Otto Hahan and Fritz Strassmann's discovery of fission steered Germany toward developing an atomic weapon. This motivated the U.S. to launch the Manhattan Project. .
The Race for the Atomic Bomb Begins.
1939-1941 .
World War II started September 1, 1939, when Germany attacked Poland. By 1941, the Germans were leading the race for the atomic bomb. They had a heavy-water plant, high-grade uranium compounds, a nearly complete cyclotron, capable scientists and engineers, and the greatest chemical engineering industry in the world. .
The Research Effort Struggles.
1941-1945.
Factors including internal struggles, a major scientific error, and the devastation of total war compromised any successful research toward a German atom bomb. Unlike the American program, the Germans never had a clear mission under continuously unified leadership. .
The First Controlled Nuclear Reaction.
1942.
At the University of Chicago reactor, Enrico Fermi oversaw the first controlled energy release from the nucleus of the atom. .
U-235 Output Begins.
1945.
After intense effort, the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., began to produce bomb-grade U-235, which was shipped to Los Alamos, N.M. U-235 was used in the Little Boy bomb and plutonium was used in the Fat Man bomb produced at Los Alamos. .
On July 16, 1945, at a site called Trinity in south central New Mexico, a plutonium bomb was assembled and brought to the top of a tower. At 5:29:45 AM (local time) The bomb was detonated. It produced an intense flash and a fireball that expanded 600 meters in two seconds, and yielded an explosion which was equivalent to 18.6 kilotons of TNT. It grew to a height of more than 12 kilometers, producing the shape of a mushroom. Forty seconds later, the blast wind created by the bomb reached the observation bunkers, which were 9kms away along with a long and deafening roar of sound. And so began the ATOMIC AGE.
Hi today im going to talk to you about Nuclear weapons.
