when large quantities of silver were needed to build magnet coils. There was not enough silver available to simply give out, so the government had to use its reserves in the Treasury. Approximately fourteen thousands tons of silver were lent and shipped out to be used by the Manhattan Project[xix]. At the end of the war it was all returned, with only one percent of the silver missing[xx].

Keeping the Project a secret was a behemoth of a task. General Leslie Groves made it very clear from the start: “no one was to have access solely by the virtue of his commission or official position and that meant, members of the executive, members of Congress, and military personnel[xxi].”                      

[xxii]

[xxiii]                                                      

Women Personnel and Their Role

In 1943, the first employees started arriving at Los Alamos. However, before anyone came to Los Alamos, Dorothy McKibbin was the first one hired. J. Robert Oppenheimer hired her to head the office at Santa Fe; which would be the gateway to Los Alamos. 109 East Palace, the address of McKibbin’s office in Santa Fe, would be synonymous with Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project. There is no better personal story of Los Alamos than that of McKibbin. Her insight and her knowledge is probably one of the most extensive of all those involved in the progress of the atomic bomb.

She soon became friends with many of the people working there; especially Oppenheimer. She was, for twenty years (1943-1963), the “front man” to the Los Alamos[xxiv]. Her office in Santa Fe was the first stop for all of those that needed to reach the secret site; the passes where given from her office. All information from Los Alamos to the outside world and vice-versa came through her office first.

Up until the end of the war, McKibbin was responsible for keeping Los Alamos a complete secret; something she managed to do very well. She worked day and night; always on call. Conant, who wrote a book on McKibbin’s role in the Project, said, “She would come to know everyone involved in the Project and virtually everything about it, except exactly what they were making, and even that she would guess in time.[xxv]”

The trust Oppenheimer placed on McKibbin was indeed great. She lived up to his expectations and remained faithful to the convictions of her job. She was told to ask no questions and she did just that.

While Oppenheimer placed great trust on McKibbin, Leslie Groves’s right hand man, in this case a woman, was Jean Marley O’Leary. Mrs. O’Leary was born on December 31, 1909. She was the oldest of four children and by 1929, she was married. Her husband died in 1940; thus left widowed, she had to find a job to support her family. Jean had a backbone and character; she was not intimidated by Groves and this is what undoubtedly got her the job[xxvi]. Robert Norris said of Groves’ secretary, “O’Leary quickly gained Grove’s trust and her secretarial and managerial skills soon made her invaluable and irreplaceable.[xxvii]”

            Robert Norris has written an excellent and detailed biography of General Leslie Groves. In it he describes O’Leary as the person that ran the office and also ran Groves[xxviii]. He goes on to say “she was probably the only other person who knew all, or almost all, of the details of the Manhattan Project. She was the only secretary permitted to takes notes on the deliberations of the Military Policy Committee, the Combined Development Trust, and other groups that met in Grove’s office[xxix].” Groves knew very well that men did not like receiving orders from any woman, much less civilian ones, and that was true for Mrs. O’Leary. During the war, the general did not have a chief of staff or an executive officer for the Manhattan Project. He asked Jean if she wanted to be commissioned in the WACs as a major so that she would be accorded the rank officially but she declined[xxx]. Her official title was administrative assistant, which needless to say did very little to describe her immense responsibilities.

            In the monograph, Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project, the authors have aimed at creating a book that talks about women who were actual scientists in the form of physicists, chemists, biologists, geologists, mathematicians, and technicians. They gathered information on approximately three hundred women who performed technical work on the Manhattan Project[xxxi]. The authors assert that women worked on every aspect of the Manhattan Project, except combat operations[xxxii].

            A main reason behind women being assigned to work on such a sensitive wartime project was the wartime personnel shortages, which opened scientific and technical opportunities that were not available to women in peacetime, and women took them[xxxiii]. However, Margaret W. Rossiter author of Women Scientist in America, Before Affirmative Action 1940-1970 contends that while opportunities for woman did arise, “they remained temporary and subordinate supplements to an essentially all-male labor force[xxxiv]”

            While there is no doubt that women held much less prestigious roles in the Manhattan Project, I do not believe that they were just “seat warmers” as Rossiter puts it. Many of these women used their experience in the Manhattan Project to go on to bigger roles after the war. They went on to hold high administrative positions at different laboratories and universities. Rossiter goes on to say that these women lost an opportunity “to create the kind of leverage that might have carried their wartime gains into the postwar economy[xxxv]”.

