Month: July 2018

Criticality, Los Alamos, Manhattan ProjectBy E.Fermi

Los Alamos or Tickling the Dragon’s Tail

Oppenheimer began recruiting for the laboratory with help from James Conant immediately after the site was chosen. There was reluctance of some in working to build powerful bombs and the belief by some that the project was a boondoggle that would have nothing to do with the war. Many declared they would not join the project if they had to be Army officers. Oppenheimer accepted the designation of lieutenant colonel and had ordered his uniforms, but Rabi warned him that others would resist joining him. Conant negotiated a compromise to begin the project under civilian administration and transition to the military later. The transition never happened, and recruits began to travel to Santa Fe to receive the clearances that allowed […]

Plutonium, RadioactivityBy E.Fermi

Quest for Plutonium

Edwin McMillian and Glenn Seaborg had discovered element 93, named neptunium, in 1940 at the University of California, Berkeley and Seaborg continued researching after McMillan was persuaded to leave to do research in radar technology. Seaborg and his collaborators found that neptunium underwent beta decay to form element 94 that, as mentioned previously, Seaborg named plutonium in February 1941. Research on the new element determined that plutonium 239 was fissile, and plutonium’s role in the quest for developing a weapon began. Seaborg began the task of determining how plutonium could be separated from the uranium at the University of Chicago, and the foundation began to be developed for the technology used in the giant chemical separation facilities that would eventually […]