Manhattan Project Technology Spies Who Stole It

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Dr. Greisbauer U.S. History

The Manhattan Project Technology and the Spies Who Stole It

The Manhattan project was the code name for the research and development of the world's first atomic weapons. This project was part of an international race to develop an atomic bomb, and it ended with the United States using the bombs it produced to end the war with Japan. To date, the United States is the only nation to have used an atomic weapon in combat, although other nations have developed their own bombs. Some of these nations developed atomic weapons very soon after the United States first developed them, and it was later revealed that many spies were involved in the Manhattan project. These spies included engineers, physicists, and secretaries (FBI, page 4). While most of the spies were discovered after the project's conclusion, their information greatly helped the nations they served in developing atomic bombs. The largest number of spies came from and passed information to the Soviet Union, although this was not the only nation with spies involved in the Manhattan project. These spies stole information that was critical to making the bombs, since the technology for them had not been developed anywhere else. The first discovery which made the bombs possible was the discovery of nuclear fission of uranium 235. This fission (splitting) of a uranium atom released two new atoms and energy. The amount of energy released when each atom of uranium splits is roughly equal to the amount of energy it takes to make a grain of sand jump (Sheinkin, page 15) "What if you had a twenty-pound lump of uranium? A fifty-pound lump? What if you were able to get all those atoms to split and release energy at the same moment? You'd have by far the most powerful bomb ever built" (Sheinkin, page 15). A large amount of uranium had potential to be an incredibly powerful source of energy. However, this discovery was not kept secret. Almost immediately after the discovery of nuclear fission, the news of it spread around the world. In America, some physicists were intrigued by it while other physicists did not see this discovery as useful. Over several years, the enthusiastic physicists encouraged the government of America to devote funds to research and development of atomic energy. After many years of hard work by thousands of engineers, scientists, and factory workers, the United States developed and tested the first atomic bomb. Many of the people who worked on it believed that it was too powerful, and did not want it to be used without warning. These people, including Albert Einstein, opposed and even regretted their part in developing the bomb. Nevertheless, when the war seemed to be nearing an end, the United States used two of the bombs against Japan, which caused massive destruction on two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the end of the war, many spies were discovered by the FBI. These spies helped the USSR to develop an atomic weapon just 4 years after the United States had developed its own, and were a contributing factor to the Cold War. The Cold War was an era of international conflict consisting of propaganda, espionage, and public statements. Some of the spies of the Manhattan project, like David Greenglass, were only given time in prison while others, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed for their works of espionage for the USSR. Even though most of the spies were discovered, the damage had been done. They had passed on critical information to the Soviet Union, and as a result the USSR reported a successful detonation of an atomic bomb just four years after the end of the war, much sooner than anyone had expected. This was one of the main causes that started the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The atomic age truly began with the discovery of fission of a uranium atom in Germany, 1939. Two scientists named Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered that an atom of uranium-235 could be split into two new atoms, and this reaction gave off a great amount of energy compared to the mass of the original uranium atom. "Hahn began his experiment with a piece of silver-colored metal called uranium. He placed the uranium beside a radioactive element. He knew that neutrons would speed out of the radioactive material. He also knew that some of these tiny particles would hit the uranium atoms. The big question was: What happens when a speeding neutron crashes into a uranium atom?"(Sheinkin, pages 13-14). Hahn needed help in explaining what had occurred that made the uranium atom split in two. He contacted Lise Meitner, one of his former partners, to help him understand this reaction. Soon, Meitner mentioned the reaction to her nephew Otto Frisch, who was also a physicist. After much discussion, they calculated that once the uranium atom had been split apart, the two new pieces would repel and release energy. They calculated that splitting of one uranium atom was enough energy to make one grain of sand jump. One ounce of uranium has about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms (1 sextillion) (Sheinkin, pages 13-16). However, even though this discovery had large potential, it was largely ignored by the German government, which was busy in the war with Europe. (Herken, page 5) When other scientists in Europe learned of this, some of them decided to gain support for their research by going to America. The first physicist to bring the news of the fission of uranium was Niels Bohr. He was notified by Otto Frisch just as he was boarding a ship for America. By the time he got there, he was completely convinced that uranium atoms could be split and used for energy. Many physicists learned of these discoveries, some of the most notable being Leo Szilard, Nico Fermi, and Robert Oppenheimer.

Leo Szilard was one of the first physicists in America to start promoting the research of uranium fission. One of the first people he contacted about the potential of atomic energy being used to make a bomb was Nico Fermi. Fermi had escaped from Italy just before the start of World War II by traveling to Sweden to receive the Nobel Prize in physics, and from there traveling to New York. Soon after he arrived, he accepted a teaching opportunity at Columbia University. Fermi had first learned of uranium fission when Niels Bohr came to America. Bohr had spoken with him personally about it. This reaction proved Einstein’s theory of relativity to be correct. The masses of the two new atoms formed were less than the mass of the old uranium atom. Bohr stated this change in mass was caused by three extra small particles, called neutrons, being converted into pure energy. While Einstein’s theory of relativity explained why the atomic bombs worked, he did not participate very much in the research or development of atomic weaponry. His only other major contribution to the project was signing a letter written by Leo Szilard to President Roosevelt (Gosling, page 17). This letter explained the benefits of atomic energy development and urged that the United States start developing atomic weaponry.

