        ĳ
                                +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
         ۲|O|u|t|b|r|e|a|k|𰰰
                                +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                             Issue #6 - Page 10 of 16 
        ĳ

			      --=The Atomic Bomb=--

                                  -by TheEnigma-


===============
!!!DISCLAMER!!!
===============
This article is for edicational purposes only. If you're actually stupid
enough to make an atomic bomb, then you should get punched in the face.
Outbreak Magazine or The Enigma is not held liable for your stupidity.
Read this article, learn about The Atomic Bomb and how it works. But 
if you make one, and if you fuck yourself up and others.  Then thats your
own god damn fault.
===============
!!!DISCLAMER!!!
===============

The following is part of a research paper I wrote.


On August 2nd 1939, just before the beginning of World War II, Albert 
Einstein wrote to then President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Einstein and several 
other scientists told Roosevelt of efforts in Nazi Germany to purify U-235 
with which might in turn be used to build an atomic bomb. It was shortly 
thereafter that the United States Government began the serious undertaking 
known only then as the Manhattan Project. Simply put, the Manhattan Project 
was committed to expedient research and production that would produce a 
viable atomic bomb.

The most complicated issue to be addressed was the production of ample 
amounts of `enriched' uranium to sustain a chain reaction. At the time, 
Uranium-235 was very hard to extract. In fact, the ratio of conversion 
from Uranium ore to Uranium metal is 500:1. An additional drawback is that 
the 1 part of Uranium that is finally refined from the ore consists of over 
99% Uranium-238, which is practically useless for an atomic bomb. To make it
even more difficult, U-235 and U-238 are precisely similar in their chemical 
makeup. This proved to be as much of a challenge as separating a solution of 
sucrose from a solution of glucose. No ordinary chemical extraction could 
separate the two isotopes. Only mechanical methods could effectively separate
U-235 from U-238. Several scientists at Columbia University managed to solve 
this dilemma.

A massive enrichment laboratory/plant was constructed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 
H.C. Urey, along with his associates and colleagues at Columbia University,
devised a system that worked on the principle of gaseous diffusion. 
Following this process, Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the Cyclotron) at the 
University of California in Berkeley implemented a process involving magnetic
separation of the two isotopes.

Following the first two processes, a gas centrifuge was used to further 
separate the lighter U-235 from the heavier non-fissionable U-238 by their mass. 
Once all of these procedures had been completed, all that needed to be done was to 
put to the test the entire concept behind atomic fission.

Over the course of six years, ranging from 1939 to 1945, more than 2 billion
dollars were spent on the Manhattan Project. The formulas for refining 
Uranium and putting together a working bomb were created and seen to their logical 
ends by some of the greatest minds of our time. Among these people who unleashed 
the power of the atomic bomb was J. Robert Oppenheimer.

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.

Finally the day came when all at Los Alamos would find out whether or not 
The Gadget (code-named as such during its development) was either going to be 
the colossal dud of the century or perhaps end the war. It all came down to a 
fateful morning of midsummer, 1945.

At 5:29:45 (Mountain War Time) on July 16th, 1945, in a white blaze that
stretched from the basin of the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico to 
the still-dark skies, The Gadget ushered in the Atomic Age. The light of the 
explosion then turned orange as the atomic fireball began shooting upwards at 
360 feet per second, reddening and pulsing as it cooled. The characteristic 
mushroom cloud of radioactive vapor materialized at 30,000 feet. Beneath the 
cloud, all that remained of the soil at the blast site were fragments of jade 
green radioactive glass. ...All of this caused by the heat of the reaction.

The brilliant light from the detonation pierced the early morning skies with 
such intensity that residents from a faraway neighboring community would swear 
that the sun came up twice that day. Even more astonishing is that a blind girl 
saw the flash 120 miles away.

Upon witnessing the explosion, reactions among the people who created it 
were mixed. Isidor Rabi felt that the equilibrium in nature had been upset -- as 
if humankind had become a threat to the world it inhabited. J. Robert 
Oppenheimer, though ecstatic about the success of the project, quoted a remembered 
fragment from Bhagavad Gita. "I am become Death," he said, "the destroyer of worlds."
Ken Bainbridge, the test director, told Oppenheimer, "Now we're all sons of
bitches."

Several participants, shortly after viewing the results, signed petitions
against loosing the monster they had created, but their protests fell on 
deaf ears. As it later turned out, the Jornada del Muerto of New Mexico was not 
the last site on planet Earth to experience an atomic explosion.

As many know, atomic bombs have been used only twice in warfare. The first 
and foremost blast site of the atomic bomb is Hiroshima. A Uranium bomb (which
weighed in at over 4 & 1/2 tons) nicknamed "Little Boy" was dropped on
Hiroshima August 6th, 1945. The Aioi Bridge, one of 81 bridges connecting 
the seven-branched delta of the Ota River, was the aiming point of the bomb.

Ground Zero was set at 1,980 feet. At 0815 hours, the bomb was dropped from 
the Enola Gay. It missed by only 800 feet. At 0816 hours, in the flash of an 
instant, 66,000 people were killed and 69,000 people were injured by a 10 kiloton 
atomic explosion.

The point of total vaporization from the blast measured one half of a mile 
in diameter. Total destruction ranged at one mile in diameter. Severe blast 
damage carried as far as two miles in diameter. At two and a half miles, everything
flammable in the area burned. The remaining area of the blast zone was 
riddled with serious blazes that stretched out to the final edge at a little over 
three miles in diameter.

On August 9th 1945, Nagasaki fell to the same treatment as Hiroshima. Only 
this time, a Plutonium bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" was dropped on the city. Even 
though the "Fat Man" missed by over a mile and a half, it still leveled nearly half
the city. Nagasaki's population dropped in one split-second from 422,000 to
383,000. 39,000 were killed, over 25,000 were injured. That blast was less 
than 10 kilotons as well. Estimates from physicists who have studied each atomic
explosion state that the bombs that were used had utilized only 1/10th of 1
percent of their respective explosive capabilities.

While the mere explosion from an atomic bomb is deadly enough, its 
destructive ability doesn't stop there. Atomic fallout creates another hazard as well. 
The rain that follows any atomic detonation is laden with radioactive particles.
Many survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts succumbed to radiation
poisoning due to this occurance.

The atomic detonation also has the hidden lethal surprise of affecting the
future generations of those who live through it. Leukemia is among the 
greatest of afflictions that are passed on to the offspring of survivors.

While the main purpose behind the atomic bomb is obvious, there are many by-
products that have been brought into consideration in the use of all weapons
atomic. With one small atomic bomb, a massive area's communications, travel 
and machinery will grind to a dead halt due to the EMP (Electro- Magnetic Pulse)
that is radiated from a high-altitude atomic detonation. These high-level
detonations are hardly lethal, yet they deliver a serious enough EMP to
scramble any and all things electronic ranging from copper wires all the way 
up to a computer's CPU within a 50 mile radius.

At one time, during the early days of The Atomic Age, it was a popular 
notion that one day atomic bombs would one day be used in mining operations and
perhaps aid in the construction of another Panama Canal. Needless to say, it
never came about. Instead, the military applications of atomic destruction
increased. Atomic tests off of the Bikini Atoll and several other sites were
common up until the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was introduced. Photos of 
nuclear test sites here in the United States can be obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act.


---------------------------
Links
---------------------------

http://www.atomicarchive.com/
