10 Interesting the Manhattan Project Facts

The Manhattan Project Facts talk about the development and research conducted during the Second World War to generate the first nuclear weapons in the world. United Kingdom and Canada supported United States as the leader of this project. Major General Leslie Groves was from the Army Corps of Engineers of United States who directed the project from 1942 until 1946. Find out other interesting facts about the Manhattan Project by reading the following post below:

The Manhattan Project Facts 1: who designed the actual bombs?

Do you know the designer of the actual bomb? He was J. Robert Oppenheimer. This physicist was the director of Los Alamos Laboratory.

The Manhattan Project Facts 2: the codename

The codename of the project was Manhattan due to the designated army component of Manhattan District.

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The Manhattan Project Facts 3: the beginning of Manhattan Project

In 1939, Manhattan Project was started. Since the project was expanded, it took the cost for almost US$2 billion. Moreover, the project employs at least 130,000 people.

The Manhattan Project Facts 4: the main cost for the project

The production of fissile materials as well as the construction of factories took around 90 percent of the total cost of this project. The remaining 10 percent of the cost was used for weapon development and production.

The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project Facts 5: the location of production and research

There are 30 sites used for the production and research of Manhattan Project. They were found in Canada, UK, and US.

The Manhattan Project Facts 6: the atomic bombs

During the World War 2, there were two kinds of atomic bombs developed. One was a complicated plutonium implosion weapon. Another one was a single gun type fission uranium weapon.

The Manhattan Project Facts

The Manhattan Project Facts 7: the application of uranium

Uranium-235 was applied in the development of the simple gun-type weapon. This isotope was rare to find for it only makes up 0.7 percent of the natural uranium. Check facts about Korean War here.

The Manhattan Project Facts 8: how to enrich the uranium

There were three different ways employed to enrich the amount of uranium. They were thermal, gaseous and electromagnetic.

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The Manhattan Project Facts 9: the primary location of the work

The primary location for uranium production was conducted at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. There was also an attempt for producing plutonium while they were working on the uranium production.  Get facts about the Bombing Hiroshima here.

The Manhattan Project Facts 10: the implosion-type weapon

The implosion-type weapon was developed because of the plutonium was not practical to employ on the gun-type weapon design.

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