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The United States Nuclear Weapon Program

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The United States Nuclear Weapon Program /.i. - y _-. --_- -. : _ - . i - DOE/ES4005 (Draft) I _ __ _ _ _____-. 67521 - __ __-. -- -- .-- THE UNITED STATES NUCLEAR - %”WEAPQN PROGRA,hik ..I .La;*I* . , ASUMMARYHISTORY \ ;4 h : . ,‘f . March 1983 \ .;_ U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary, Management and Administration Office of The Executive Secretariat History Division -. DOE/ES4005 (Draft) THE UNITED STATES NUCLEAR WEAPON PROG.RAM: ASUMMARYHISTORY .' . c *. By: . Roger M. Anders Archivist With: Jack M. Hall Alice L. Buck Prentice C. Dean March 1983 ‘ .I \ . U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary, Management and Administration Office of The Executive Secretariat History Division Washington, D. C. 20585 ‘Thelkpaemlt of Energy OqanizationAct of 1977 b-mughttcgether for the first tim in one departxrmtrmst of the Federal GovenmTle?t’s - Programs-With these programs cam a score of organizational ‘ . ? entities,eachwithi+ccxmhistoryandtraditions,frmadozendepart- . .‘I w ’ mnts and independentagencies. The EIistoryDivision,- prepareda . seriesof paqhlets on The Institutional Originsof the De-t of v Eachpamphletexplainsthehistory,goals,and achievemzntsof a predecessoragency or a major prqrm of the -to=-TY* This parquet, which replacesF&ger M. Anders'previous booklet on "The Office of MilitaxxApplication," traces the histoe of the UrL+& Statesnuclearweapx prcgramfrmits inceptionduring World War II to the present. Nuclear weqons form the core of America's m&z defenses. Anders'history describes the truly fo&idable effortscf 5e Atanic Energy Cmmission, the F;nergy Rfzsearch and Develqmlt z4dmCstratian,andtheDep&m- to create adiverse a* sophistica~arsenzl ofnucleaz ~accctqli&mentsofL~se agenciesandtheirplants andlabc J zrsatedan "atanic shie2 WMchp- Psrrericatoday. r kger M. Anders is a trained historianworking in the Eistzq Divisbn. Although whenever pssible he has checked his work K%C-;: appropriateoffices within the De-t, the author, and the CCef Historian ultitely detemined the conicentand conclusionsof L!7e study* The paqhlet is the product of teamork within the Hiszz~~ Division,and the authorjoins IE in thankingAJice Buck,prentice Dean, J&e Raines, and Travis Hulsey for their unflaggingskill, cheer- fulness,andhardwork It is our hope that this paxqhletwill prove useful both to De~talparsonnel and the public. _- ..-- _--_- - _ -- I _____ _ ._ .. .. -. c , .,’ l-l r-l In P W =t 2 2 ;;f A z Ki % x G m s; G 2 ts . 9 * . * . * . l . 0 . l . * . .* . a . e . 9 . $ . IG . 9 . g . B . 2 . .. ‘3 . +J . f . 2 . l . q . i . d, . m . +; . 2 . k . a . -i i . i . IQ . * . 8 . IT . I? ?ii . I . Ti . ‘cd . ri I illh . I3 ; . e: . ‘il . % . 2 . ii . $ . iI . 5!i B . g . B . 9 . 3 3 CH . d B ih PC8 . 1 PC 1 . d I . iI t: . I I I I . e-i 3 4 . 6 j 8 . l-l B . ii . # ci 6 ‘ii! 2 4 2 . II ii . .!z ul c tr, 5 I . 9 . y . ‘it 8 . , 1 .!T d a cc! B B . 2 iI Y . a d , , Ii ‘3 El8 % B a k B 8 4 fi IQ 3 B -2 1 ii! 8 IFi4 1- i3p P t 1i! Ii1 1 The origins of the UniM.States' nuclearweaponpxqramcanbe tracedto the discuveryof fissionin 1939. After scientistsdiscover& that an (_ atan ofuraniuxnaxldbe split,they also realizedthatfission. could release huge +munts of energy. If a fission bmb could be devel~,weapxsoftrm=ndous explosivepower couldbeprcduced. The weapms potential of fission was as apparent to American nuclear physicistsas to their counm in Nazi Germany.' Because Geman scientists disuvered fission,Hitler semzd to have a si~Lficant headstart on the road to a weapn which could terrorize Eursp an2 perhaps even the United States. Amzrican scientistsorganized them selves into research teams* anurgateffort todevelop an atcLc bmb beforeGemany. Hitler'sattackonPol.andandthe fall of France _cUele2 their efforks. whentheunitedStatesen~~thewarinDec~.1941, researchers dkecked by scientist-administratorsVann~BushandJ~~s B. t35nant. L un&r @JpJ& Tpc1;o -the Manhattsn Ehgineer District _- Grovesbuilttheplants and laboratoriesrequired toprcduceabak.At Oak Ridge,Tennessee, Grmes' engineerserected a huge gaseousdif,lsicn plant to prckce enricheduranic. At Eanford,Washiqton they t=,lt t!!ee reactorsto prcEuce the recentlydiscmered fissionableelmex plutonim. Finally at Los Alms Groves created a weapm lakrz~r~ under the directionof' J. F&x-t 0_3_=ztnheirrertc design atmic '-5. ..c.