The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs

The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs — page 7 — been shipped to the site The finished tower was 100 feet 30 5 m tall with an oak platform on top A small three sided corrugated iron shack sat at the top to house the bomb A heavy duty electric winch a lifting device could pull the bomb up and through the removable floor of the shack More than 500 miles 800 km of wires radiated from the bomb to instruments inside designated bunkers Some wires CONSTRUCTION WORKERS hung from T shaped wooden poles that The men who worked on the Trinity site labored around the clock to get the job done The were 6 feet 1 8 m tall while others ran daytime desert temperatures reached more than through garden hoses buried underground 100 degrees Fahrenheit 38°C Every morning the men made sure to shake their boots out BUILDING THE GADGET in case a scorpion centipede rattlesnake or At the Los Alamos laboratory tension was fire ant was inside They could take only cold showers in the gypsum tainted well water The building Harry S Truman who became chalky water made their hair stiff If they drank US president when Franklin Roosevelt the water it made them sick died on April 12 1945 was scheduled to attend the Potsdam Conference It was being held outside Berlin Germany from July 15 to August 2 1945 World leaders gathered to negotiate terms for the end of the war Truman wanted the Trinity test to happen during that conference so that he could inform British prime minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin Oppenheimer felt the pressure more than anyone He and his team were building the gadget as fast as possible But a new crisis came up every day with the complex device His team worked through many nights to complete the

The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs — page 8 — project The team worked on two bombs one was uranium based and the other was plutonium based Both used fission to create the nuclear explosion Inside the uranium gadget a gun firing mechanism would shoot one piece of U 235 uranium at another piece But U 235 is a very rare element in nature It took almost one year for scientists to separate the atoms of U 235 from the more common U 238 atoms to make one bomb The other type of gadget used man made radioactive plutonium as its fuel But a gun firing mechanism wouldn't work to start the plutonium reaction After months of experimentation the Los Alamos scientists decided to use implosion to fire the plutonium bomb A orange sized ball or core of plutonium had explosives surrounding it When the explosives went off they would blast the plutonium together creating a chain reaction that could cause an atomic explosion The scientists had plenty of plutonium for a test bomb SETTING UP THE BOMB On July 12 the plutonium core was removed from the Los Alamos vault At approximately 6 00 p m the core arrived at the Trinity test site ranch house for the night The giant implosion explosive casting or shell consisting of the melted and cooled explosive material in its container left Los Alamos on July 13 at 12 01 a m for an eight hour trip to the test site A room inside the ranch house was converted into a clean room It was thoroughly vacuumed and the windows were sealed with black electrical tape Early in the morning on July 13 the assembly team gathered around the bomb components spread out on a table They put together the plutonium core and packaged it for its trip to Ground

The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs — page 9 — PLUTONIUM CORE EXPLOSIVES Plutonium implosion bomb The truck carrying the five foot 1 5 m wide explosive shell backed under the tower at Ground Zero The five short ton 4 5 metric ton bomb was slowly lifted up the tower by the winch US Army staff piled cotton mattresses under the bomb to cushion it if it slipped from the winch The tower's trapdoor opened and the bomb was swung into position WATCHING THE TEST General Groves and other dignitaries flew into Albuquerque New Mexico on July 14 Almost a day later the officials filled the bunkers and shallow trenches

The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs — page 10 — at the base camp waiting for the test Three busloads of close to 90 scientists from Los Alamos arrived at the viewing site at Compania Hill 20 miles 32 km northwest of Ground Zero Many were nervous the gadget might not work Among the observers was one reporter William Laurence from the New York Times He was under strict orders from General Groves not to publish anything until given the okay to do so Laurence wondered how he would report on anything happening so far away A nearby scientist said Don't worry you'll see all you need to A BUBBLE PROBLEM The scientists could plan and control everything except the weather The test George Kistiakowsky was the scientist in charge of making the gadget's explosives which meteorologist Jack Hubbard predicted a surrounded the plutonium core The shells were tropical air mass would hover over the area X rayed on July 2 When the X ray films were from July 10 to July 16 The cameramen held up to the light they were dotted with black on the ground and in the air needed clear spots These were air bubbles Those air holes could affect the timing and the reaction of visibility The rain could also pour down the explosion But there was no time to recast dangerous radioactive fallout after the the molds explosion General Groves did not want On July 9 a week before the Trinity test delays so the test was set for 2 00 a m Kistiakowsky borrowed a dental drill All night on July 16 But around 2 00 a m as he drilled holes to reach the air bubbles He predicted thunderstorms pounded Ground then filled the cavities with molten explosives He took on this dangerous job himself to avoid Zero They needed to push the test back endangering his staff Kistiakowsky said I mean if fifty pounds 23 kgl of explosives goes off in your lap you won t know it 5

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