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
9 - New Hopes for the Implosion Weapon: September 1943 to July 1944
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
Two developments in the spring of 1944 offered hope for overcoming the asymmetry problems of the implosion weapon. The asymmetry arose in part because the detonation waves diverging from the various initiation points met and interacted to produce small regions of markedly increased pressure. Furthermore, the multiple detonations of the surrounding explosive were not adequately simultaneous. The first problem would be dealt with by the three-dimensional explosive lens, suggested by James Tuck in May and given its basic design by John von Neumann. The second problem could be solved, as Luis Alvarez had suggested in May, by replacing the original inherently variable Primacord detonation distribution systems with electric detonators of highly superior reproducibility, thus providing a means of achieving adequately simultaneous detonation at several points. Developing and producing practical explosive lens and electric detonator systems would require a concerted research and development effort right up to the Trinity test in July 1945.
In view of these difficulties, it seemed wise to try testing the device. The decision to do so was made early in 1944. By the fall of that year, the site selection committee had fixed on the Jornada del Muerto region of south central New Mexico.
Explosives
The research and development of high explosives – materials that detonate at supersonic speeds by a process involving chemical reaction and a shock wave – was (arguably) the most pivotal and problematic component of the implosion program.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Critical AssemblyA Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945, pp. 163 - 177Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993