The Manhattan Project developed the first nuclear bomb, successfully tested on July 16, 1945. It employed 130,000 people and cost $1.9 billion. The project was initiated by a letter from Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, fearing the Nazis would develop the bomb. The project’s success had huge implications for World War II and the specter of nuclear war. The project employed many Jewish emigres who had escaped Hitler, and the two atomic bombs used in the war were made with plutonium and uranium-235.
The Manhattan Project was the government project that ran from 1942 to 1946, the purpose of which was to develop a nuclear bomb. It succeeded on July 16, 1945 at the Trinity Test in New Mexico and went on to produce the two atomic bombs that destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Controlled by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, under the leadership of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project is considered one of the most successful accident science/engineering projects of all time. Its success had huge implications for the Pacific Theater of World War II and the specter of nuclear war that has hung ever since. The project grew to employ 130,000 people working at undisclosed locations and cost $1.9 billion US dollars (in 1946 figures, this is about $23.5 billion in 2012 dollars).
The Manhattan Project began with a letter written by Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who argued that the Nazis could develop nuclear bombs that they could use to win the war. Szilárd had discovered in 1933 that a nuclear chain reaction could be self-sustaining and had kept the result a secret for as long as possible, fearing that fascist governments would exploit the technology to make nuclear bombs.
In March 1941, scientists determined that a nuclear bomb could be created with only 25 pounds (11.3 kg) of uranium-235, far less than physicists predicted, and that a bomb could be created within a reasonable amount of time to use during the war . A US government program was launched, and a large facility was built at Los Alamos, New Mexico in the spring of 1942. The best nuclear physicists of the country at the time gathered in this place, chosen for its remoteness. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Wash., were selected as prime sites for uranium isotope separation, made easier by the abundant availability of cheap hydroelectric power.
Many of the top scientists who contributed to the Manhattan Project were Jewish emigres who had come from Europe to escape Hitler. For example, Franz Simon and Nicholas Kurti found a way to separate uranium-235 from uranium ore, which was required for the project to be completed. One of the two atomic bombs used in the war was actually made with plutonium, which was considered a very exotic element at the time. After the successful nuclear test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, it was only a matter of time before the government decided to use the weapon in warfare.
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