Manhattan Project And The A-Bomb Essays - Manhattan Project

Manhattan Project And The A-Bomb Essays - Manhattan Project Manhattan Project and the A-Bomb Just before the beginning of World War II, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Urged by Hungarian-born physicists Leo Szilard, Eugene Wingner, and Edward Teller, Einstein told Roosevelt about Nazi German efforts to purify Uranium-235 which might be used to build an atomic bomb. Shortly after that the United States Government began work on the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was the code name for the United States effort to develop the atomic bomb before the Germans did. "The first successful experiments in splitting a uranium atom had been carried out in the autumn of 1938 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin"(Groueff 9) just after Einstein wrote his letter. So the race was on. Major General Wilhelm D. Styer called the Manhattan Project "the most important job in the war . . . an all-out effort to build an atomic bomb."(Groueff 5) It turned out to be the biggest development in warfare and science's biggest development this century. The most complicated issue to be addressed by the scientists working on the Manhattan Project was "the production of ample amounts of 'enriched' uranium to sustain a chain reaction."(Outlaw 2) At the time, Uranium-235 was hard to extract. Of the Uranium ore mined, only about 1/500 th of it ended up as Uranium metal. Of the Uranium metal, "the fissionable isotope of Uranium (Uranium- 235) is relatively rare, occurring in Uranium at a ratio of 1 to 139."(Szasz 15) Separating the one part Uranium-235 from the 139 parts Uranium-238 proved to be a challenge. "No ordinary chemical extraction could separate the two isotopes. Only mechanical methods could effectively separate U-235 from U-238."(2) Scientists at Columbia University solved this difficult problem. A "massive enrichment laboratory/plant"(Outlaw 2) was built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. H. C. Urey, his associates, and colleagues at Columbia University designed a system that "worked on the principle of gaseous diffusion."(2) After this process was completed, "Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the Cyclotron) at the University of California in Berkeley implemented a process involving magnetic separation of the two isotopes."(2) Finally, a gas centrifuge was used to further separate the Uranium-235 from the Uranium-238. The Uranium-238 is forced to the bottom because it had more mass than the Uranium-235. "In this manner uranium-235 was enriched from its normal 0.7% to weapons grade of more than 90%."(Grolier 5) This Uranium was then transported to "the Los Alamos, N. Mex., laboratory headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer."(Grolier 5) "Oppenheimer was the major force behind the Manhattan Project. He literally ran the show and saw to it that all of the great minds working on this project made their brainstorms work. He oversaw the entire project from its conception to its completion."(Outlaw 3) Once the purified Uranium reached New Mexico, it was made into the components of a gun-type atomic weapon. "Two pieces of U-235, individually not large enough to sustain a chain reaction, were brought together rapidly in a gun barrel to form a supercritical mass that exploded ineztaneously."(Grolier 5) "It was originally nicknamed 'Thin Man'(after Roosevelt, but later renamed 'Little Boy' (for nobody) when technical changes shortened the proposed gun barrel."(Szasz 25) The scientists were so confident that the gun-type atomic bomb would work "no test was conducted, and it was first employed in military action over Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945."(Grolier 5) Before the Uranium-235 "Little Boy" bomb had been developed to the "point of seeming assured of success,"(Grolier 5) another bomb was proposed. The Uranium-238 that had been earlier ruled out as an option was being looked at. It could capture a free neutron without fissioning and become Uranium-239. "But the Uranium-239 thus produced is unstable (radioactive) and decays first to neptunium-239 and then to plutonium-239."(Grolier 5) This proved to be useful because the newly created plutonium-239 is fissionable and it can "be separated from uranium by chemical techniques,"(6) which would be far simpler than the physical processes to separate the Uranium-235 from the Uranium-238. Once again the University of Chicago, under Enrico Fermi's direction built the first reactor. "This led to the construction of five large reactors at Hanford, Wash., where U-238 was irradiated with neutrons and transmuted into plutonium."(6)

