New mexico atomic bomb12/8/2023 The second is the computer that allowed B-29 bombers such as the Enola Gay and the Bockscar to defend themselves. The first is a large metal barrel, recovered from the bottom of a lake in Norway, where it ended up after Norwegian resistance saboteurs sank the boat transporting Deuterium (heavy water) to Germany for the Nazi effort to develop nuclear reactors. Two rare artifacts are exhibited on either side of a Periodic Table of the Elements and a chalkboard (among the most important tools used in the development of the atomic bomb). In mid-November 1942 Oppenheimer and General Groves toured the area, and the decision was made.Ī map shows the 22 major sites of Manhattan Project work, and there are short profiles of project scientists and administrators. He felt that the Sangre de Cristo mountains were remote enough, and that they could build a secret town there where scientists and their families could live, and where the beautiful surroundings would inspire their work. Oppenheimer had a ranch in Albuquerque, and suggested they consider a site in New Mexico. Facilities at Clinton Engineering Works (now known as Oak Ridge) in Tennessee were already being developed, and working to produce fissionable uranium isotope, but for security purposes Project Y was planned to be in a remote location. General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project chose Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist, to lead Project Y, which is today better known as Los Alamos.Įvents in the development of the Manhattan Project and Project Y had already taken a decisive turn the previous November. Project Y was the designation for the top-secret design and production of the atomic bombs for the Manhattan Project. In the paperwork it was referred to as Project Y, and administered by the University of California. On April 1, 1943, in a mundane task of paperwork approval that was kept secret, the United States established a research laboratory in the mountains of New Mexico. Top image: General Groves and Robert Oppenheimer looking at maps of Japan in the weeks before the deployment of the atomic bombs (from the archives of the Department of Energy)
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