            On the contrary, I believe women had as much sense as duty as those soldiers fighting abroad. They had no reason to be selfish, after all they had brothers, friends, espouses, boyfriends and fathers fighting in the war. What they wanted was to bring them home as soon as possible. If that meant working day and night with unfair conditions in comparison to their male counterparts, they were willing to do it. Young male graduate students supervised women with far more experience, who actually taught them the techniques involved[xxxvi].

            Many women came to the different sites with the idea that only their husbands would work and they would take care of the house. However, despite their domestic concerns, many wives did work, motivated by patriotism, curiosity about the work that engrossed their husbands, and perhaps a touch of boredom in the isolated locations of the project[xxxvii].

            Ellen C. Weaver, Ph.D., who wrote the foreword in Their Day in the Sun, was one of the scientists that helped find a way to shield the radiation from phosphorous-32. Another important task she worked on was on devising methods for the quantitative analysis of fission products[xxxviii]. As she recalls in the foreword of he book she did not know very many women who were working on the Manhattan Project and regrets it.

            Not all women felt the same way about the droppings of the bombs. Some women repudiated the Project; such was the case of Melba Phillips who after working on the Manhattan Project became a leader in opposing the nuclear arms race[xxxix]. Their reactions, like their contributions to the Manhattan Project, were as diverse as those of the men who worked beside them[xl]. Lise Meitner who established the existence of fission refused to emigrate to the United States. Upon receiving an invitation to come to Los Alamos she wrote, “I will have nothing to do with a bomb[xli]” (32)

            Women were faced with all kinds of problems. In the workplace they were not promoted or paid in proportion to their efforts[xlii].  In their daily domestic life chronic housing shortage, limited services, water and power shortages plagued communities that rapidly outgrew their original design[xliii]. In Hanford Leslie Groves hired Buena Maris to be the supervisor of Women Activities. He feared the discontent of the women was not conducive to the keeping up the morale of the community. Maris had a top management position, which gave her considerable power[xliv]. She was the only woman that attended the weekly senior staff meetings at Hanford. She was head of women activities at Hanford and as such kept their needs in her mind at all times. She went as far as to persuaded a clothing store to open a branch not to far from the site at Hanford. When asked what her greatest need was, she asked for sidewalks or asphalt to settle the dust and save the women’s shoes (shoes could not be replaced during wartime shortages) [xlv].

            Another woman who held a top management position was Gladys Amelia Anslow, she served from 1944 to 1945 as the chief of the communications and information section of the office of field services of the OSRD, controlling the flow of classified information to the research community. It was Mrs. H.K Ferguson’s company Ferguson Engineering that was hired to construct the huge thermal-diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, TN.

            The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was established in 1941, one of its main responsibilities was to oversee the Manhattan Project. The OSRD was under the leadership of Vannevar Bush[xlvi]. Roosevelt gave Bush, full approval to go on with the Manhattan Project in 1941[xlvii].  Mina Rees held a Ph.D. in mathematics form the Univ. of Chicago. She was the executive assistant to the chief of the Applied Mathematics Panel in the OSRD[xlviii].  Her post gave her almost complete access to the data on the Manhattan Project.

            While Lise Meitner and Irene Joliot-Curie were not involved directly with the Manhattan Project, there were a great many physicists who did contribute. Maria Mayer was an expert on quantum mechanics[xlix]. She was hired by Harold Urey to work for the Manhattan Project in 1942. Her capacity made her the leader of her group of about twenty scientists[l]. She also visited Los Alamos several times to work with Edward Teller.

            Leona Woods was also an important physicists, having graduated from the University of Chicago in molecular spectroscopy she went on to work as part of Enrico Fermi’s staff that worked on figuring out how a chain reaction worked. She counted down when Chicago Pile Number One first sustained a chain reaction[li]. She Married physicist John Marshall who she met working at the Manhattan Project. In the midst of her work she became pregnant. She followed the project to Argonne and worked until the birth of her first son in 1944. She hid her pregnancy until two days before she gave birth[lii]. She then moved to Hanford to work with her husband in overseeing the construction of the reactors there. Her determination was a great one. Her love for science was undeniable.

