Why American Nuclear Research Flourished During World War II

Why American Nuclear Research Flourished During World War II

Author Sophie Roy, She/Her Brookline High School, Class of 2021 Brookline, MA

Mentor Oyeshiku Carr World History Teacher Brookline High School

Editor Naomi Weisner, She/Her Brookline High School, Class of 2021 Brookline, MA

Reviewer Zagreb Mukerjee Research Fellow under Gary King Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science

Despite the years of taxing and confidential research that went into the developing the

atomic bomb, the US has only ever used nuclear weapons twice in history—both times taking

place during World War II (“WWII”) over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on

August 6 and 9, 1945.12 Although no nuclear weapons have been used since, many countries

today continue to invest immense resources into further developing and stockpiling nuclear

weapons. At the start of WWII, US scientists and military officials were not adamant about

dropping a bomb of such magnitude, especially since it had never been done before and it was

quite costly and time-consuming.13 Instead, they believed that Germany was well-ahead of them

in developing a similar weapon after the results of Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner’s experiment

were released.14 The fear of enemy possession of an atomic bomb in WWII galvanized scientists

around the world and accelerated American scientific research into developing nuclear

weaponry, resulting in the US to become the first nation to drop an atomic bomb. The discovery

of nuclear fission, one year before the outbreak of WWII, could not have come at a more

opportune time in the world of physics. On December 16, 1938, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner

conducted a humble experiment in Berlin, Germany where they laced pieces of uranium beside

another radioactive element.15 What happened after was thought to have been impossible in the

scientific community: the neutrons emitted from the radioactive elements bombarded uranium

atoms, causing these atoms to “split in two”.16 A single atom splitting might seem rather

small-scale, yet it was an incredible discovery for scientists at the time. Shocked by their

experiment results, Hahn and Meitner wrote a letter to the well-respected Danish physicist Neils

12 History.com Editors. “Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, November 18, 2009. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki.(Accessed... 13 “Science Behind the Atom Bomb.” Atomic Heritage Foundation, June 5, 2014. https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/science-behind-atom-bomb. (Accessed March 10, 2020). 14 SteveSheinkin,. Bomb: the Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon. New York: Square Fish, 2018. p. 32. 15 Ibid,. p. 17. 16 Ibid,. p. 18.

Bohr who was thrilled to hear that their experiment supported his theory of an atom’s behavior

being similar to that of a “wobbly droplet”.17 Bohr excitedly took the news to a physics

conference in Washington D.C. where the news reached J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American

theoretical physicist and professor at University of Berkeley who today is known as the “father

of the atomic bomb.”18

American scientists quickly recognized the possibility that the United States was already

behind German scientists in nuclear research after the discovery of nuclear fission. Eugene

Wigner and Leo Szilard, two Hungarian-American physicists, estimated that each uranium atom

would release enough energy to make a grain of sand jump when bombarded by a neutron. Yet

there are 100 quintillion uranium atoms in a single ounce, meaning that extremely high amounts

of energy could be released from a twenty to fifty pound lump of uranium.19 Wigner and Szilard

were not the only scientists at the time to recognize the potential role that fission could play in

constructing powerful bombs, but they were the first to believe that Germany had already started

the process of building an atom bomb and that the United States was behind in this regard.20 The

two suspected that Hitler had ordered German scientists to cease publication of their research,

which would only make sense if scientists were working on a bomb in secret.21 Furthermore,

Germany stopped selling uranium from Czechoslovakian mines, causing Wigner and Szilard to

believe that they were stockpiling the radioactive material used in Hahn and Meitner’s

experiment—another indication that Germany was well ahead of the US in collecting material as

well.22

17 Ibid. p. 19. 18 “J. Robert Oppenheimer.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, April 23, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer#cite_note-102. 19 Sheinkin. “Bomb”p. 22. 20 Ibid,. p. 30. 21 Ibid. p. 31. 22 Sheinkin. “Bomb”p. 22.

Wigner and Szilard were the first to draw political attention and a sense of urgency to the

initiation of a national atomic bomb project. Determined to get the message to Franklin D.

Roosevelt, they convinced world-renowned scientist Albert Einstein about the threat of the

Germans constructing an atomic bomb.23 Although Einstein was a pacifist and did not support

war, he agreed that the consequences of Germany building a bomb before the US would be

dire.24 Einstein later said, "Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an

atomic bomb, I would have never lifted a finger.”25 The two drafted a letter with Einstein to

Roosevelt urging the government to obtain as much uranium as possible and speed up

experimental work by employing a team of physicists.26 Einstein concludes the letter by stating,

“I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium from Czechoslovakia mines

which she has taken over. That she should have taken such early action might perhaps be

understood on the ground that the son of the German Under-Secretary of State, von Weizsäcker,

is attached to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut in Berlin where some of the American work on

uranium is now being repeated.”27

Upon receiving Einstein’s warnings Roosevelt took immediate action to gather a group of

individuals who could figure out the basics of how an atomic bomb would function, and how to

construct it. Roosevelt asked Lyman J. Briggs, the director of the National Bureau of Standards,

to organize an Advisory Committee on uranium composed of both civilian and military

representation.28

23 Ibid 24 Ibid. p. 36. 25 “Albert Einstein.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, May 9, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein. 26 Ibid. 27 “Einstein–Szilárd Letter.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, December 27, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein–Szilárd_letter#/media/File:Einstein-Roosevelt-letter.png. 28 Sheinkin. “Bomb”. p. 37-38.

