The Atomic Bomb

Einstein-Szlard letter

• Written to FDR saying the nuclear research could produce a bomb.

• Worried that the Germans might develop before us.

• FDR planned to use the bomb against Germany.

Nuclear research being done in Germany at Haigerloch

The atomic research project was called the Manhattan project.

Nuclear testing was done at Los Alamos Laboratory (Project Y)

Robert Oppenheimer President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Ranch School Buildings

To build the bomb...

They needed a team of:• Physicists• Chemists• Metallurgists• Explosive experts• Military personnel

FDR dies... Truman becomes president

There were 2 kinds of bombs build• FAT MAN• Implosion fission• Plutonium core• Nagasaki• Aug 9th 1945

• LITTLE BOY• Gun-type fission• Uranium• Hiroshima• Aug 6th 1945

Fat Man

Little Boy

Truman was pressured into using the bomb.

Bockscar & Enola Gay

Nagasaki Hiroshima

Nagasaki Hiroshima

After the war, Truman signed the Atomic Energy Act of 1946