Atomic Bomb: Development and Deployment

The atomic bomb is the world’s most deadly and destructive weapon of all time. First developed by the United States of America, the technology quickly spread throughout the world’s most powerful countries. The atomic bomb was developed as the ultimate war weapon with the hopes that such a destructive weapon would discourage any country without the bomb from waging war.

The bomb was originally developed for use in World War II by America for fear that the German Nazis would acquire it first. The Germans did have plans to build an atomic bomb, however, due to poor organization, their bomb never made it past the planning stages. The atomic bomb works by using a technology, which, at the time, was revolutionary: nuclear fission. Nuclear fission, through the use of Uranium (U-235 or U-238) or the more-effective Plutonium (P-239), creates a chain reaction so powerful that it was unfathomable at the time of its conception. Physicists had been theorizing about nuclear reactions years before the bomb came to fruition, however no one could have predicted the explosive power a bomb as powerful as this would exert.

Robert Oppenheimer via Wikipedia

The development of the atomic bomb in the United States took place under the military codename of “The Manhattan Project.” The “Manhattan Project” was headed by Julius Robert Oppenheimer (nicknamed Oppie by his colleagues), a young Harvard graduate with vast amounts of knowledge in physics specifically related to nuclear technology. He, along with the United States Army, recruited the best scientists to a secret location in Los Alamos, New Mexico. This secret location would be where the first atomic bomb would eventually be created. The United States army commanded this location with Major General Leslie R. Groves who would run the schedules of the scientists and military personnel stationed there.

A site separate from the Los Alamos location was chosen as the test site for the first atomic bomb. Robert Oppenheimer chose the Jornada del Meurto (literally translated as “Journey of Death”) desert in New Mexico as the test site. Oppenheimer would name this location “Trinity.”

Among the great scientists recruited by Oppenheimer was Albert Einstein. Einstein was the greatest physicist of his day. Einstein was a quiet elderly man; however, he had great knowledge, which he clearly demonstrated. Einstein had great knowledge and expertise of the intricacies behind building an atomic bomb and put this knowledge to great use for the United States. Albert Einstein was one of the main developers behind the bomb and keeper of its secrets, which lied within its core. The core contained the “initiator,” which released neutrons to initiate the nuclear reaction, and the sub-critical Uranium or Plutonium hemispheres.