Richard Rhodes - The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Tregaskis, Richard, 519–20

Trinity, 571–72, 631, 646

Base Camp of, 653, 663–64, 666–69, 672, 673, 675–76

castings transported to, 658–59

control bunker of, 665–69, 671, 672, 674–75

countdown for, 668–70

Creutz test and, 661–63

detonation at, 670–76

experiments for, 654–55, 663, 674, 677

explosive yield of, 656, 669, 674, 677, 687

Ground Zero of, 653–54, 660, 665–69, 677

lethal effects of, 677–78

pressure associated with, 657, 668

proving ground for, 652–54

risks considered at, 664–65

scheduling of, 652, 655, 656, 657–58, 663

site construction for, 654

weather as factor for, 656, 658, 663–67

tritium, 420

hydrogen bomb’s use of, 543–44, 546, 563, 564

Tronstad, Lief, 455–57, 468

Truman, Harry S.:

Arnold and, 745

atomic bomb briefing of, 617, 618, 623–25

atomic bombing halted by, 743

atomic bombing of Hiroshima and, 734

atomic bomb’s use approved by, 651, 688, 690–91, 698

on atomic bomb targeting, 690–91

Berlin toured by, 682, 683

Byrnes and, 618–20, 625–26, 628–29, 636, 651, 682, 686–87, 689–90, 742

Churchill and, 656

Groves and, 624, 625–26

Harriman and, 621–22, 625, 626

honors of, 698

Interim Committee and, 628–29, 630, 651

Japanese surrender and, 688–89, 692, 697, 742–43, 745

Manhattan Project and, 614, 617–18, 624

George Marshall and, 622

Molotov and, 622–23

Oppenheimer and, 690

Potsdam Conference and, 682–83, 689–90, 692

proposed Japanese invasion and, 641

Roosevelt’s death and, 614, 617

Soviet policy of, 621–23

Stalin and, 622–24, 625, 656, 685, 689–91

Stimson and, 617–18, 622, 623–26, 628–29, 639–40, 650–51, 682–84, 686–87, 690–91, 742

Szilard and, 636, 649

Target Committee and, 626

Trinity and, 687, 690

Tube Alloys project, 485, 523, 528, 537–38

Tuck, James L., 522, 544–45, 759

tunnel effect, 149–50

Turner, Louis, A., 346–47, 350

Tuve, Merle, 144, 146, 269, 272, 308, 355, 374, 477 n

Twelfth Army Group, U.S., 608

Twentieth Air Force, U.S., 600, 626–28

20th Bomber Command, U.S., 589

21st Bomber Command, U.S., 587, 627

Uber ein neues Prinzip zur Herstellung hoher Spannungen (Wideröe), 145

Uhlenbeck, George, 270, 274, 275

Ulam, Adam, 309

Ulam, Françoise, 543, 565

Ulam, Stanislaw, 196, 309

Bethe and, 543

hydrogen bomb and, 543

implosion studies and, 544

Los Alamos and, 543–44, 565–66

Neumann and, 107, 112–13, 543–44

Teller and, 538, 543, 546

Trinity and, 627

ultramicrochemistry, 409–10

ultraviolet catastrophe, 70

uncertainty principle, 130–33, 151, 364

Union Carbide, 494, 601–2, 650

United Nations, 535, 622–23, 625, 628

United Nations Charter, 693

United States, 196

arms race and, 535–36

British atomic collaboration with, 357–59, 500, 523–24, 526–27, 537, 543–44, 546, 655

physics in, 141–43, 151

war-gas arsenal of, 100–101

“Unity of Human Knowledge, The” (Bohr), 58

“unsuccessful search for transuranic elements, An” (Segré) 349

uranium, 41–43, 118, 500

critical mass of, 321–23, 335, 355, 362, 379–80, 382, 386–87, 395, 420–21, 461, 464, 487–88, 540, 582, 601, 610–12, 613

fast-fission cross-section measurements of, 333–35, 338, 355–56, 367–68, 373, 386, 410–11

Frisch and, 258–65, 269–71, 273, 319–20, 322–23, 610–12

Groves and, 427, 500, 638, 649

Hahn’s research on, 232, 234–35, 247–48, 250–55, 257–58, 260–62, 266

isotopes of, 285–89, 294, 297, 300, 311–12, 317, 319–20, 322–23, 326, 330, 332–33, 338–40, 343, 345–52, 368, 375, 380–81, 387–88, 405–6

