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.