The Manhattan Project
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. "

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Albert Einstein was the world’s most renowned physicist and a Nobel Prize winner. He had fled Germany in the 1930s and established himself in the United States. Hungarian refugees Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller persuaded Einstein to warn President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the possibility that Germany could develop an atomic bomb, and to urge FDR to consider a similar program in the United States.

Albert Einstein
Old Grove Rd.
Nassau Point
Peconic, Long Island

August 2nd, 1939

F.D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States,
White House
Washington, D.C.

Sir:

Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. I believe therefore that it is my duty to bring to your attention the following facts and recommendations:

In the course of the last four months it has been made probable—through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America—that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.

This phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable—though much less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.

The United States has only very poor ores of uranium in moderate quantities. There is some good ore in Canada and the former Czechoslovakia, while the most important source of uranium is Belgian Congo.

In view of this situation you may think it desirable to have some permanent contact maintained between the Administration and the group of physicists working on chain reactions in America. One possible way of achieving this might be for you to entrust with this task a person who has your confidence and who could perhaps serve in an inofficial capacity. His task might comprise the following:

a)  to approach Government Departments, keep them informed of the further development, and put forward recommendations for Government action, giving particular attention to the problem of securing a supply of uranium ore for the United States.

b)  to speed up the experimental work, which is at present being carried on within the limits of the budgets of University laboratories, by providing funds, if such funds be required, through his contacts with private persons who are willing to make contributions for this cause, and perhaps also by obtaining the co-operation of industrial laboratories which have the necessary equipment.

I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium from the Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over. That she should have taken such early action might perhaps be understood on the ground that the son of the German Under-Secretary of State, von Weizsäcker, is attached to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut in Berlin where some of the American work on uranium is now being repeated.

Yours very truly,

Albert Einstein

The Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was the codename for the secret US government research and engineering project during the Second World War that developed the world’s first nuclear weapons. President Franklin Roosevelt created a committee to look into the possibility of developing a nuclear weapon after he received a letter from Nobel Prize laureate Albert Einstein in October 1939. In his letter, Einstein warned the president that Nazi Germany was likely already at work on developing a nuclear weapon. By August 1942, the Manhattan Project was underway.

By 1944, six thousand scientists and engineers from leading universities and industrial research labs were at work on the development of the world’s first-ever nuclear weapon. Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist, headed the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Manhattan Project’s principal research and development facility. For security reasons, the facility was located in the desert near Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Major General Leslie Groves oversaw the Manhattan Project for the US government. Private corporations, foremost among them DuPont, helped prepare weapons-grade uranium and other components needed to make the bombs. Nuclear materials were processed in reactors located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Hanford, Washington. At its peak, the Manhattan Project employed 130,000 Americans at thirty-seven facilities across the country

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On July 16, 1945 the first nuclear bomb was detonated in the early morning darkness at a military test-facility at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The intense brightness of the explosion’s flash was followed by the rise of a large mushroom cloud from the desert floor. House windows more than fifty miles away shattered.

The Atomic Bomb – By the Numbers

The decision by the United States to use the atomic bomb against Japan in August 1945 is credited with ending World War II. Here is some background information about the history of the atomic bomb, by the numbers:

2 - Number of atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II.

80,000 - People who died instantly in Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, when the first ever atomic bomb was used in war. The code name of the uranium-based bomb was "Little Boy."

192,020 - Total number of those killed in Hiroshima, combining those killed instantly and those killed from radiation and other aftermath. The revised total was released at a ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the bombing.

3 - Number of days between the first and second atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

On August 9, 1945, "an implosion-model plutonium bomb code-named "Fat Man," was detonated over Nagasaki. More than 70,000 - Number of people killed instantly in Nagasaki by the bomb.

5 - Number of days after the bombing of Nagasaki that Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's acceptance of the terms of the Postdam Declaration and its unconditional surrender, bringing an end to World War II.

2 - Number of possible targets for the second bombing: Nagasaki and Kokura. Nagasaki was chosen because of the weather.

$2 billion - The approximate cost of research and development of the atomic bomb by the United States, called the "Manhattan Project."

130,000 - The number of people employed by the Manhattan Project.

3 - Research facilities involved in the development of the bombs: Oak Ridge National Laboratory,

Tennessee, the Hanford Site, Washington, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.

17 - Physicists who worked on the Manhattan Project who already were or would later become Nobel Laureates in physics.

18,000 - Tons of TNT equaled the blast from New Mexico test run on July 16, 1945.

1,800+ feet - The distance above ground that "Little Boy" detonated over Hiroshima after it was released from the B-29 Bomber "Enola Gay."

9,700 lbs - Weight of the "Little Boy" atomic bomb..

60,000 feet - Height of the mushroom cloud following the detonation of "Fat Man" over Nagasaki