The Atomic Bomb

On August 9, 1945, the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan, this time it was Nagasaki, which brought World War II to an end. The development of the atomic bomb started six years earlier when Nazi Germany started to purify uranium-235 in hopes of making an weapon. After the U.S. entered the war, the Manhattan Project was established under the leadership of Col. James Marshall to develop the weapon before Germany. In September 1942 General Leslie R. Groves was charged with constructing an industrial-size plant for manufacturing plutonium and uranium. Hanford, Washington was picked for the location, because it was far away from uranium production facility in Oak Ridge, TN that already existed. The Hanford sit encompassed an area of 586 square miles, which is equal to a third of Rhode Island. Hanford is the home of the B Reactor, which was the first large-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Here the atomic bombs that would be dropped on Japan were constructed and perfected. Hanford has since been decommissioned as a nuclear weapon site, but what it once was still has a lasting

affects. The Hanford site is uninhabitable due to radiation. Today, Hanford is the leading employer of the small Eastern Washington towns around it.

RG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Med/Med.html

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/nwp/hanford.htm

http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/atomic_bomb.htm