Dayton Project The Dayton Project was a research and development project that was part of the larger Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs . Work on the Dayton Project took place at several sites in or near Dayton , Ohio . Those working on the project were ultimately responsible for creating the polonium triggers which were used to begin the chain reactions in the atomic bombs . Background . Charles Allen Thomas , an executive of the Monsanto Company corporation , was assigned to extract and purify the polonium used in the neutron generating devices that triggered the nuclear detonation of the atomic bombs once the critical mass had been " assembled " by the force of conventional explosives . The Dayton Project ran from 1943 to 1949 , when Mound Laboratories were completed and the work moved there . In 1943 , Thomas was called to a meeting in Washington DC with Brig . Gen . Leslie Groves , commander of the Manhattan Project , and James Conant , president of Harvard University and chairman of the National Defense Research Committee ( NDRC ) . They urged Thomas to become co - director at Los Alamos with Robert Oppenheimer , but Thomas was reluctant to leave Dayton and Monsanto . Thomas joined the NDRC , and Monsanto ' s Central Research Department began to conduct research for the Manhattan Project under contract from the US government . Thomas established the project in the Runnymede Playhouse on the grounds of the estate of his wife ' s family - the Talbott family estate - in a wealthy residential section of Oakwood , a suburb of Dayton . The Playhouse was a leisure facility that included a ballroom , indoor squash and tennis courts as well as a stage for community theater . The project was located at the intersection of Runnymede Road and Dixon Avenue . The Talbotts were among the heirs of the Delco , which was by then a part of General Motors fortune . There were ultimately four sites around Dayton that became part of the project . One was the site at the Runnymede Playhouse site in Oakwood , while other sites were developed at the original Monsanto research laboratory at 1515 Nicolas Road , the General Electric Supply Warehouse on 601 East Third Street , and at Bonebrake Theological Seminary at 1601 West First Street ( which is now United Theological Seminary ) . Thomas ' first job was as a chemist for Delco / GM and he was married to Margaret Talbott . He promised his mother - in - law that he would return the Runnymede Playhouse building to the family intact after the war . He was unable to keep his promise because the building became contaminated with radioactivity . The facility ( also known as Dayton Unit IV ) was in use for nuclear work until 1949 when Mound Laboratories was opened in Miamisburg , Ohio . The Playhouse was dismantled in 1950 and later buried in Tennessee . The neutron generator used on the implosion design ( such as the Fat Man bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki ) was coded named " Urchin " . It was composed of alternating layers of polonium - 210 ( Po - 210 ) and beryllium separated by gold foil . The initiator , located in the center of the bomb , was carefully designed to ensure that during the implosion of the bomb core , the polonium and beryllium mixed . Once the elements mixed , alpha particles emitted by the polonium were absorbed by the beryllium causing it to emit neutrons . The precise timing of the neutron pulse was necessary to avoid pre - detonation of the bomb which would have resulted in a " fizzle " rather than the desired blast . In modern nuclear weapons a pulsed neutron emitting tube has replaced polonium / beryllium initiators , as polonium - 210 has a relatively short half - life and thus would need to be replaced every few months . Delmar . In 2007 Russian president Vladimir Putin posthumously awarded Zhorzh Abramovich " George " Koval a gold star making him a hero of the Russian Federation for his work as the GRU spy " Delmar " . Russian officials stated that the initiator for their Joe - 1 bomb had been " prepared to the recipe provided by Delmar " . Koval was a US citizen born in Sioux City , Iowa in 1913 to parents of Belorussian origin . In 1932 his family returned to the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Soviet Union . In 1939 he was drafted into the Soviet Army , joining the GRU intelligence service . Koval returned to the US in 1940 and was drafted into the US Army in 1943 . He was inducted into the Special Engineering Detachment of the Manhattan project . Koval was initially assigned to Oak Ridge where his job as a health physics officer gave him access to much of the plant . He began passing secrets relating to the production of polonium at Oak Ridge to his GRU handler code named " Clyde " . In 1945 Koval was transferred to Dayton . Again his job as a health physics officer gave him wide access to the secret installation . In 1946 he left the Army . Koval returned to the Soviet Union via Europe in 1948 . In 1949 the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb . The FBI did not begin to suspect Koval until the mid - 1950s , long after he had left the US . In 2002 Vladimir Lota published " The GRU and the Atom Bomb " explaining Delmar ' s role . Koval died in 2006 .