Alcohol and Nutrition essays

Alcohol and Nutrition essays Have you ever wondered how alchol effects your health? Well today is your lucky day. I will talk about the various ways that alcohol effects your health. Alcohol is a term applied to members of a group of chemical compounds and, in popular usuage to the specific compound ethyl alcohol, or ethanol (Alcohol). There are 10g of alcohol in an alcoholic drink. Alcoholic is not a toxin or nutrient, even though it does contribute energy to the body (Sizer, and Whitney 334). The brain responds different, when alcohol reaches different levels in the brain. When the alcohol reaches in 0.05 our judgement is impaired. Our emotional control is impaired when the alcohol reaches 0.10 in our brain. Our muscle control is impaired once the alcohol reaches 0.15. Our vision is impaired, once the alcohol levels reaches 0.20. We are in a stupor once our brains alcohol level reaches 0.35. When our alcohol level reaches 0.50 through 0.60 we will loss conscious and sometimes we will stay in coma, and never wake up (Sizer, and Whitney 172). There are many myths that are associated with alcohol. First, many people think that a shoot warms you up, when really the alcohol diverts blood flow to the skin making you feel warmer, but it is actually cooling the body. Second, wine and beer are mild so they do not lead to addiction, most people believe, but wine and beer drinkers would have high rates of death from alcohol related illnesses, and it is not what you drink but how much that makes the difference. Third, People think that mixing drinks is what gives you a hang over, but it is too much alcohol in any form that gives you a hangover. Fourth, people believe that alcohol is a stimulant, when really it is a depressant, and depresses the brain activity. Fifth, people believe that since alcohol is legally that it is not a drug, but it is a drug because it alters the body functions and is medically defined as a depressant drug (Sizer, and Whitne...

High-speed Train Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

High-speed Train - Essay Example According to Secretary Ray LaHood, "8 billion dollars has been set aside for high speed rail. What jump starts our opportunity in America is the President's initiative that Congress passed to put $8 billion in the economic recovery" (Secretary Ray LaHood, D.O.T) I believe that the construction and usage of high speed train transportation between these 2 metropolitan areas would effectively reduce pollution and congestion, as it will take many cars off the roads. It is estimated that about 170,000 vehicles travel the I-15 into Las Vegas. Woody Woodrow, who is a resident of Las Vegas and a native of Los Angeles, stated that "if the price was right and the timing was right and it took less than a flight to get here, I would absolutely take it. I think it's a great idea" (Woodward Woody, Las Vegas resident) High speed rail can be said to be a proven technology, as decades of experience on the use of high speed rail in other parts of the world have shown. Thus, high speed rail provides a comfortable and convenient way for Americans to travel from one city to another. These 2 cities should endeavor to avail themselves of this technology in a comprehensive manner, as there has been heavy investment in this mode of mass transit. The population of both cities is expected to continue to rise significantly over the next few decades and although an inability to travel quickly by high speed rail between Los Angeles and Las Vegas might not currently look like a major deficiency, it probably would appear to be so in the next few decades. According to Wilton Woods (1989) "future intercity future intercity passenger mobility will be dependent on fully utilizing all of the available options. However, much of the criticism of high speed rail is based on concerns about its cost-effectiveness in the ne ar to medium term. This is of particular concern since HSR is likely to rely more heavily than other modes (automobile, air, and intercity bus) on general tax revenues as opposed to user fees/taxes, although the user fees/taxes that support those other modes may not cover their so-called externality costs i.e. costs that those modes impose on other people, such as environmental pollution and deaths and injuries due to crashes" (Wilton Woods 1989) Critics of high speed rail travel say that it is not very cost effective, but numerous benefits have been cited in support of the development of high speed rail, including the reduction of pollution and energy usage in the transportation sector, the potential to alleviate airport and highway congestion, improving transportation safety, promoting economic development, the provision of more options for travelers, and increasing the reliability of transport by increasing redundancy in the transportation system. Alleviation of congestion in airports and highways High speed rail has the capability of relieving air traffic and highway congestion in heavily traveled corridors. The use of high speed rail