-c w~bzr and his colleagueswere c~rkin th$ a ,,cjun"km5 -_-.:' P uraniumwuld work but feared that an implosionbc& using plutorhm might fizzle. Therefore,they conducted the world's first nuclear weapon test at Alamgordo, New Maxicc in July 1945. The Tr5nitv shot wss a dramtic successand the ixplosionbmb, called"Fat Man" teas used on Nagasakion August 9, 1945,-three days after the “gun” lxrn?S, czlkd "Little Boy" was used on Hiroshima. The atmic bcxbs leveled both 2 citiesand ended the war in the Pacific. America now debat& hm tc manage the awesane power of attic energy* The debate'centered on congressionalefforts to create an .agencyto direct nuclear research and developmnt. One of the m* controversialLkueswaswhethertoentrustthe atcm to a civilianor to amilitary wency. Decidbigtoentrusttheatcmto civilians,Congress passed tie Atmic EnergyAct which President Truman signedon August 1, 1946. The Act established a five mnbar axmissiok and assignedto the CZczmissicnall atmic eneqy facilitiesandprogram. The AtunicDle-qy Act admmished the Carmissionto manage the atm "subjectat all~3ztas to the paramunt abjective of assuring the camm defense and security."3The congressionalmandatemeant thatdevelopingandtesting nuclearweapcns would be the firstpriority of the Atark Eneqy Cuks- Sian. To assure that the Cmmission factored military needs tit3 weaFonP=F=%the Act created a military liaison cmrnitteetc+LCi. repcrtedbothtcthe Cmmission and the Secretxy of Defewe. m provide Congressionalchecks and balances over the atic energy F-V q, the Act also created a Joint CongressionalCczmittee on Attic E==9Y* Before the Cmmission assumedcontrol of the atom, the Navy mr.cY: to Imcx what the attic bmb would do t=,a mdern fleet. 73.eKxI!-~c-L~ 3 Eqineer District acaxdingly axranged the Crossroads test at Bikini atoll. TwObc& weredetonatedneara ,,fleet"consisting of captured Germn and Japanese warships, a variety of other surfacevessels, and sukxnarines.For apublicccnditionedtoequatetheatomicbm-bswith the devastationof entire cities,the Mqaratively few ships sunk or damaged were a let-down. Afterwards,m congressmenquestionedthe i I 'need to hold the Crossroadstest atalL A coordinatedplan for developingatcmic weapons and investigatingtheir effectswould have to waituntilthenewCcmi.ssioncmld organize. The New Camnissionand the Cold War The Atmic Eneqy Ccxmissionofficially assured its duties on January 1, 1947. The Cmnission delegatedresponsibility for nucleaz weapon developmentto the division of military application. The divisim establishedprogram for the research,~develop-ent, and prsr duction of &clear weapons,andinterpretedmilitaqrequiremntsfor thepr&uctionofatanicbmbs totheCarmission.5 _ Intemationalevents soonlenturgencytothew=ponp~a= TensionsbeM2en the United States and the soviet Union had spkt t5e Grand Allianceof World War II and had begun the Cold War. The Cm- IluJnist guerillas under MqoTse-TqthenbroughtQzinaintotheSm-iet oxbit. Simul~ly CanTnmist guerrillas threatened to enguE Greece andperhaps thewhole eastern Nediterranean. ACXXpin Februazry1948 installedaC4mnunist ~ovwmwinczechoslovakia,and a few ~0:C,;:s later the Sovietsshut off the land routesto Berlin. PresidentT5.s~ equatedStalinwithHit&randdetexknedtostandup to the Camz-st threats" 3 W-g PresidentTruman that the United States'stzly of atomic weayns was not adqua- to met the security reqizments, the ccsnrnissionwent to work/ In the next few years the Ccmission con- vexed an obsolete oak Ridge plant to the prcduc?&m of weaponspar&; c. solv3d operating problems pla&ing Hanford reactors; put plutonium p1~03~don on an efficientbasis; and decidedto build 6~ rmre reactors r: at HanfoA. The Ccmnissionalso steppedup the p?cductionof enriched uxmtium frm the Oak Ridge gaseous diffusionplants and mved weapm ordnancewrk frmI;osAlams to the Sandia laboratoryin Albuquerqe, New &co, allming Los Alams to concmtrate on weapon research. Finally,the Mssion establisheda provinggrounds at EnewetakAtoll in the Pacific,sche&Aing its first test series,tied Sandstone,for the @ring of 1948. 'I% Sandstoneseries was a technicalsuccess 2nd enabled the (+rmissiontz double the smll stoc@ile of b&x.' 3 response to the Soviet ,*xt, the Cmmission had taken weapn ?rc- duction‘outofthe laboratory&>d had put it on an assezrbly-linebasis. After the Berlin crisis tit bmission decided to add a t!-k-5 gaseousdif-iuion plant to the Oak Ridge axrplex. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, hmever, determined in May 1949 that the riefenseEq!aLm.t needed far mxe b&x than Ccmission ,-la&s could then pmduce. c15Lo Joint Chiefs's requixdts mant that tz Gmnission would have zz build a fourthgaseous diffc?sion plant at Oak Ridge and redesignone cf the new reactorsat Hanford. The news that F?ussiahad set off an a*~Lc explosionon Pqust 29 'shockedthe nation and L3xched off a d3‘"a:e within'the govezmmt over whether to develop a hy3ogen bc&. X-x both tie &mission and the NationalSecurity Council bd conside_% 2~3 issue, president Trumn ordered the &mission to proceed Lzt!-.the develaprwt of a hydrogenbcrrb on January31, -1950.* The President'S order put the &mnission in a diffic_Lt-position. T0pmducethelarge gmntities of tritimthatthe hyd.rcgenIxxrbwould requiz, the CMrnissionwould have to reduce plutorim productionat Hanford and switch reactorsto
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