Testing+of+Nuclear+Power-1

By: Becca

The Testing of Nuclear Power
Presentation

The testing of Nuclear Power is the start of nuclear warfare. Once a nuclear weapon is created and tested, people around the world are able to copy that weapon and use it as a threat, protection, or for war. Nuclear Power has changed the world in many ways. During World War II it was used to end a war, during the Cold War it was used to scare us, and the Soviet Union. Nuclear Power begins with incredibly smart scientists and the testing of the bombs that the scientists spent years creating. Nuclear weapons have caused death, so why did these scientist's create them? Not for death or mass destruction but, for science. On this page you will learn a little about who created nuclear weapons, when and where did the test's take place and how it affected the world today.

The testing of Nuclear Power is what scientist's do to be sure that the bomb works before they use it for warfare or any other use they may have for it. If there wasn't testing of these nuclear weapons, it is possible that the atomic bomb would not have worked and Japan could have planned a massive attack on the U.S. if they discovered what was meant to happen.


 * The Fathers of Nuclear Power.**

__Edward Teller__



Edward Teller was one of the Scientists who wanted and helped create the hydrogen bomb. Teller has also been known as the father of the hydrogen bomb by many in the U.S. Teller began his education in 1926 when he had left the land he grew up in, Hungary, to attend school in Germany. By 1930 Teller had gotten his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Leipzig. Teller soon realized that being Jewish in Germany during Hitler’s rise in power could only lead to trouble, so he decided to leave Germany. He had been able to emigrate to America by 1935 and he had decided to except a teaching job at the University of George Washington. Teller’s interest in the engineering of bombs had grown and it was grated when he was asked to work on the Manhattan Project. He began to get the idea of a hydrogen bomb in his head and began to work on it along with other scientist’s soon. As Teller’s obsession over the hydrogen bomb grew, he became even more isolated than he had ever been before. Once a working design of the hydrogen bomb had finally been made the head of the project had been chosen. Edward Teller decided to join a rival bomb site once he had learned that he had not been chosen to be the head of the project.

__J. Robert Oppenheimer__



When Robert Oppenheimer was 17 years old he began his college education at Harvard. Oppenheimer really didn't really know what he wanted to do until after Harvard. He first went to Cambridge University in England and after that he attended Gottigen University in Germany. By the time he returned to the U.S. he had already published 12 articles. In 1930 Oppenheimer was asked to join the atomic bomb project. One of Oppenheimer first jobs at the bomb site was to figure out the critical mass of Uranium-235. That summer Oppenheimer met with a group of other intelligent theoretical physicists in the U.S. The Group included Hans Bethe and Edward Teller. The group worked on the final design of the atomic bomb. On July 16, 1945 the bomb was tested, and worked as planned. After World War II, J. Robert Oppenheimer became known world wide as the father of the Atomic bomb.




 * Bikini Atoll and the Hydrogen Bomb**

After much debate on whether testing the hydrogen bomb was a smart decision, President Truman decided that the hydrogen project could go on as it was planned. The place chosen for the test was Bikini Atoll. An atoll is a ring like coral reef or coral island that nearly or completely surrounds a lagoon. On March 1st, 1954 the U.S. tested the Hydrogen Bomb. The scientists predictions on the size of the bomb was incorrect. The bomb was more than 1,000 times larger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. "It just kept rising and rising, and spreading...it looked to me like you might imagine a diseased brain, or a brain of some mad man would look like on the surface...And the air started getting filled with this gray stuff, which I guess was some what radioactive coral." Says Physicist Marshall Rosenbluth, who was on a ship 30 miles away.

Testing Sites
1. Alaska (US) -- 3 2. Tests Johnston Island (US) -- 12 tests 3. Christmas Island (UK & US) -- 30 tests 4. Malden Island (UK) -- 3 tests 5. Fangataufa Atoll (France) -- 12 tests 6. Mururoa Atoll (France) -- 175 tests 7. Nevada (US) -- 935 tests 8. Colorado (US) -- 2 tests 9. New Mexico (US) -- 2 tests 10. Mississippi (US) -- 2 tests 11. South Atlantic Ocean (US) -- 12 tests 12. Algeria (France) -- 17 tests 13. Russia (USSR) -- 214 tests (many at Novaya and Zemlya) 14. Ukraine (USSR) -- 2 tests 15. Kazakhstan (USSR) -- 496 tests 16. Uzbekistan (USSR) -- 2 tests 17. Turkmenistan (USSR) -- 1 test 18. Pakistan (Pakistan) -- 2 tests 19. India (India) -- 4 tests 20. Lop Nur (China) -- 41 tests 21. Marshall Islands (US) -- 66 tests 22. Australia (UK) -- 12 tests


 * Nuclear Power and What it Has Caused.**

There isn't any doubt that nuclear weapon's have caused a world wide threat. During the cold war, there was almost no combat war, only who could build the biggest bomb. The Cold War was almost all testing of nuclear weapons. Once a country would build a bomb they would test it, and scare the other country. The back and fourth bomb testing, created panic and the testing also created radio active areas. Some of the people on those test sites died, because of the wrong hypothesis or theory. If America and other countries would have thought or spent a little more time on the affects of these weapons maybe the world would be less worried about the threat of Nuclear Power. Most people who have studied the Cold War believe that the threat of nuclear war most likley helped keep some of the peace during the Cold War. Many nations have spent much time to find ways to avoid terrible damange that is caused by nuclear power.