Although he never worked directly on the atomic bomb, Einstein is often incorrectly associated with the advent of nuclear weapons. His famous equation E=mc2 explains the energy released in an atomic bomb but doesn't explain how to build one. He repeatedly reminded people, "I do not consider myself the father of the release of atomic energy. My part in it was quite indirect." (AMNH, page 1)

The first time that any physicist met with the government about developing an atomic weapon occurred in March, 1939 when Nico Fermi met with the Department of the Navy. This ended up leading nowhere, as the Navy thought it was too complicated, and never responded back to Fermi (Herken, page 43). Later on that year in December, a friend of Roosevelt’s, Alexander Sachs, presented the letter from Szilard and Einstein to him. Sachs could not explain the science behind the fission of uranium well, but he did stress the fact that with atomic bombs, the Germans would be unstoppable (Sheinkin, page 21). President Roosevelt understood what this meant: the Allied powers had to develop atomic weapons before Germany, or otherwise the war was as well as lost. "Roosevelt did not want to risk a German monopoly on such a weapon and approved uranium research in October 1939. This decision was the first among many that culminated in the Manhattan Project, America’s top-secret project to develop the atomic bomb." (Termine, page 3).With famous words he declared "This requires action!" (Baggott, page 42)

Although Roosevelt seemed enthusiastic about the need for atomic weapon development, it took a while to even get funding for initial research. When the funding was granted, it was only $6000 for possible research. President Roosevelt also appointed Lyman Briggs, the director of the National Bureau of Standards, to be the head of the Advisory Committee on Uranium (Gosling, page 5), but this committee recommended that the research be kept only to isotope separation, a different type of reaction. Many physicists abandoned the idea of atomic weaponry right then, and went back to their former occupations. Only a few people still pushed for more funding. Finally, after much hard work by Szilard and Fermi, the government granted $500 million once Roosevelt had approved the building of the atomic bomb. After it was approved and its funding granted, many physicists came to work on the project, as well as engineers, construction workers, electricians, chemists, and factory workers. The project was given the code name "The Manhattan Project" because of the early research that had occurred at Columbia University, located in Manhattan. The main location for the project was moved to a site in New Mexico called Los Alamos which had once been a school for boys (Gonzalez, page 9). Other locations were Clinton Engineer Works and also Hanford, Washington. "The Clinton Engineer Works site in east Tennessee was where the first production factories for the bomb's materials were built. This site was actually a town in which thousands of the workers on the Manhattan project lived. By the end of the war this town was the fifth-largest in Tennessee" (Gosling, page 20). Hanford was a small town in Washington that served as the main factory for purifying plutonium. It was established so that the Los Alamos site only had to purify uranium and could better focus on making more purified uranium. "The plutonium factory, Site W, would be built on the Columbia River near Hanford, Washington. This was another sparsely populated area of the United States, and the government soon informed the few families who lived nearby that they had to sell their homes and leave" (Gonzalez, page 42).

Later in 1942, Fermi was trying to test the chain-reaction theory of uranium. He believed that uranium atoms could split and the neutrons they released would cause other uranium atoms to split.

He had designed a primitive nuclear reactor made from several layers of graphite blocks. These would be stacked into a globe twenty-six feet tall and twenty-six feet wide at the center. Each layer would contain several uranium nuggets for fissioning. As its atoms split, the graphite would slow the released neutrons. Slow-moving neutrons were known to split more nuclei than rapidly moving ones. Each layer had channels across it to hold cadmium-coated steel rods. Cadmium absorbs uranium nuclei, so the rods would be slid in and out as the reactor needed speeding up or slowing down. (Gonzalez, page 38)

On December 2nd, 1942 many scientists gathered in a racket ball court underneath the football stadium at the University of Chicago where this nuclear reactor had been built.(Gosling, page 31) Once the reaction was started, clicking noises were made by the uranium atoms being split. Cadmium rods were removed one by one, and the reaction steadily got faster as shown by the speeding up clicking noises. Once all of the cadmium rods had been removed, there was one constant clicking noise. Fermi smiled and said "The reaction is self-sustaining." (Gonzalez, page 50) The reaction had been a success.

