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The Manhattan Project

by Maggie Whitmore

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The Manhattan Project
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The logo of the Manhattan Project
This technology was developed by around 600,000 people, yet nearly all of them were unaware of what their work was for. There were nearly 20 sites in North America that were part of the Manhattan project, but there were three that were the most significant. Oak ridge, TN, Hanford, WA, and Los Alamos, NM, were the places where the most vital research and development was put in place.
How do nuclear bombs work?
The science of nuclear weaponry all happens at an atomic level. In 1939, German scientists successfully split an atom apart for the first
The Manhattan project all started in 1941. That was the code name of the USA’s top secret research into creating the worlds first nuclear weapon: an atom bomb.
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A newspaper headline about the atom bomb from the 1940s
time. This means that a single atoms’s nucleus was split in two. This creates a release of energy. Very few elements are unstable enough to be split this way, and even the ones that are are not reactive enough to cause damage, however, certain isotopes of an already unstable element, such as uranium U-235, are so unstable that their splitting causes a chain reaction.
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The Science of Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy can be released through two ways: Fission and fusion.
Fission: When an atom is split into two smaller atoms
Fusion: When two atoms’ nuclei bond together to form 1 atom
How fission works
These both release a similar amount of energy. However, an important difference is that fission causes a chain reaction in other atoms. This means that the more atoms that split, the more energy is released. This energy is known as nuclear energy.
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Scope of Nuclear Weaponry
The shift in the overall scope of technology in WWII compared to previous wars was immense. With the inventions of machine guns, radar, and many more weapons and tools, wars could wipe out so much more with fewer weapons. Nuclear weaponry, however, is on a scale unlike any weapon seen before.
How Nuclear Bombs Work
Nuclear energy is highly effective, but it causes something called radiation. Radiation is a dangerous and harmful form of energy that is given off when nuclear reactions happen. Radiation can cause serious damage to cells and cause cancer.
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The Three Vital Project Sites
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