But he subjected himself to a lethal dose of radiation. Slotkin had the others who were in the lab mark their places with chalk and calculated on a blackboard that they would live and that he would die. He died, gruesomely, within a week. The scene which describes the sudden discovery of the implosion method of making the bomb is fictional. The theory was developed slowly and not taken seriously at first.
Most scientific discoveries are the process of slow and painstaking research.
Often the theory that is ultimately accepted was dismissed at first. In August of 1945 the U.S. had enough enriched uranium for only two bombs. It would have taken several months to manufacture enough uranium for a third bomb. Some historians say that the deciding factor in the decision to use the bomb in early August 1945 was to prevent the Soviet Union from playing a significant part in the war against Japan and to show Stalin that we were willing to use the bomb. Truman and Churchill wanted to minimize Soviet influence in the Far East and to impress upon the Russians, in the maneuvering over the fate of Europe, that the U.S. had the bomb and would use it.