Atomic Bombs
by Krysta CardinaleThe atomic bomb is one of two types of nuclear weapons. Atomic bombs produce an explosive energy through nuclear fission reactions. They are also referred to as atom bombs or A-bombs. The first and only nuclear weapons used in war were the atomic bombs. The United States dropped two of them on Japan in World War 2. These bombs were so large that only the B29 bomber jet could drop them. The atomic bomb is most known for its large mushroom cloud that it produces after detonation. This cloud can be over 11 miles high.
How the Atomic Bomb Works
Atomic bombs are classified as fission weapons. Fission weapons have a mass of material usually either plutonium or uranium. The amount of material needed to begin a nuclear chain reaction is called a supercritical mass. This can be done by colliding two pieces of supercritical material or by compressing a supercritical mass with chemical explosives. The amount of energy released by atomic bombs is immense. It can range up to an equivalent of 500,000 tons of TNT.
The delivering of a nuclear weapon to a target is very important. The first way that was devised for two nuclear weapons in World War Two by the United States. Two atom bombs were dropped as gravity bombs. This method places really no restrictions on the size of the weapon, but it does limit the range of damage. Other techniques have been developed including mounting nuclear weapons into missiles for short-range, intercontinental range, and submarine-launched. This is the most common system used for the delivery of nuclear devices.
Revelation of the Atomic Bomb
Just before World War II started, on August 2, 1939, Albert Einstein wrote to United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Along with other scientists, Einstein informed Roosevelt of Germany’s efforts to purify uranium-235 a viable material used in nuclear weapons. After this news was delivered the United States began the “Manhattan Project.” The main purpose of this project was to produce an atom bomb.
There was a large laboratory built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Harold C. Urey and his colleagues came up with an extraction method at Columbia University, which worked on the basis of gaseous diffusion. Ernest O. Lawrence of the University of California in Berkeley was responsible for creating a process that magnetically separated the two isotopes needed for the A-bomb. The next step was a gas centrifuge. This was used to separate the lighter uranium-235 from the heavier, non-fissionable uranium-235. After all these procedures were done the final step was atomic fission or splitting the atom.
From 1939 to 1945 over two billion dollars was spent on the Manhattan Project. All the formulas and systems for putting together a working atom bomb were successfully created. One of the main brains behind this whole procedure was J. Robert Oppenheimer. He was responsible for overseeing the project from the point of conception to its completion.
The Atomic Bomb and Japan
The first and only nuclear weapons to be used in warfare were two A-bombs, and Japan was their victim. To try and force the Japanese to surrender, the recently inaugurated American President Harry S. Truman ordered the world’s first nuclear weapon to be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6th 1945.
The uranium-based Hiroshima atomic bomb caused immense devastation and loss of life. But no surrender was offered from the attack of the atomic bomb, Japan sat steadfast and stubborn. Three days after the Hiroshima atomic bomb, a second plutonium-based bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. The second bomb compelled the Japanese to capitulate. The formal surrender took place on 14th August. Estimates vary of the numbers killed by the Nagasaki and Hiroshima atomic bombs. Between 100,000 and 200,000 people were killed instantly. Unaccountable thousands were vaporized in the intense heat. In the weeks and years that followed, thousands more were to die of radiation poisoning.
The Aftermath of the Atomic Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki
There were other devastating effects besides the thousands of people instantly killed from such an attack by an atomic bomb. Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffered from the nuclear fallout hazard as well. There are hazardous rains that follow atomic detonations which continuously drop radioactive material. The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki now had to deal with radiation poisoning. There were also long-term affects that were passed from survivors to their offspring.