            The person who developed the design used by the production reactors at Hanford, for the production of plutonium was Katherine “Kay” Way. A Graduate of the University of North Carolina, she moved to the Chicago site where she made her contribution.  Over at Hanford, Jane Hamilton was hired by Du Pont to be senior supervisor at the Hanford Engineer Works in 1944. She earned her Ph.D in physics from the University of Chicago in 1942. Du Pont was the company who Leslie Groves chose to build the production reactors at Hanford Washington. Another hire that Du Pont made was that of Marion Crenshall Monet, her involvement would be that a junior engineer at the Hanford site from 1943-1944. After her work at Hanford she and her husband went on to work at Clinton from 1944-1946

            Chien-Shiung Wu traveled to Berkeley to complete her studies in physics. She came from Shanghai in 1936. Among her previous tasks, before entering in the Manhattan Project she was a professor at Smith College and then Princeton. She came to the Project to join Harold Urey’s group, which, at the time, was trying to separate U-235 from U-3238 by gaseous diffusion. Mary Argo and her husband were students of Edward Teller. They joined Edward in 1944 to work in his Theoretical Group at Los Alamos[liii]. One unique thing about Mary Argo was that she was the only female staff member to be officially invited to see the test of the first nuclear weapon, the famous explosion at Trinity[liv].

            While the importance of physics to the project is beyond fact, chemists too were very valuable. Without them the bombs designed by the physicists could not have been built[lv].  Many important chemists walked the halls of the different sites. People like Nathalie Michel Goldowski. She was Russian but grew up in France. After completing her studies she became chief of the Metallurgical Development at the French Air Ministry. Her experience gave her enormous advantage. It was she who developed the non corroding aluminum coating that was critical to the success of the plutonium production project[lvi].

            Probably one of the most well-known and respected woman of the Manhattan Project was Helen Blair Barlett. Her experience came from having worked at General Motors perfecting spark plug technology, after earning her Ph. D. in 1931. Barlett’s work with mineralogy and petrology earned her several patents and considerable status at GM therefore it was obvious that when she came to the Manhattan Project she came as a senior scientist. Her most important contribution was the developing of nonporous porcelain that was used for the interior construction of the bomb[lvii].

            Another important figure of the Chicago site was Isabella Lugoski Karle who became the most distinguished female chemist employed at the Metallurgical Laboratory[lviii]. Her title was that of associate chemist. She concentrated her studies on the chemistry of the transuranic elements and the synthesis of plutonium compounds. Karle demonstrated the stability of plutonium chloride by growing crystals in a number of different ways[lix], this contributed greatly to the behavior of plutonium and the development of fat man.

            As discussed earlier, women by no means were considered on equal footing with men. Even though some did hold important positions and were respected others were not so lucky. Discrimination was something woman dealt with day in and day out. One scientist, Ellen Cleminshaw Weaver, stated that she had to eat at the facility with the janitors, something none of her male counterparts had to do. Her pay like almost every other woman was less than that of a male employed in the same task.

            Security was so tight and important that renowned scientist Elizabeth Rona could not officially work for the Manhattan Project[lx].  Due to her nationality, she was from Budapest; she was never able to work directly for the Manhattan Project, the reason being that she still had family living in Hungary during the War.  As stated before she was the world’s most renowned expert on polonium[lxi]. She had worked with Irene Joliot-Curie and she earned her Ph. D. at age 21, her intelligence was beyond belief.  While in the U.S. she was given several assignments relating to polonium. She gladly helped and her unofficial contributions to the Manhattan Project were very important. As much as she contributed, she was never compensated for her work[lxii].

            For mostly every project, tests are conducted as the phases of the project are progressing. With the Manhattan Project they could not afford to conduct many bomb tests, until they perfected it. Therefore without pilot plants or weapons tests, the Manhattan project had to rely heavily on numerical simulations[lxiii]. It was in this aspect that mathematicians were of immense importance.  

