Book ID: CBB001211601

Made in Hanford: The Bomb That Changed the World (2011)

unapi

Williams, Hill (Author)


Washington State University Press


Publication Date: 2011
Physical Details: xvi + 190 pp.; ill.; maps
Language: English

On the eve of World War II, news of an astonishing breakthrough filtered out of Germany. Scientists there had split uranium atoms. Physicists in the United States scrambled to verify results and further investigate this new science. Ominously, they soon recognized its potential to fuel the ultimate weapon, one able to release the energy of an uncontrolled chain reaction. With growing fears that the Nazis were on the verge of harnessing nuclear power, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gambled on a project to research and produce uranium for military use. By 1941, experiments led to the identification of plutonium, but laboratory work generated the new element in amounts far too small to be useful. Large-scale manufacture would be required. In 1942, a small plane carrying Lt. Col. Franklin T. Matthias and two DuPont engineers flew over three farming communities in eastern Washington. The passengers agreed. Isolated and near the powerful Columbia River, the region was the ideal site for the world's first plutonium factory. Two years later, built with a speed and secrecy unheard of today, the facility was operational. The plutonium it produced fueled the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, and others tested on the Bikini and Enewetak Atolls, profoundly altering many lives. Through clear scientific explanations and personal reminiscences, the author traces the amazing but also tragic story of the plutonium bomb from the dawn of nuclear science through World War II and Cold War testing in the Marshall Islands.

...More
Reviewed By

Review Richards, Linda (2011) Review of "Made in Hanford: The Bomb That Changed the World". Oregon Historical Quarterly (p. 520). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001211601/

Similar Citations

Book Steve Olson; (2020)
The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age (/isis/citation/CBB409460611/)

Chapter Angelo Baracca; (2009)
Scienza e guerra: fisica fondamentale, ricerca e realizzazione di nuove armi nucleari (/isis/citation/CBB450782713/)

Book Albert Isaac Berger; (2016)
Life and Times of the Atomic Bomb Nuclear Weapons and the Transformation of Warfare (/isis/citation/CBB511796827/)

Article Hoeneveld, Friso; van Dongen, Jeroen; (2013)
Out of a Clear Blue Sky? FOM, The Bomb, and The Boost in Dutch Physics Funding after World War II (/isis/citation/CBB001212893/)

Book Martijn van Calmthout; (2018)
Sam Goudsmit and the Hunt for Hitler's Atom Bomb (/isis/citation/CBB517609321/)

Article Simone Turchetti; (2020)
The (Science Diplomacy) Origins of the Cold War (/isis/citation/CBB037105279/)

Book Spiers, Edward M.; (2010)
A History of Chemical and Biological Weapons (/isis/citation/CBB001033355/)

Article Joye-Cagnard, Frédéric; Strasser, Bruno J.; (2009)
Energie atomique, guerre froide et neutralité: La Suisse et le plan “Atomes pour la Paix”, 1945--1957 (/isis/citation/CBB001022687/)

Book Norris, Robert S.; (2002)
Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project's Indispensable Man (/isis/citation/CBB000330252/)

Book Ball, Philip; (2014)
Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler (/isis/citation/CBB001422033/)

Book Hargittai, Istvan; (2010)
Judging Edward Teller (/isis/citation/CBB001023155/)

Book Elisabetta Bini; Elisabetta Vezzosi; (2020)
Scienziati e guerra fredda: Tra collaborazione e diritti umani (/isis/citation/CBB957549150/)

Article Aylen, Jonathan; (2015)
First Waltz: Development and Deployment of Blue Danube, Britain's Post-War Atomic Bomb (/isis/citation/CBB001550620/)

Article Dvorak, Darrell F.; (2013)
The First Atomic Bomb Mission Trinity B-29 Operations Three Weeks before Hiroshima (/isis/citation/CBB001213774/)

Article Thompson, Nicholas; (2011)
Nuclear War and Nuclear Fear in the 1970s and 1980s (/isis/citation/CBB001231373/)

Authors & Contributors
Bini, Elisabetta
Vezzosi, Elisabetta
Michiel Horn
Albert Isaac Berger
Konta, Carla
Ichikawa, Hiroshi
Concepts
Science and war; science and the military
Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons
Cold War
World War II
Atomic bomb
Technology and war; technology and the military
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
19th century
Places
United States
Soviet Union
Netherlands
Switzerland
Japan
Germany
Institutions
Hanford Nuclear Site (Washington)
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik, Berlin
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment