Made in Hanford
Subtitle: the bomb that changed the world
By: Hill Williams
Publisher: Washington State University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Pullman, Wash
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 208
ISBN-13: 9780874223071
Subjects: Nuclear weapons; Social aspects; Environmental aspects; Testing; Atomic bomb; Plutonium industry; Biography; History
Description: On the eve of World War II, news of an astonishing breakthrough filtered out of Germany. Scientists there had split uranium atoms. Physicists in the United States scrambled to verify results and further investigate this new science. Ominously, they soon recognized its potential to fuel the ultimate weapon, one able to release the energy of an uncontrolled chain reaction. With growing fears that the Nazis were on the verge of harnessing nuclear power, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gambled on a project to research and produce uranium for military use. By 1941, experiments led to the identification of plutonium, but laboratory work generated the new element in amounts far too small to be useful. Large-scale manufacture would be required. In 1942, a small plane carrying Lt. Col. Franklin T. Matthias and two DuPont engineers flew over three farming communities in eastern Washington. The passengers agreed. Isolated and near the powerful Columbia River, the region was the ideal site for the world's first plutonium factory. Two years later, built with a speed and secrecy unheard of today, the facility was operational. The plutonium it produced fueled the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, and others tested on the Bikini and Enewetak Atolls, profoundly altering many lives. Through clear scientific explanations and personal reminiscences, the author traces the amazing but also tragic story of the plutonium bomb from the dawn of nuclear science through World War II and Cold War testing in the Marshall Islands.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: label: Introduction
title: ix; label: Timeline
title: xiii; label: Part One: The Arrival
title: 1; label: 1. Secrecy
title: 3; label: 2. The Neutron: A New Tool
title: 19; label: 3. Minds that Shaped History
title: 27; label: Part Two: The Science
title: 39; label: 4. Developing Fission
title: 41; label: 5. Element 94
title: 51; label: 6. Chain Reaction
title: 71; label: 7. Continuing Secrecy
title: 83; label: Part Three: The Engineering
title: 95; label: 8. B Reactor
title: 97; label: 9 Consequences of Nuclear Reactions
title: 107; label: 10. The Bomb
title: 125; label: Part Four: The Aftermath
title: 137; label: 11. From Japan to Bikini and Enewetak
title: 139; label: 12. Lasting Effects
title: 159; label: Epilogue: After the Bomb
title: 173; label: Appendix: Concerned Scientists: The Franck Report
title: 177; label: Bibliography
title: 183; label: Index
title: 185