The Manhattan Project

Question 1

The Manhattan Project

Answer 1

launched in 1942, USA’s nuclear bomb project headed by Major Leslie Groves and Robert Oppenheimer

Question 2

Quebec Agreement

Answer 2

Aug 1943: Roosevelt and Churchill signed this agreement as the basis of cooperation between USA and UK to work on the Project during WWII, clause stated that neither was allowed to convey info to a third-party despite the alliance between USA, UK, and USSR (USA and UK aimed to prevent USSR from being involved)

Question 3

Major Leslie Groves

Answer 3

military official who oversaw scientific developments, security, planning fo experiments

Question 4

Dr. Robert Oppenheimer

Answer 4

director of the Project, recruited many refugee scientists including Fermi, job was to ensure that the USA created the atomic bomb

Question 5

Main Sites

Answer 5

Los Alamos, New Mexico (main weapons lab, design and construction); Oak Ridge, Tennessee (main refinery, separated uranium into isotopes); Hanford, Washington (main reactor site, separate plutonium from uranium)

Question 6

Environmental Effects

Answer 6

in Hanford, radioactive waste was buried into storage tanks which started to leak into the soil and river, contaminated the air, foodstuffs, and ecosystems, radiation-related illnesses

Question 7

James Franco

Answer 7

worked at Los Alamos, reported that the bomb shouldn’t be used as a weapon and only as a demonstration; scientific community headed by Oppenheimer didn’t want to take responsibility over decision to weaponize the bomb

Question 8

Trinity Test

Answer 8

July 16, 1945: first successful nuclear test, conducted by USA at Alamogordo, NM, plutonium bomb, mushroom cloud, crater that eliminated all vegetation and destroyed surrounding buildings, released debris into atmosphere, ultimately ensured NW’s usage against Japan