Results of the Manhattan Project


    After the first controlled self sustaining nuclear chain reaction was accomplished in the Chicago Pile-1 site. Success of the experiment was relayed to Washington, DC via phone call in which “The Italian navigator has landed in the new world, the natives are friendly” was the signal that there had been success.

    With the success of the experiments came the uranium bomb, followed by the development of the plutonium bomb and the harnessing of nuclear chain reactions to generate massive quantities of electricity. The uranium bomb that was developed used was a gun-type nuclear bomb. This had a sphere of enriched uranium which a cylindrical plug was shot into at an incredibly high speed bringing the sphere of uranium to critical mass. This method of reaching critical mass was so certain that there was no test carried out before the Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. With the development of the uranium bomb came the discovery and invention of the plutonium bomb. The plutonium bomb reached critical mass through an implosion-style detonation. With this method a sphere of plutonium is surrounded by explosives, which compress the inner sphere of plutonium to critical mass. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki and the famous Trinity test were all conducted using this type of bomb.