Lundin 1

Nicholas Lundin
Period 5
McCabe
March, 21, 2012
The greatest discovery: Nuclear Fission
World War II was a long and harsh war. The war started in September of
1939 and ended in September of 1945 the war lasted six years. The war was six long
years of harsh battle and mass killings, but also some good things came out of the war.
There were many effects of the war good and bad. The allies were America and Parts
of Europe and the evil side was Germany and Japan. We joined the war because we
were bombed by the Japanese. The bad effects of World War II were the massed killed
people in the holocaust and the many people killed in battles. Some positive effects of
World War II were many new inventions. With all of the effects World War II was just
another war. . By examining the making of the atomic bomb the bombing on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, and the impact of the atomic bomb has a connection which can be made
to the Manhattan Project and its effects on WWII.

Enrico Fermi studied many different types of atoms. While studying Fermi was
intrigued by the behavior of the uranium atom. When neutrons were shot at uranium
atoms they were changed so Fermi wanted to figure out what was happening. He didnt
realize that when he shot a neutron at the atom it actually split open releasing a burst of
energy. Scientists like Lise Meitner, Otto Frisch, and Fritz Strassman duplicated Fermis
experiment.

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Fermi won a Nobel Prize in Italy for this amazing achievement of finding this
reaction which gave him a chance to get out of Germany and go to another country to
do his research. Bohr went to the US to visit Fermi and tell about the theory of fission.
Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch believed they knew what happened to the uranium atom
when neutrons were thrown at it. Energy=mass x speed of light squared was weight
loss to energy which was later called fission. Fermi thought that enough atoms split at
once there would be a lot of energy and a new wave of technology to be made by it.
Fermi though that nuclear fission could be harnessed as a weapon and possibly used in
the war that the allies had been fighting.
Fermi thought if one atom split the neutrons of that atoms would shoot out and
split other atoms and then start a chain reaction. If there was plenty of uranium there
would be loads of energy. Lawrence and Oppenheimer two American scientists
invented a machine called the cyclotron that helped to experiment on uranium atoms.
He thought that it could be used to create a giant destructive weapon. Glenn Seaburg,
Edwin M Mcmillan, Joseph W. Kennedy, and Arthur C Wahl found plutonium to also be
fissionable and it was rarer than uranium but uranium could be used to make it.
Fermi believed the bomb was very powerful. Scientists tried finding the power of
the atomic bomb. One pound of uranium equals one thousand tons of TNT. An atomic
bomb would take lots of studying and it was slower because only two materials that
were fissionable were scarce. People thought that Germans were completing the bomb
already so that pushed the scientists to work faster.
Finstein helped get the message to Roosevelt. Fermi was thinking about getting
enough atoms to create enough energy. His equipment only allowed him to use a

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couple of neutrons at a time and billions would be needed to create the amount of
energy needed to make a bomb. December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor and Roosevelt wants revenge. The United States declared war the next day. In
June of 1947 Roosevelt ordered an atomic bomb to be dropped on japan.
June, 18, 1942 Colonel J.C. Marshall was told to set up a new area to build
something that was top secret an atomic bomb. He built a base on the campus on the
University of Chicago it was called the Metallurgical Laboratory. The name was made to
make people think that the lab studied regular metals. More than one thousand
scientists worked there. Uranium and plutonium were very rare so this was the biggest
obstacle. U-235 was the specific uranium needed and there was only 1 percent of that
in all of the uranium in the world so it was extremely rare.
September 23 1942 General Leslie R. Groves took over the Manhattan project.
Groves had to find a place to separate uranium which people didnt know where it was.
Twenty miles from Knoxville Tennessee was Black Oak Ridge which one of the workers
knew well. The site was named site X. Next was a place to find the location to test the
bomb so one of the workers Oppenheiser suggested the Parjarito Plato. Barley anyone
lived there and there was a school their but it was a great location for testing the atomic
bomb. Its nearest town was Santa Fe which was 18 miles away and there was only
one road going in which was easy to spot anyone coming in or out.
Fermi was thinking of plans for making a nuclear reactor. He built a non-futuristic
reactor out of graphite block layers 26 feet tall and 26 feet wide. Each layer had a
couple pieces of uranium for fission. The atoms split releasing neutrons so the graphite
slowed the process. Slower neutrons left a better split and more splits than faster

