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  • Essay / The Second World War: the atomic bomb

    60 million dead, men, women and children. The Second World War was quite simply the bloodiest war the world has ever known. No previous war has been so profound in its technological advancements to the point where it is still relevant today. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Many inventions have been made, including rockets, the jet engine, radar, and even the first computer, but one invention that triumphed them all was the first atomic invention. bomb. This superweapon of today can destroy the world as we know it and send us into the next ice age. Thus, the development and use of the first atomic bombs brought about a change in military, political, and public functions that we can still see in our world today. During World War II, the United States government initiated a $2 billion project. This project, known as the Manhattan Project (1939-1946), aimed to produce an atomic bomb. This project was only possible because with the fission breakthrough in 1939, scientists realized that nuclear and radioactive materials could be used to make bombs of epic proportions. The idea of ​​building such a weapon originated with Albert Einstein, sharing his idea with the president "In the fall of 1939, Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning him of the great potential for its use peaceful atomic energy. He also warned of the devastating consequences if Hitler's scientists managed to build an atomic bomb before the Americans. Roosevelt immediately understood Einstein's warning. “What you’re looking for is to make sure the Nazis don’t blow us up.” Roosevelt responded. “This requires action.” (Relin, 1992) Roosevelt quickly instructed his top security advisers to form committees on this project and determine what should be done and how. By 1944, work on the Manhattan Project was in full swing. The process consisted of achieving the actual development of the weapons, the construction of the fissile material and the transportation of the weapon. In July 1944, the Manhattan Project became the priority project in the United States. The project cost $2 billion to obtain the materials and equipment needed to make the Manhattan Project a success. The Manhattan Project had numerous laboratories across the United States, but three of the main ones were located in Hanford, Washington, Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Each of them was given different responsibilities throughout the Manhattan Project. Oak Ridge Laboratories were to supply the element uranium 235, while Hanford scientists supplied the United States with plutonium used in weapons manufacturing. The Los Alamos Laboratory was the critical site used to gather nuclear weapons used during the war. . Four of the atomic bombs produced by the United States were produced at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Uranium 235 is the main component in making an atomic bomb. Chemically, uranium 235 cannot be separated from its more abundant cohort, uranium 238. The only way these two elements can be separated from each other is physically. The Manhattan Project looked for many different ways to split the two elements, choosing two of the processes. One way to split the two elements is to use the electromagnetic process. The other process is the diffusion process which has been implementedavailable at Columbia University. Both processes mentioned require huge and difficult facilities and buildings, and both processes require extreme use of electricity to be able to achieve them. The diffusion method particularly required large amounts of electricity to succeed. “During the Manhattan Project of World War II, more than 14,000 tons of silver borrowed from the U.S. Treasury were used to create magnetic coils used in the separation of uranium-235” (History of Science and Science ).technology, 2012). Another essential element in the atomic bomb manufacturing process is plutonium-239. The method for obtaining this element was developed by Arthur Compton in a laboratory at the University of Chicago. The procedure involves modification in a uranium-238 reactor cluster. In December 1942, Enrico Fermi finally succeeded in performing and managing a fission chain reaction in this reactor stack in Chicago. Valuable production of plutonium-293 required a large building and energy capable of discharging 25,000 kilowatt hours of heat for each gram of plutonium manufactured. This included creating chemical removal methods that would work in ways never before possible. An intermediate step in carrying out this process relied solely on production at the Oak Ridge Laboratory, while the larger reactors were built at the Washington Laboratory at Hanford Engineering Works. In the summer of 1945, the Manhattan Project finally received enough plutonium-239 to produce a nuclear-grade explosion from Hanford Engineering. Advancement in the development of weapons and innovation in the creation of the weapon, as well as obtaining the necessary elements for the nuclear bomb were completed sufficiently for a nuclear weapon test to be planned. . The test was not simple to carry out, it required complex and highly structured equipment that had to be constructed and an area where no one could be harmed hundreds of kilometers away. In 1945, the Manhattan Project achieved its goal of producing an atomic bomb. After six years, scientists working on the Manhattan Project were able to master and control the nuclear fission reaction. Thanks to the efforts of many people over the years, the first experimental nuclear bomb was produced. Codenamed Trinity, the first nuclear bomb test took place on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico, ushering in what is now known as the Atomic Age. After the successful testing of the bomb, nearly seventy scientists signed a petition requesting that the bombs not be used on moral and ethical grounds. Scientists did not morally believe that nuclear weapons should ever be used. However, President Harry S. Truman ignored the scientists' warnings and petitions and decided to use the bombs on Japan in order to send them the message that the United States possessed these weapons and was prepared to use them. On August 6, 1945, near the end of World War II, the United States dropped the first nuclear bomb ever used in war. The United States used a B-29 bomber to drop an atomic bomb called “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima. “The bomb exploded with the energy equivalent of approximately 13 kilotons of TNT. The total number of deaths was estimated at 192,020, including those who later died due to the after-effects of the explosion” (Askew, 2017). When Japan's surrender never happened, just three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, a 21-kiloton plutonium bomb known as.