US ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION - Oak Ridge, TN Facility

The Chief arrived for duty at Oak Ridge April 1, 1949.  
He would remain there for two years, 
Oak Ridge was established in 1942 as a production site for the Manhattan Project—the massive American, British, and Canadian operation that developed the atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project was the joint effort by the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Canada to produce the first atomic weapons during World War II.

MANHATTAN PROJECT

The U.S. government created a top ‘Secret Town’ aka ”The Atomic City’ now called 
Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The government bought up about 68,000 acres of land and about 1,000 Tennessee families were given two weeks or less to vacate.  All the while, other secret towns were created elsewhere in the US as part of the race to create an atomic weapon.  We can peer into the past, previously shrouded in secrecy, into the atomic city where the Little Boy bomb was created before General Paul Tibbet's, piloting the Enola Gay, dropped it on Hiroshima.  It’s a story that involves Soviet atomic spies, espionage, compartmentalization to guard secrets, and government billboards encouraging secrecy among Oak Ridge workers. 

The Moment in Time: The Manhattan Project

The Moment in Time documents the uncertain days of the beginning of World War II when it was feared the Nazis were developing the atomic bomb.  The history of the bomb's development is traced through those who worked on what was known as "The Gadget".
56 minute film.

Voices of the Manhattan Project

Voices of the Manhattan Project" is a joint project by the Atomic Heritage Foundation and the Los Alamos Historical Society to create a public archive of our oral history collections of Manhattan Project veterans and their families.  
Their online collection features over 300 audio/visual interviews with Manhattan Project workers and their families, including J. Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie R. Groves, Glenn Seaborg, Hans and Rose Bethe, George and Vera Kistiakowsky, and many more.  "Voices" now includes interviews with some of the men who flew on the bombing missions.   More  >

"The Gadgets"

Little Boy was was the first atomic bomb ever used in combat. On 6 August 1945, the US plane Enola Gay dropped Little Boy approximately 1,800 feet over Hiroshima, Japan, with a force equal to 13,000 tons of TNT. Immediate deaths were between 70,000 to 130,000
Little Boy 
In this gun-type device, the critical mass is achieved when auranium projectile which is sub-critical is fired through a gun barrel at a uranium target which is also sub-critical. The resulting uranium mass comprised of both projectile and target becomes critical and the chain reaction begins. Dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, it was the first nuclear weapon used in
a war.   
The picture depicts a Fat Man bomb assembly being prepared for testing at the US Navy Saltwells ordinance facility near Inyokern, California.
Mark 3 - Fat Man
A "Fat Man" bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945 near the end of WWII.  A "Fat Man" bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945 near the end of WWII. Released by the B-29 "Bockscar", the 10,000 pound weapon was detonated at an altitude of about 1,800 feet over the city. The bomb had an expolosive force (yield) of about 20,000 tons of TNT, about the same as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. But because of Nagasaki's hilly terrain, the damage was somewhat less extensive than at relatively flat Hiroshima. "Fat Man" was an implosion type weapon using plutonium 239. A subcritical sphere of plutonium was placed in the center of a hollow sphere of high explosive (HE). Numerous detonators located on the surface of the HE were fired simultaneously to produce a powerful inward pressure on the capsule, squeezing it and increasing its density.  This resulted in a supercritical condition and a nuclear explosion.  A neutron source was placed at the center of a divided sphere of plu-otonium. This was covered by a reflector, with explosives wrapped around theb periphery. When the explosives det-onated, the plutonium in the sphere was hurled to the center, creating more than critical mass. This was an implosion bomb.

POST MANHATTAN PROJECT  US Atomic Energy Commission 1949 >

The Secret City

Oak Ridge's nicknames include the Atomic City, the Secret City, the Ridge, and the City Behind the Fence.
60 great, rarely seen pictures of the Atomic City 
DOE Photos taken by Ed Westcot, mostly 1942-1945, but a few into the 50's and 60's.

Now reinvented as:

The Manhattan Project

The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses,
and Historians

Edited by Cynthia C. Kelly, with an Introduction by Richard C. Rhodes

General Tibbets

Then and honoring his 90th Birthday with his previous crews, and airshow and dinner for hundreds of this closest friends at an invitation olny event at Peachtree-Dekalb Airport in Atlanta, GA.  More >

Tinian Island

Rare collection of photographs from "Shutterbugy"
Silent, Raw Atomic Bomb Footage:  Tinian (1945)
Part 1
Silent, raw, silent footage from Tinian during World War II shows the loading of the "Little Boy" atomic bomb aboard the B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay," and early morning activity on Tinian on 6 August, 1945, prior to takeoff. Source: Naval History and Heritage Command.
Part 2 
Footage of the landing of the B-29 "Enola Gay" after completion of its atomic bomb mission over Hiroshima, and the awarding of the Distinguished Service Cross to its pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets.  It then shows preparation of the "Fat Man". 
Part 3 
Footage from Tinian during World War II shows footage of the "Fat Man" atomic bomb being loaded aboard the B-29 Superfortress "Bock's Car," and aerial footage of the mushroom cloud over Japan.