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neutrons. Each layer had corium steel rods that absorbed uranium nuclei to speed up or
slow down the reaction.
The scientists thought they could make a self-sustained reaction and stop it
before it exploded the scientists also thought the reactor would become very hot and
melt the uranium or light it on fire. They also knew the people who were exposed would
have radiation poisoning but didnt know to the extent of the damage it would cause.
Radiation is very dangerous and then they didnt know whether or not the radiation from
the reactor was deadly or not. With everything being unknown they wanted to build it in
an isolated area so not many could be hurt or exposed. The allies thought Hitler was
closer to an atomic bomb so remote areas were ruled out and building took place at a
racket ball court under the campus of the University of Chicago building begun
November, 7 1942.
The scientist started measuring the amount of neutrons which were steadily
increasing and then Fermi announced there was a chain reaction. 5 Days later Los
Alamos was evacuated and the building of the bomb took place. Plenty of research
began and in Oak Ridge didnt know they were creating the bomb. A little while after
Little Boy and Fat Man were born.
While all of the research for the bomb was going on ties with Germany were
tightening. Germanys ally Japan was thinking of plans to take over and make their
empire. The U.S. was further down the list but in December, 7, 1941 they skipped
ahead and went for the U.S. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and killed many
people. Pearl Harbor was a shocking event and the U.S. wanted revenge. It was time
for the new discovery to show its strength.

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The U.S. had a chance to use the newly made atomic bomb and we took it. On
August, 6, 1945 the pilot of Enola Gay took off on a mission to Japan the place of arrival
Hiroshima, Japan. No one knew if the mission would fail or succeed because it was
never done before. The takeoff of the plane was difficult 15,000 pounds overweight with
a 9,700 pound bomb lying in the ship. Despite all practice is was a very dangerous
success and Little Boy was the bomb the ship was carrying. The bomb would explode a
couple seconds after it was dropped. At 7:30A.M. They were near the target and the
bomb was released and 1900 feet from the ground it exploded with tremendous force
and the city was up in flames. The first atomic bomb had been dropped.
Many deaths came as soon as the bomb exploded. The people were vaporized
and turned into a black ash. At the beginning of the explosion 45,000 were killed the
first day and 66,000 over the next thirty years. Many died on the initial blast but
thousands died from radioactive induced cancer. That day was awful day for the
Japanese and showed the power of the atomic bomb.
The impact of nuclear fission is a day to remember. Nuclear fission did many
things in the past. It mad the atomic bomb which flattened two cities. It mad the U.S. a
new war device and gave U.S. new opportunities for new inventions.
The discovery of nuclear fission led to the invention of the atomic bomb a device
that used chain reaction and nuclear fission in a large scale to produce massive
amounts of energy. This energy was used to flatted two cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That led to the surrender of Japan and helped the U.S. end the war and win.
The discovery of nuclear fission led to the research of other elements that can
fission. Over time scientists found out that hydrogen the lightest element can fission

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and produced much more energy than using plutonium or uranium. It took a long time
to figure out how to make hydrogen fission, but it created a new type of bomb called a
hydrogen bomb which was way more powerful and efficient than a regular plutonium
bomb. The discovery of nuclear fission led to many advances in technology. Nuclear
fission leads to nuclear fusion which was more efficient and gives off even more energy.
Today we have nuclear energy which is a cleaner source of energy. I use nuclear
power which produces plenty of energy. A nuclear power plant starts by using nuclear
fusion and heats up water which cools the reactor and creates steam. The steam then
goes and pushed a turbine that then convert that steam into energy. We have been a
long way from nuclear fission to create a new clean energy device.
The Manhattan Project had many effects on World War II. The Manhattan
Project led to nuclear fission, which made the atomic bomb which ended the war with
Japan and made advances in technology later on. The Manhattan project led to many
positive effects in World War II and also in the future. The Manhattan Project had a
good input in WWII. By examining the making of the atomic bomb the bombing on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the impact of the atomic bomb has a connection which
can be made to the Manhattan Project and its effects on WWII.

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WORKS CITED
Feinberg, Siberdick, Barbara. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Childrens Press. Print.

Cohen, Daniel. The Manhattan Project. Brookfield: Twenty First Century Books. Print.

Gonzales, Doreen. The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb. Benkely Heights:
Enslow. Print

The Official Pearl Harbor Tour Site. Web. March 23 2012.

http://www.pearlharboroahu.com/attack.htm