Even though the concept of the atom has existed for many decades, we only recently began to understand the enormous power contained in it. In the years just before and during World War II, nuclear research was only concentrated on the development of defence weapons devising The Manhattan Project creating the world’s first nuclear bomb. Later on, scientists focused on peaceful applications of nuclear technology. One substantial use of nuclear energy is the generation of electricity. After years of research, scientists have also successfully applied nuclear technology to many other scientific, medical, and industrial purposes.
On October 11, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt received a letter from Albert Einstein, in which he noted the possibility that Germany would pursue the research of nuclear energy and use it for destructive purposes. Initially Roosevelt didn’t want to enter the war and thought spending on atomic weapons was not necessary, but when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, the USA entered the war and sent abundant funds to the construction of the atomic weapon.
The Army Corps of Engineers headed by Colonel James C. Marshall, started participating in the project establishing its temporary headquarters in Manhattan. This was merely an engineering district, focused on the construction of facilities rather than weapons development and, following Army tradition, it took the name of the city where the headquarters was located and was called The Manhattan District. The official codename of the project as a whole was “Development of Substitute Materials”, but over time, both for secrecy and simplicity, the codename Manhattan came to be used for the whole project. The full codename was still used in much of the official documentation, but the simplified “Manhattan Project” was used by the people involved in it as it was shorter.
By the end of 1942, bomb research had become bomb production, and the Manhattan Project was now run by the military, with Gen. Leslie R. Groves as the officer in charge. Production of bomb was carried out in three locations; Oak Ridge, Tennessee (production and enrichment of the bomb fuel U-235), Hanford, Washington (production of plutonium fuel), and Los Alamos, New Mexico (bomb production and assembly).
The U.S was fighting war on two fronts, one for the Allied powers and other against Japan. After Germany’s surrender the U.S. decided to shift their efforts on the war with Japan. A committee was setup to counsel the president on the best course of action to easily defeat Japan with the lowest loss of American lives. After consideration the committee came up with some choices out of which one was bombing a major city in Japan. The five places had been selected as good targets were Hiroshima, Kokura Arsenal, Nagasaki, Yokohama and Kyoto.
On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was set off at 5:30 AM which was known as the Trinity test. The test occurred on a military base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The Trinity test gave the proof and testing needed to assure scientists, government that their work was not in vain.
In July of 1945, President Truman met with Winston Churchill of Britain and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union at the Potsdam conference, at which time the “Big Three” outlined the Potsdam Declaration, which offered the Japanese the opportunity to unconditionally surrender, or “Risk the alternative of ‘prompt and utter destruction.’” Japan declined the Potsdam Declaration, and President Truman was left to consider his options.
On August 6, 1945, Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets flew the B-29 bomber Enola Gay over Hiroshima, Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb, named “Little Boy” killing 80,000 civilians and 20,000 Japanese soldiers. The Japanese didn’t surrender so three days later Maj. Charles W. Sweeney flew Bockscar toward Kokura, Japan, but was detoured by bad weather. Sweeney then flew over the alternate target of Nagasaki and dropped the second atomic bomb, “Fat Man” obliterating the city. It did not cause the devastation of Hiroshima because of different land features but it still resulted in about 39,000 deaths. A few days after the second bombing, Japan accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and surrendered, ending World War II.
After the World War II, Congress established the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to encourage and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology, declaring that atomic energy should not only be employed in the Nation's defense, but also to promote world peace, improve the public welfare, and strengthen free competition in private undertaking. President Harry S. Truman assured the civilian control of atomic energy by signing the Atomic Energy Act on August 1, 1946.
In his Atoms-for-Peace proposal of December 8, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had suggested that the nuclear powers grant portions of their stockpiles of normal uranium and fissionable materials to an international atomic energy agency, which would then assign these materials toward peaceful uses. As a result, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was inaugurated in Vienna, Austria on October 1, 1957. On August 26, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson ended an eighteen-year mandatory government monopoly of special nuclear materials by signing into law the "Private Ownership of Special Nuclear Materials Act', permitting private entities to assume title to special nuclear materials.
The legacy of the Manhattan Project includes its impact on history, science, medicine, space exploration, electricity, and much more. The facilities built during the war have grown into National Laboratories that continue to contribute to scientific research, with key breakthroughs in various science fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and medical imaging, renewable energy, and improved transportation.
The network of national laboratories are The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and Ames Laboratory.
The ability of the reactors to generate radioactive isotopes in previously unheard-of quantities set off a revolution in nuclear medicine in the immediate postwar years. Starting in mid-1946, Oak Ridge began distributing radioisotopes to hospitals and universities. Most of the orders were for iodine-131 and phosphorus-32, which were used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In addition to medicine, isotopes were also used in biological, industrial and agricultural research.
In the new century, several factors have aggregated to resurrect the prospects for nuclear power. First is the realization of the scale of projected increased electricity demand worldwide, but particularly in rapidly-developing countries like China, India and South Korea. Secondly is the need to limit carbon emissions due to concern about global warming and thirdly is awareness of the importance of energy security.
The history of nuclear power thus starts with science in Europe, blossoms in the USA with its technological might, languishes for a few decades and then has a new growth spurt in East Asia.