The+Testing+of+Nuclear+Power-P5

__**The Testing of Nuclear Power**__ Report by Ty

The testing of the nuclear bomb was an important time in the history of the world. It began a new era of warfare, making most weapons obsolete. Every country raced to get the most nuclear weapons. The United States and the Soviet Union led the race.

Scientists learned a lot about the shape of the atom during the late 1800's and the early 1900's. In 1938, scientists discovered that splitting the nucleus of a uranium atom released a lot of energy. Those scientists began to think about the applications of using this for power like electricity.

By early 1939, close to the start of World War II, the United States became aware of the military applications of nuclear energy. They were worried that Nazi Germany might develop and then drop an atomic bomb on us. The Manhattan Project was developed to create a nuclear fission bomb.

On July 16, 1945, the Manhattan Project's team of scientists, led by the American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, exploded the first experimental nuclear bomb. It was a 22-kiloton implosion type fission bomb. Implosion is a better way to make an atomic bomb, with plutonium and highly explosive lenses. The test was near Alamogordo, New Mexico, and it convinced U.S. leaders that nuclear weapons were possible.

This was important, because it led to the end of the war in the Pacific. It also showed humans what horrible things we can do to one another. The race for nuclear arms, or the Cold War, began as soon as we dropped the bombs on Japan. The decades after were changed, as everyone tried to create a nuclear weapon. Many countries now have nuclear bombs, and the threat is bigger now than it has ever been.

The Manhattan Project conducted the testing of the atomic bomb. The names of the people that worked on this project were Luis W. Alvarez, Kenneth Bainbridge, Hans Bethe, Felix Bloch, Aage N. Bohr, Niels Bohr, Gregory Breit,Vannevar Bush, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr., James Chadwick, Owen Chamberlain, Arthur H. Compton, Richard Feynman, Val Fitch, Otto Robert Frisch, Klaus Fuchs, Samuel Goudsmit, Gordon Gould, David Greenglass, Leslie R. Groves, Jerome Karle, Ernest Lawrence, Edwin M. McMillan, Frank Oppenheimer, Rudolf Peireirls, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Norman F. Ramsey, Joseph Rotblat, Glenn Seaborg, Emilio Segre, William Shurcliff, Henry L. Stimson, Leo Szilard Edward Teller, Paul Tibbets, Harold C. Urey, John von Meumann, Victor Weisskopf, Eugene Wigner, and Maurice Wilkins.





Pictures found at spacewar.com and amphilsoc.com