Manhattan Project

When and How the Project Began

In 1939, scientists in Berlin, Germany began to realize what power atoms potentially held and the strength they could release. Scientists in the United States brought their fear of an atomic weapon to President Roosevelt and a small governmental group was created to research Uranium. Little funding was given but the Manhattan Project had officially started. During this time period, emotions and power struggles were going on in Europe and countries were on the brink of war. The Uranium committee needed more money to study isotope separation but funds were limited. “After a few months of research, the conclusion was made that Uranium-235 was needed and Uranium-238 would not be sufficient to make an atomic weapon.” (http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/) Many tests were done trying to find the best way to separate the different forms of Uranium, the most successful way of separating the two was named, liquid thermal diffusion and was put into use during the summer of 1940. Roosevelt was pleased with these results and combined the researching group with the Nation Defense Research Committee (NDRC). Knowing it was only a matter of time before the United States entered the war, scientists pushed research knowing they needed to work fast if they wanted to impact the result of the war. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt gave the go ahead to use research they had acquired and create an atomic bomb. At this point in time it was thought that two types of atomic bombs could be constructed, a uranium bomb and a plutonium bomb. Feeling confident the United States was leading the race to produce the first nuclear bombs, production of refined uranium and plutonium was going faster than ever. In December of 1942, $500 million dollars was put towards forwarding the project. As soon as 1943 diffusion and plutonium plants were being built, at that time the bombs were expected to be finished in the later part of 1945 but nobody could be sure. Another group was organized to develop a weapon design that was placed at Los Alamos, New Mexico. A simple design for the uranium bomb was going to be used while the plutonium bomb was harder to design. The war seemed to be coming to an end and the race to create both bombs was essential to ending the war in the Pacific.

Secrecy

Secrecy was key to the Manhattan Project. Top notch security, brilliant and trustworthy scientists and smart planning by the U.S government all aided in the success of the Manhattan Project. If Axis countries found out about the Manhattan Project the result could have been disastrous. The United States also tried keeping this newly found technology from the Soviet Union but was less successful at doing so. Evidently, atomic bomb programs had been started in both Germany and Japan but were not as advanced or heavily funded as the Manhattan Project was in the United States. Countless German spies were caught trying to find out more about the United States involvement with atomic energy, as were Japanese spies, both countries suspected the Allies were working on an atomic bomb but neither of them were positive. The Soviet Union was more successful at getting information, they had many spies with ties in America and people willing to help them get information such as members of the Communist party. If there was suspicion of a scientist or contributor that worked with the Manhattan Project they were dismissed and information about the top secret project was cut off completely.n Everyone involved was sworn to secrecy and not allowed to tell anyone outside of fellow workers with the same level of clearance including wives, husbands, children and family. This amount of security saved the project and was the key of the Manhattan Projects success.