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
5 - Research in the First Months of Project Y: April to September 1943
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
As soon as the Los Alamos Laboratory opened its doors, committees were formed to plan the research program and cope with practicalities. Robert Serber offered an indoctrination course early in April 1943 to acquaint scientists with the current state of research on the atomic bomb. Conferences that month laid out specific research objectives. Even though many fission constants were poorly determined and the accuracy of approximations was generally low, Los Alamos physicists were confident that a reasonably efficient gun bomb could be built. Acceptance of the gun as a workable assembly lent optimism to the entire project. As a fallback, Oppenheimer established a small research effort under Seth Neddermeyer to explore implosion assembly.
The Planning Board
Committees helped Oppenheimer make major decisions, with Groves's approval. The first informal committee – Robert Wilson, Edwin McMillan, Oppenheimer, Edward Condon (the associate director), John Manley, and Serber – met on 6 March 1943 and considered practicalities, such as when people and equipment would arrive and who would handle services rendered by the machine and electronics shops.
This initial planning group gave way several weeks later to a larger committee called the Planning Board, which coordinated the technical program over the next month. Oppenheimer, Condon, Dana Mitchell, and Julian Mack provided administrative guidance, while Wilson, Serber, John Williams, McMillan, and Donald Mastick planned the scientific program.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Critical AssemblyA Technical History of Los Alamos during the Oppenheimer Years, 1943–1945, pp. 67 - 90Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993