The Manhattan Project

1938

1 CE

-The Theory of Nuclear Fission was released by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch
-When a heavy nucleus splits spontaneously

Early 1939

2

Physicist Robert Oppenheimer announces the potential military power that would come from utilizing nuclear fission

1939

3

-President Roosevelt began to form the Manhattan project in response to rumors of Hitler working on nuclear weapons.
-Einstein Writes president Roosevelt denoting the use of uranium for a source of energy and warning him about potential destructive power
-Started with the Advisory Committee of Uranium (ACU) which consisted of scientists and military officials

1940

4

-Name was changed to National Defense Research Committee
-Government began funding Columbia University physicists Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard’s research of radioactive isotope separation and nuclear chain reactions.
-Einstein denied work clearance for being a pacifist. The military officials believed he would be a liability.

1941

5

-Plutonium was discovered via deuteron bombardment of uranium
-Named changed to Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD)
-Enrico Fermi officially became a member of the OSRD

December 1941

6

America joins second world war

Early 1942

7

-Becomes a military agenda, with the Army Corps of Engineers joining the OSRD
-Based out of New York it was dubbed the Manhattan Project
-Set up remote locations in Washington, New Mexico, and -Tennessee.

Late 1942

8

-Army builds plutonium production plants to transmute Uranium-238 into Uranium-239, which rapidly decays into Plutonium
-Enrico Fermi achieves first controlled nuclear fission reaction

1943-1944

9

-Development of fission cannon utilizing plutonium began.
-Oppenheimer realized using high concentrations of plutonium in a cannon would lead to premature detonation and opted for an implosion design (The Fat Man)

1945

10

-April 12th FDR dies and Truman takes over presidency as well as the Manhattan Project
-July 13th, the first nuclear detonation test took place in Alamogordo, New Mexico
-August 6th, Hiroshima was hit with "Little Boy" killing between 69,000 and 170,00 people
-August 9th, Nagasaki was hit with "Fat Man" killing between 39,000 and 75,000 people

1946

11

-The Atomic Energy Committee (AEC) was establish after WW2 in order to regulate atomic energy, to insure something like Hiroshima or Nagasaki doesn't happen again.
- The formed the Atomic Energy Act, which stating that atomic energy should only be used for "peaceful purposes".

1947

12

-The Manhattan Project was abolished
-OSRD and NDRC rolls were transferred to the Department of Defense