Professor: Johnnie Wilder
This class is probably the best I've ever taken. One shouldn't fail this class unless one does not really want to go to school at all. And by fail I mean less than A.
The topic for this class is so wide I will not enter much content in this thread, but spread them else where:
The Mexican War, The First Atomic War, LBJ, etc.
My notes on
USSO 10100
The First Atomic Bomb
5:30 AM July 16, 1945 Bomb test, Jornada del Muerto (journey of death), NM. 200 miles South of Los Alamos.
The Manhattan Project. 2 years. > $2 billion (=$30 billion today).
12 years before, scientists escaped EU.
1933, Hitler took power. Germany Jews threatened: best scientists: Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Leo Szilard, Einstein, etc.
1938, German scientists split the atoms. Bombard Ur with Neutrons => Fission. Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin.
Leo Szilard (40 yr) warns FDR.
FDR formed Advisory Committee on Uranium. Low priority.
Enrico Fermi worked with Szilard. Censor own papers.
December 7th, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. War declared. Manhattan project now under military. Brigadier General Leslie Groves lead, after building the Pentagon. Disgusted at the project, no faith.
University of Chicago: Controlled environment (by graphite). Groves proven wrong.
1942, Bomb fuel: U235 vs. U238 (ratio 1:139). Electro-Magnetic Separation - using spectrometer (electromagnetic calutrons designed by Ernest Lawrence). Columbia University: Gaseous diffusion (porous barrier). Both techniques costly.
November 1942, Groves chose Los Alamos, mountainous elevation 7000 feet. Only 1 road. Isolated. Strategic location and beautiful. 54000 Acres, $440,000. Cover: Demolition range.
Groves chose J. Robert Oppenheimer to head installation. Staffs: 250, 1943 -> 2500, 1945. Lots of babies born.
Fall 1942, Determine how much U235 needed to make bomb. Bad estimation.
December 28, 1942, FDR another $500 million to Manhattan Project. Facilities to produce Bomb fuel. They doubled the amount to 200Kg of "supposedly" necessary U-235 necessary to achieved critical mass and sustained an explosive chain reaction. They actually calculated 10x more than required amount.
Studied tempers.
Feb, 1943: Before design drawing approval, Calutrons construction began - codename Y-12. 10g U-235/day/Calutron. 1,152 built by end of war. Physically building Oak Ridge (became military district, governor protested at first), Tennessee. Would not be approved if there's no war emergency. First Calutron run failed, nails pulled out of wall by magnets. population grew to 75,000. Hard to find construction workers during wartime. Can't tell you what you are building, but there will be steak every night. Workers' cover story: lights for the lightning rods, holes for the donuts.
Los Alamos, test bomb is called The Gadget. While refining it, Plutonium (1941) was found (adding neutron to U-238). Twice efficient than U-235. Could be produced in a large scale by irradiating uranium in nuclear reactors.
Aug 27, 1943: 3 reactors (for producing Plutonium) built in Hanford, Washington, designed by University of Chicago. 60,000 construction workers. 500,000 Acres bought.
Sept 1943: K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Oak Ridge. Uses 10% of power of U.S.
Difficulties in getting U-235 (too few) and Plutonium (impurity, premature detonation).
Oppenheimer reorganized reorganize Los Alamos. Build new type Plutonium implosion bomb.
Late 1944: enough U-235 for one gun-type bomb.
Feb 1945: Little Boy: uranium gun-bomb. 10 feet long and less than 10,000 pounds.
March 1945: Fat Man: Plutonium implosion bomb.
April 12, 1945: FDR died. Harry S. Truman took over. Not aware but briefed of Manhattan Project in the first week.
May, 1945: Germany surrendered.
June 1945: Colonel Paul Tibbets & B-29s in Tinian Island (near Guam). 1,450 miles from Tokyo.
5:30 AM, July 16, 1945: First test, garage bomb, code name Trinity, paradox from poet John Donne. Teller put Suntan lotion. Scientists 20 miles away, but afraid. 40,000 ft; 20,000 tons TNT. Sand turn to glass.
Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-12_National_Security_Complex
Shift change at Y-12 Plant Oak Ridge, 1945.
7/19/2023 Update:
A good video by Veritasium on J. Robert Oppenheimer and the story of Atomic Bomb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzv84ZdtlE0