Did you know that Werner Heisenberg, famous for his Uncertainty Principle, was nearly assassinated by the U.S.? As we dive into the brief history of the atomic bomb, we will introduce you to J. Robert Oppenheimer, often referred to as the ‘father of the atomic bomb.’ As the director of Los Alamos Laboratory, Oppenheimer’s role was indeed pivotal, but he wasn’t the sole player nor did he originate the concept.
To understand this, let’s journey back to Germany in December 1938. Here, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission, which happens when neutrons hit uranium, resulting in massive energy release—a billion times more than any chemical reaction. Moreover, this process generated more neutrons, leading to a potential chain reaction. At the time, this discovery seemed useful for energy generation or medical applications, but it wasn’t the focus of many due to the rarity of the fissile uranium isotope (U-235).
However, in 1939, Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls in Britain contemplated the idea of isolating U-235. Upon realizing the potential military implications, they wrote a memo about a possible ‘superbomb,’ urging the British government to delve into nuclear research. The news spread globally, leading many to fear Germany might already be working on a new weapon based on fission.
Consequently, the UK initiated the Tube Alloys project in 1939. Simultaneously, in the U.S., eminent scientists like Albert Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt, urging him to start a research program. It wasn’t until 1942 when the project was transferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, directed by Leslie Groves, that it started to gain momentum. Groves appointed Oppenheimer as the director of Los Alamos Laboratory, where the bombs were to be built.
Meanwhile, Germany had initiated the Uranverein project, also known as the Uranium Club, a few months after the discovery of nuclear fission. Werner Heisenberg, the Nobel Prize-winning creator of quantum mechanics, headed this project. The U.S. was so threatened by Heisenberg that they contemplated kidnapping or even assassinating him during a talk in Switzerland.
At the same time, the Soviet Union had established their secret site, Arzamas-16, led by Igor Kurchatov. Despite having information fed by spies from the Manhattan Project, the Soviets didn’t manage to construct a bomb until 1949, which subsequently affected the Cold War.
Surprisingly, despite its head start, the German project didn’t progress much. Isolating sufficient uranium was the biggest challenge in the race to build the bomb. Germany could not match the scope of the Manhattan Project, which included three major sites: Los Alamos, Oak Ridge for enriched uranium, and Hanford for building plutonium reactors. By 1943, the British Tube Alloys project was incorporated into the Manhattan Project, which employed up to 130,000 people, including hundreds of the world’s best physicists, chemists, and engineers.
By 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb was completed, a result of 27 months of dedicated work. The main motivation was the fear of the enemy building the bomb first, as depicted satirically in Stanley Kubrick’s film, ‘Dr. Strangelove.’ This period was filled with apprehension. Although many of the involved scientists later regretted their involvement, they felt it was a necessary evil at the time. As Rudolf Peierls said, “Once fission had been discovered, you couldn’t undiscover it.”