Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Early Research on Fission: 1933–1943
- 3 The Early Materials Program: 1933–1943
- 4 Setting Up Project Y: June 1942 to March 1943
- 5 Research in the First Months of Project Y: April to September 1943
- 6 Creating a Wartime Community: September 1943 to August 1944
- 7 The Gun Weapon: September 1943 to August 1944
- 8 The Implosion Program Accelerates: September 1943 to July 1944
- 9 New Hopes for the Implosion Weapon: September 1943 to July 1944
- 10 The Nuclear Properties of a Fission Weapon: September 1943 to July 1944
- 11 Uranium and Plutonium: Early 1943 to August 1944
- 12 The Discovery of Spontaneous Fission in Plutonium and the Reorganization of Los Alamos
- 13 Building the Uranium Bomb: August 1944 to July 1945
- 14 Exploring the Plutonium Implosion Weapon: August 1944 to February 1945
- 15 Finding the Implosion Design: August 1944 to February 1945
- 16 Building the Implosion Gadget: March 1945 to July 1945
- 17 Critical Assemblies and Nuclear Physics: August 1944 to July 1945
- 18 The Test at Trinity: January 1944 to July 1945
- 19 Delivery: June 1943 to August 1945
- Epilogue
- 20 The Legacy of Los Alamos
- Notes
- Name Index
- Subject Index
16 - Building the Implosion Gadget: March 1945 to July 1945
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Early Research on Fission: 1933–1943
- 3 The Early Materials Program: 1933–1943
- 4 Setting Up Project Y: June 1942 to March 1943
- 5 Research in the First Months of Project Y: April to September 1943
- 6 Creating a Wartime Community: September 1943 to August 1944
- 7 The Gun Weapon: September 1943 to August 1944
- 8 The Implosion Program Accelerates: September 1943 to July 1944
- 9 New Hopes for the Implosion Weapon: September 1943 to July 1944
- 10 The Nuclear Properties of a Fission Weapon: September 1943 to July 1944
- 11 Uranium and Plutonium: Early 1943 to August 1944
- 12 The Discovery of Spontaneous Fission in Plutonium and the Reorganization of Los Alamos
- 13 Building the Uranium Bomb: August 1944 to July 1945
- 14 Exploring the Plutonium Implosion Weapon: August 1944 to February 1945
- 15 Finding the Implosion Design: August 1944 to February 1945
- 16 Building the Implosion Gadget: March 1945 to July 1945
- 17 Critical Assemblies and Nuclear Physics: August 1944 to July 1945
- 18 The Test at Trinity: January 1944 to July 1945
- 19 Delivery: June 1943 to August 1945
- Epilogue
- 20 The Legacy of Los Alamos
- Notes
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
After the implosion design was frozen at the end of February 1945, the program shifted its emphasis from research to constructing actual bomb components, including explosive lenses, detonators, initiators, and the plutonium hemispheres. Kistiakowsky reported on X-Division's work in April: “One can now state with a reasonable degree of assurance that all major research and design gambles involved in the freeze of the program of the X-Division have been won. Progress is more and more determined by the rate of supply of manufactured items.” By May, he concluded, “The activities in X-Division have lost all semblance to research and have become so largely production and inspection and testing that their brief summary here seems impractical” (at which point his division progress reports stopped abruptly). However, most of the crucial components of the implosion gadget remained problematic, almost to the time of the Trinity test, and most underwent last-minute change.
The Cowpuncher Committee
Oppenheimer launched the final phase of Project Y's implosion effort with his appointment on 1 March 1945 of the powerful Cowpuncher Committee to “ride herd” on the program. Besides Oppenheimer, the members included Bethe, Kistiakowsky, Parsons, Bacher, Samuel Allison, Cyril Smith, and Kenneth Bainbridge. The committee oversaw eight major programs: (1) fabrication and inspection of explosive lenses; (2) design and construction of electric detonators and detonator circuits; (3) diagnostic tests to determine timing, compression, and symmetry; (4) research in chemistry and metallurgy; (5) study of the critical mass and time constant of the plutonium nuclear explosion; (6) design of the inner metal parts of the implosion assembly; (7) coordination of the Trinity program; and (8) assignment of shop priorities.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Critical AssemblyA Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945, pp. 315 - 334Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993