Nuclear Power And The Atomic Bomb

The beginnings of the Nuclear Age started when Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt warning him of a dangerous weapon the Nazis had begun researching, known as the atomic bomb. (1) Though, when President Roosevelt first read this letter, he was too preoccupied with events in Europe to be bothered with such ideas. He at the time did not take the creation of such weapon to seriously, nor did he believe America had the resources for such a task. (2) Finally, on October 19, 1939 President Roosevelt wrote back to Einstein stating that the United States had begun to research the power of uranium. (2) With the help of the British, whom reluctantly gave the United States leadership on this project, in June of 1942 the Manhattan Project had begun, though most of the world had no idea that this was even happening, not even Vice President Truman. (2)

April 19, 1995, 9:02 a.m: a bomb was set off beneath the Alfred P. Murrah Building. The bomb damaged the structural support beams and the Northern support columns. Half of the building collapsed. 168 people died (Cook 5). Eric McKisick, a district manager, recalls the incident, ¨I made an assumption that, hey, everybody is out, everybody is good, and I left at that point. It wasn't ´till much later that I saw the devastation and understood they didn't respond because they couldn't.” Not only were there a large number of casualties, 300 people were also injured, some of whom were physically impaired for the rest of their life. A child who was in the building at the time of the explosion states, “I have no recollection of that day, but I’m reminded everyday about it because of my breathing problems (Brandes, Heide, Schapiro).”

The Federal Civil Defense Administration created by President Harry Truman launched an aggressive campaign educating the American public especially those in the suburbs on how to survive, the government believed that cities would be the primary targets and people leaving near needed to know how to survive. According to an article titled “U.S. H-Bomb Test Put Lethal Zone at 7,000 Sq Miles” by William M. Blair published in the New York Times on February 16th 1955, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Lewis L. Strauss said “Since nuclear weapons are in possession of the U.S.S.R. the commission believes that the American people wish to be informed regarding the dangers of nuclear explosions and the measures which individuals can take to protect themselves if an atomic attack should occur***.”.

It’s been 15 years since that day, but the moment still haunts me today. When we found out that a nuclear bomb was going to drop, my family and the rest of the street had no idea what to do. Everything was all over the place, seconds after the explosion happened. Houses were destroyed, cars were flipped and ravaged, and thousands of dead bodies were lying on the streets. Some of them were even our dearest friends.

The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II. The Manhattan project was the invention of the first two nuclear bombs, Fat man and little boy. These two bombs were dropped on Japanese islands to end World War II.

Much has been written about this “American nuclear tragedy.” Public health was secondary to national security. The Atomic

The city of St. Louis has a slightly known nuclear past as an uranium task center in regard to the Atomic bomb; based upon a release of catastrophic power. Government oversight had led to the discard of Manhattan Project radioactive matter (uranium, radium), thus polluting North St. Louis suburbs, particularly in two communities; those settled along Coldwater Creek and those in Bridgeton, Missouri beside the Lake Bridgeton landfill. In 1942, the U.S Government chose St. Louis as a operating center of uranium for initially atomic bombs. Within 25 years, the radioactive waste was transported to sites throughout suburbs of St. Louis. The waste was later disposed to a nearby landfill in North St. Louis County.

"Early in 1939, the world's scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting a uranium atom. Fears soon spread over the possibility of Nazi scientists utilizing that energy to produce a bomb capable of unspeakable destruction." (UShistory.org). This discovery pushed our nuclear programs into high gear and pushed us into the nuclear age. Many scientists were needed to make this project happen so the U.S. used Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi. Other brilliant minds

Atomic bomb and nuclear war have been in the minds of the American citizens, ever since the Cold War with Russia began. For several occasions, the world was brought to the brink of a total nuclear annihilation. In response to the fear of destruction, popular culture had altered the portrayal of the Atomic Bomb throughout the 2 most prominent periods when the opinions are the most contradicted: 1950s and by the end of 1950s, leading up to the 1960s, with the youth being the most affected.

In the early morning hours of July 16, 1945, the first ever nuclear explosion took place in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The explosion was the first test of the most destructive weapon ever known to man and was the result of almost six years of research and development by some of the world’s top scientists. This endeavor was known as the Manhattan Project. Less than a month after the test, which was known as Trinity, the United States dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan, three days apart, which forced the Japanese to surrender. The story of the Manhattan Project is an abysmal subject, as is the effect of the Manhattan Project on international politics, and both will be covered in this paper. Indeed, the Manhattan Project and the creation of the atomic bomb were good things, because it actually decreased the likelihood of nuclear war in the post- World War II era.

During World War 2, the United States was neutral until, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The United States then went to war against Japan with a pacific campaign. Over a span of 4 years, the United States tested and developed new weapons to fight the Japanese. Everyone wanted the war to end, so the United States decided to use an atomic bomb on 2 Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Americans hoped that the dropping of the bombs would make Japan surrender, and they did.

Oak Ridge and Los Alamos were two of the main research sites. [2]On September 29, 1942, the U.S. Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson, sent the Engineer Corps to buy the land that had been thoroughly inspected days before in East Tennessee. [6]Around 1,000 families were affected. [3]Unfortunately, some of the families had to be forced off the property that had been in their families’ for years. [5]Although Protests, legal appeals, and even a congressional inquiry were sent in to the government, they were all turned down. The K-25, S-50, and the Y-12 plants were a few of the facilities built at Oak Ridge, which were used to separate fissile isotopes of uranium-235 from uranium-238. The X-10 site, now the location of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was established for the production of plutonium using the Graphite Reactor. After considering Oak Ridge for project Y, it was decided to find a new place to do the project. They began looking around Albuquerque New Mexico. They finally found a suitable site near Los Alamos Ranch School. There was little concern if the water supply would be enough and that there were poor access roads but the site was still found to be suitable. [4]Being kept a secret, Los Alamos was referred as “Site Y” or “The Hill”. Most of the workers at these plants didn’t find out what they had been working on until the bombings hit the

They were putting things there as an evacuation site because it is 2 miles from town, then the bomb blew up.

Atomic weapons can create a threat to the workers who try to rebuild the city. One example is. “Most of the particles decay rapidly. Even so, beyond the blast radius of the exploding weapons there would be areas (hot spots) the survivors could not enter because of radioactive contamination from long-lived radioactive isotopes like strontium 90 or cesium 137. For the survivors of a nuclear war, this lingering radiation hazard could represent a grave threat for as long as 1 to 5 years after the attack.” (1). Because the radioactive particles can stay there for long periods of time the workers can get radiation poisoning or cancer when trying to

Over time questions arise about how our existence will survive our energy supply is depleted or our currents sources of energy is adding waste into the atmosphere which leads to global warming.Nuclear power plants may be the key as large amounts of energy can be produced and no waste produced enters the atmosphere. In this report i will discuss how fission reactions work in power plants and why fission is more effective