Welcome, to our Atomic Bomb webpage!

Just before World War II began, Albert Einstein and other scientists informed Preisdent Franklin D. Roosevelt of Nazi efforts to purify uranium, which could be used to build an atomic bomb. Shortly after, the U.S. Government began what was known as the "Manhattan Project." This was the plan that committed time and research into finding a way to create their own nuclear weapon.


Picture sourced from http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_map/japan.gif

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project started out as just a small project in 1939, but ended up employing more than 130,000 people and costing almost two billion dollars (Today, that would be equivalent to about $27 billion).  Many of the research sites operated in secret. The project was under the administration of General Leslie Groves and the scientific research was directed by Doctor Robert Oppenheimer. After nearly six years of research and preparation, the first-ever nuclear detonation occured on July 16, 1945 in what became known as the Trinity test. Now that the experiment was over, the Allies were ready to drop an atomic bomb on Japan if they needed to.

 

 

This is a picture of the first-ever nuclear detonation during the Trinity test.

 



 

Picture cited at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Trinity_shot_color.jpg