Joliot-Curies and, 234–35, 247

Meitner’s research on, 232, 234–35, 248, 258–64

neutron bombardment of, 212–13, 220–21, 230–32, 234–35, 247–48, 250–55, 257–58, 261–64, 267, 274

neutrons absorbed by, 300, 348

neutrons released by, 280–81, 288–96, 298, 300, 343–44

nuclear-binding energy of, 258–63, 286–87

nuclear fission and, 258–67, 269, 274, 282–88

plutonium extracted from, 407–10

resonance in capture cross sections of, 282–87, 300, 348, 386

slow-neutron chain reaction in, 394–95

Soviet access to, 638, 649

spontaneous fission of, 501, 540–41

thorium compared to, 283–87, 322

uranium gun (Little Boy), see Little Boy

uranium hexafluoride, 332, 340, 345, 368, 492–94, 550, 581, 602

uranium hydride, 610, 611

uranium oxide, 395–96, 400–401, 427, 429–31, 435–36, 607–9, 612–13

uranium tetrachloride, 487

uranyl nitrate hexahydrate (UNH), 353–54, 409, 411, 413

Urey, Harold, 270, 352, 418, 636

Dunning and, 380–81

Groves and, 495–96

isotope separation and, 380–81, 388, 492–93, 495

plutonium extraction and, 408, 448

radioactive warfare and, 510

U235, U238, 335, 352, 355, 366, 458, 486, 563

Herbert Anderson on, 298

in atomic bomb, 387, 388–89

Bohr on, 285–89, 294, 297, 311, 319–20, 322, 500

Conant on, 368–69

cosmic rays and, 540–41

Dunning and, 289 n , 297–98, 332–33, 492, 500

Einstein on, 297

electromagnetic separation of, 360, 373, 388, 405–6, 448, 487–92, 495, 500, 600–602

gaseous diffusion of, 297–98, 332–33, 339–40, 343, 345, 368, 380–81, 457, 488, 492–96, 500, 550, 552–54, 580–82, 602, 612

Harteck on, 311

Heisenberg on, 326, 403

hydrogen bomb and, 371, 375

liquid thermal diffusion of, 550–53, 580–81, 602

Lindemann and, 359

mass spectroscopy of, 285, 297–98, 317

MAUD on, 368–69, 377

Nier and, 297–98, 317, 332–33, 347

Simon on, 339–40, 343, 345, 492

see also uranium

U236, 347

U239, 347–50, 352

V-1, V-2 rockets, 512

Van de Graaf, Robert J., 144, 272

Van de Graaf generator, 272, 476

Vandegrift, Alexander A., 518–19

Van Kirk, Theodore J. (Dutch), 704, 706, 708–11

Van Vleck, John H., 415, 465

V-E Day (May 8, 1945), 629–30

Vemork heavy-water installation, 512

British sabotage of, 455–57, 468, 515

heavy-water shipments from 513–17

Verne, Jules, 107

Vienna, University of, 79

Vienna Radium Institute, 157–58

Villard, P. V., 42

Vinberg, Fyodor, 17–18, 181–84

“Voice of the Dolphins, The” (Szilard), 22

Volta, Alessandro, 128, 131, 395

Voltaire, 230

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr., 593

Wahl, Arthur C., 353–54

Wallace, Henry, 369, 378, 743

Wannsee Conference (1942), 475

War Department, U.S., 736

War Office, British, 87, 224, 378

War Production Board, U.S., 427

Warren, Stafford, 677

Warsaw, 341

Washington, George, 618

Washington Conferences on Theoretical Physics (1939), 269–71, 280

Washington Evening Star , 273

Waste Land, The (Eliot), 123

water, as pile coolant, 411–12, 498

Watson, Edwin M., 313–15, 317, 331–32

Wattenberg, Albert, 401, 438–39

Weaver, Warren, 360

Webster, H. C., 159–61

Weil, George, 396, 438–39

Wein, Wilhelm, 129

Weisskopf, Victor, 206, 208, 210, 524–25

Trinity and, 652–53, 668, 674, 675

Weizmann, Chaim, 46–47, 113, 173, 181

background of, 87

Churchill and, 88–89

Lloyd George and, 88–90

Rutherford described by, 46–47

scientific work of, 87–90