The scientists on the committee completed a lot of innovative work and concluded that

enriched samples of uranium-235 were necessary for further research. Despite their humble

budget of $6000 initially, the uranium Committee was able to perform many useful experiments

which helped determine the best method for isotope separation—they tested a variety of different

methods ranging from using electromagnetic waves, gaseous diffusion, centrifuges, and liquid

thermal diffusion to separate these isotopes which would act as fuel for a bomb.29 All of these

methods were at the initial stage of development and were highly experimental, so none of them

could be applied to the making of an actual atom bomb until scientists in the early stages of the

Manhattan Project obtained enough resources. In their first report issued on November 1, 1939,

they recommended that, despite the uncertainty of success, the government should immediately

obtain four tons of graphite and fifty tons of uranium oxide.30 Furthermore, the uranium

Committee recommended that the government fund research on isotope separation as well as

Enrico Fermi's and Szilard's cutting-edge work on chain reactions, both of which would later

become very important for building the first prototype for the bomb in Los Alamos as part of the

Manhattan Project.31

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor heightened the franticness for the Allied Powers to

halt the threat of a nuclear attack before they focused on the Pacific front of the war. On

December 7, 1941, a Japanese aerial striking force flew over the island of Oahu and launched a

surprise assault on multiple military installations on the naval base on the southern part of the

island.32 Although the Japanese did not use nuclear weaponry, they caused a great deal of

29 “Science Behind the Atom Bomb.” 30 Ibid 31 “History.” Atomic Heritage Foundation. https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/security-and-secrecyhttps://www.atomicheritage.org/history/s-1-committee. (Accessed March 10, 2020). 32 LoProto, Mark, and Name *. "America's Response to Pearl Harbor – An Unexpected First Target." Visit Pearl Harbor. September 25, 2020. Accessed October 13, 2020. https://visitpearlharbor.org/americas-response-pearl-harbor-unexpected-first-target/.

damage to the US naval base. The following day Rosevelt made the decision to declare war on

Japan, and in response Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.33 Roosevelt realized

that the US would be forced to simultaneously fight opposing troops in Europe and the Pacific,

but because Germany had acquired much more territory than Japan in the Atlantic and were far

more militarily advanced, German threat of attack posed as a greater threat to the safety of the

United States.34 Realizing the time crunch that the Allied powers were under, Prime Minister

Winston Churchill worked closely with Roosevelt on a “Germany First” war strategy, hoping to

prevent the United States from having to divide resources between Europe and the Pacific.35 The

two agreed to have their scientists work together and pool information so that they would be able

to construct the bomb faster. The two decided to set up a top-secret project called the Manhattan

Project in which the top scientists from both countries could perform larger-scale experiments in

the US.36

The Manhattan project scientists were finally able to move away from more theoretical

work and work with fission on a physical level, which allowed them to start testing prototypes

for the bomb. Enrico Fermi, an Italian-American physicist working on the Manhattan Project,

constructed an experiment with other scientists to build a self-sustaining nuclear reactor that

could be controlled; which was essential in any sort of developing a successful bomb.37 They

used black blocks of graphite with uranium-filled holes; the graphite being used to slow down

speeding neutrons totalled approximately 1 million dollars worth of materials.38 Not only was

Fermi’s experiment cutting-edge, but it was also quite dangerous. If these fission reactions

happened too fast and were unable to be controlled, the nuclear reactor would likely explode,

33 Ibid. 34 LoProto, Mark, and Name *. "America's Response to Pearl Harbor – An Unexpected First Target." 35 Ibid. 36 Sheinkin,. “Bomb”:. p. 50. 37 The Manhattan Project. https://www.pitt.edu/~sdb14/atombomb.html. (Accessed March 10, 2020). 38 Ibid.

harming all scientists nearby.39 Fermi’s experiment ended very successfully, marking the first

demonstration of a controlled release of atomic power. Shortly after scientists learned to

construct and control a nuclear reaction, they built their first prototype bomb nicknamed

“Gadget” that was detonated 210 miles south of Los Alamos as part of the “Trinity Test”.40 In

under a month, the next two bombs constructed were dropped in Japan.41

The pressure-cooker environment that existed during the race to build the bomb

ultimately brought together scientists, and pushed them to work as efficiently as possible to

protect the Allied Powers from the imminent threat of a German nuclear attack. As a result,

American scientific research when developing nuclear weaponry thrived both during and after

WWII. Following the Allied victory, the United States emerged as one of the two dominant

world superpowers--the other being Russia, and both countries continued to generously fund

additional nuclear research which ultimately led to an intense power struggle between the two

nations.42 The successful explosions of these bombs also marked the start of the Nuclear

Age--the period of time characterized by nuclear energy as a major and global military,

industrial, and sociopolitical factor.43 Today we live in a world that has been redefined by the

introduction of nuclear weapons in WWII, and where military strength is directly related to

nuclear power.

39 Ibid. 40 “Manhattan Project: The Trinity Test”, July 16, 1945. https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945/trinity.htm. (Accessed March 10, 2020). 41 History.com Editors. “Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” 42 Pruitt, Sarah. “The Hiroshima Bombing Didn't Just End WWII-It Kick-Started the Cold War.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, December 19, 2018. https://www.history.com/news/hiroshima-nagasaki-bombing-wwii-cold-war. 43 Ibid.

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