User:Fastfission/MP

Manhattan Project sandbox

Pre-history
1930s context, physics and war.

Beginnings of US effort
Szilard, Teller, Einstein letter. National Bureau of Standards work, British TUBE ALLOYS. Fermi at Chicago. British urge EOL, VB, JC to push stronger US effort. OSRD project, uranium committee. JRO takes over calculations, theory. Summer meeting. Decision to put into military hands.

MED
Creation of MED: LRG to head. JRO as scientific director. Work at Chicago and at Berkeley, among other places. Creation of centralized lab and production facilities.

Production and problems
Chicago work moved to Oak Ridge. Los Alamos chosen. Hanford. Properties of plutonium. Additional sites created. Creating enriched uranium. Implosion solution. Lenses.

Trinity test
Build up to the Trinity test. Reactions to Trinity. Potsdam. Moral questions, petitions circulate.

Japan
Decision to use the bomb. Tinian. Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Manchuria. VJ day. Assessment of damage. ALSOS.

Postwar
MED continues after war. Uranium reserves. Bikini tests. Civilian or military control? Creation of the AEC.

Legacy
Espionage (Fuchs, Greenglass, Hall), Soviet bomb. Comparison with other projects. Amount spent. As scientific metaphor.

Timelines

 * 1920-1942 (proton to plutonium)
 * 1942-1944 (MED to planning for Trinity)
 * 1945 (early 1945 to VJ day)