            On such mathematicians was Naomi Livesay (104-106).  She Received a Ph.M. from the University of Wisconsin. In 1944 she started working at Los Alamos as supervisor of the IBM machine operators (which were GI’s and housewives). This group worked on calculations for the implosion of the plutonium bomb. Under the supervision of Naomi were hundreds of people and machines.

            Physical security and safety was one of the underlying problems of the Manhattan Project. Many of these scientists were working with deadly radioactive material. The leaders of the Projects hired biologists and medical scientists to conduct the appropriate research. One of those scientists was Miriam Posner Finkel who earned her Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Chicago. She along with her colleagues took over all short and long term studies of the toxic effects of radiation on animals. They had to come up with standards and procedures for all those that were working on the Manhattan Project. They tried to determine what the impact of ionizing radiation was and the toxicology of fission products[lxiv].

            Probably one of the biggest groups of women to work at the Manhattan Project was that of the technicians. Rosellen Bergman Fortenberg started working at Oak Ridge in March of 1944. It was in that year that she received her bachelors in chemistry[lxv]. She worked on the mechanics of laboratory work. Another woman to work on chemical analysis was Ada Krikley she had only completed two years of botany major when she was recruited, along with many of her classmates[lxvi].

            The technician who made one of the most day-to-day recognizable contributions was Eleanor Eastin Pomerance. She in 1942 went to work at the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley. In 1945 she went to work at the Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge. She along with an Army noncom would help design the standard warning label for radioactivity, which is the three-bladed fan in magenta and yellow[lxvii].

            In light of what has been said in the beginning of this essay, the Manhattan Project was a military one. Therefore many soldiers were stationed at three main sites. The Women’s Army Corps (WAC’s) were also present.  They performed all kinds of different work; some were drivers, clerks, technicians and even scientists[lxviii].  Miriam White Campbell was a WAC and part of her job was to help draw the detailed plan for the assembly of Little Boy. Others answered the phones, processed work orders and handled piles of paperwork. At Los Alamos alone almost 300 WAC’s were deployed there.[lxix]

While many women did contribute to the technical and scientific aspects of the Project, many more served in different aspects, such as secretaries and teachers or simply as patriotic wives of men working on the project. To complement, Their Day in the Sun, the book Standing By and Making Do: Woman of Wartime Los Alamos offers a collection of first hand accounts of women who were not scientists but who lived and in many cases were recruited to work at Los Alamos. One such woman was Dorothy McKibbin of whom this author has already mentioned. Another woman was Charlotte Serber, who in fact co-authored Standing By and Making Do.  She was one of the few women who held an important position at Los Alamos. She was the scientific librarian in charge of top-secret documents[lxx]. 

[lxxi]

Conclusion

The stories of the women have many parallels; many mentioned how they did not see much of their husbands, who labored countless hours in the Tech Area. While it is true that great scientific advancement was happening and countless extraordinary men and women were working there, basic necessities like water and power were sometimes luxuries in this high tech secret community. Most of the women had no idea where they were or what their exact purpose was when they arrived at Los Alamos, Hanford or Oak Ridge.

Not everything was rigid and serious at the sites. While everyone knew that their work was of tremendous importance and they treated their work as such, they still found time to socialize. Many parties were held at Los Alamos. It would not be uncommon to see the world’s most prestigious scientists all gathered in someone’s house. These people were basically fenced in with no contact with their extended family and very little contact with the outside world. While people could be given passes to go into town, they were constrained.  At Los Alamos, you could not go past Albuquerque without special permission. Everyone had to be careful not to speak with strangers or friends; they all knew that FBI agents were watching them.[lxxii]

It doesn’t take much to realize that women have played and continue to play an integral role in every aspect of human life and human history.  Having confronted the question of the atomic bomb, many did not know what to make of the idea that women indeed were also an integral part of it. Some were surprised that such thing existed; others found it interesting and some did not seem very happy about the idea. Women who worked in the Project also had mixed feelings.

Whatever opinion anyone has of the use of the atomic bomb, one thing is undeniable: the development of the atomic bomb was one of the most important and indeed difficult tasks any human civilization has achieved. In terms of science it was a defining moment, the scientific advancement were extraordinary. Unfortunately, with great knowledge comes great danger. The immense damage and destruction nuclear weapons can employ is to this day one of the principal threats, if not the principal threat, to the very existence of humankind.