The production of the atomic bombs began soon after the discovery of the nuclear chain reaction. The Los Alamos plant was the main production plant for the bombs. Here, the bombs were assembled with the uranium and the plutonium that was produced at the other two sites. "Two types of bombs were being developed at Los Alamos. The first, a uranium bomb, was long and thin. Originally call "Thin Man" in honor of President Roosevelt, the size of the bomb was cut down and the nickname was changed to "Little Boy"....The second type of bomb being developed at Los Alamos was a plutonium bomb. Rounder than "Little Boy", it was named "Fat Man", in honor of Winston Churchill" (Sullivan, page 18). At Clinton Engineer Works, uranium-235 was separated from uranium-238 physically by isotope separation. This was a long process, and it took several years to get enough uranium-235 for the bomb. It was necessary because uranium-235 is lighter than uranium-238, and it is the only type of uranium that could be used to start a chain reaction. Uranium-238 makes up 99.3% of the world’s supply of uranium, so uranium-235 couldn’t be mined like uranium-238 could be. At Hanford, plutonium-239 was made from uranium-238. This plutonium then had to be converted into plutonium-240 for use in a plutonium bomb. This type of bomb would have a different process for detonation than the uranium bomb. "It would be detonated using a modified artillery gun inside a bomb casing to fire a lump of uranium onto a spherical uranium target at two thousand feet per second."(Sullivan, page 77). The force of the lump of uranium hitting the uranium target would start the chain reaction and would give the bomb its power.

The second type of bomb being developed at Los Alamos was a plutonium bomb... Hanford was producing the second type of fissionable material, Pu-239, needed for "Fat Man," and by 1945 it was estimated that there would be enough plutonium for more than one bomb. The scientists concluded that the relatively simple "gun assembly" method used for the U-235 bomb would not work for the plutonium. Two subcritical masses of plutonium could not be brought together fast enough to prevent a premature detonation. Physicist Seth Neddermeyer, a former student of Oppenheimer, proposed surrounding the plutonium with a layer of explosives. The blast wave of the detonated explosives would compress the plutonium instantly into a subcritical mass. This theory of implosion involved an extremely complicated procedure, and most scientists, including Oppenheimer, did not believe it would work. (Sullivan, page 79)

The bombs were finished in the spring of 1945, including a third bomb for testing called "Trinity". However just before Trinity was ready to be tested, President Roosevelt died on April 12th, and President Truman was sworn in. Just a few weeks later, Germany surrendered but the project still continued. By mid-July, Robert Oppenheimer was ready to test the bomb.

By the summer of 1945, Oppenheimer was ready to test the first bomb. On July 16, 1945, at Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, scientists of the Manhattan Project readied themselves to watch the detonation of the world's first atomic bomb. The device was affixed to a 100-foot tower and discharged just before dawn. No one was properly prepared for the result. A blinding flash visible for 200 miles lit up the morning sky. A mushroom cloud reached 40,000 feet, blowing out windows of civilian homes up to 100 miles away. When the cloud returned to earth it created a half-mile wide crater metamorphosing sand into glass. A bogus cover-up story was quickly released, explaining that a huge ammunition dump had just exploded in the desert. Soon word reached President Truman in Potsdam, Germany that the project was successful. (U.S.History.org, page 5)

On July 25, President Harry S. Truman and fellow Allied leaders, Josef Stalin and Clement Attlee, issued the Potsdam Declaration, an ultimatum for Japan to surrender unconditionally or face "prompt and utter destruction." Japan refused to accept these terms on July 28. Truman authorized the use of the atomic bombs as soon after Aug. 3 as possible. Four cities were selected as targets for their industrial and military importance: Hiroshima, Kokura, Niigata and Nagasaki. Weather conditions would now determine when and where the first bomb would be dropped. (Harris, page 1)

On August 6th, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb, Little Boy, was dropped. The bomb exploded above the city so that it could have the optimum effect on the city's infrastructure. It was dropped at 8:15 a.m. and it exploded 43 seconds later. "Every living thing within a half-mile radius of ground zero had been killed instantly, including at least seventy thousand people. Those who survived the initial blast saw a flash of blinding light, a rush of searing air, and a deafening roar." (Gonzalez, page 19). Three days later, the bomb "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki. "Fat Man" was more efficient than "Little Boy" but due to the landscape of Nagasaki, it was not as destructive. Little Boy had a death toll of 118,000. Fat Man had a death toll of 75,000. Japan surrendered on August 14th, thus ending World War II.

The end of the war was not the end of the atomic age, however. Soon other nations developed their own atomic weapons such as: Soviet Union (1949), Great Britain (1952), France (1960), China (1964), India (1974), and Pakistan (1998). The end of the war started the arms race and the cold war between the United States and the USSR. During the cold war, both nations built up their technology and military, while also developing new atomic weapons. The most notable of these new atomic weapons were hydrogen bombs. "Hydrogen bomb--a nuclear weapon in which light atomic nuclei of hydrogen are joined together to release tremendous amounts of energy. The hydrogen bomb is approximately one thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb. (Sullivan, page 172)

There were many spies from the Soviet Union that worked on the Manhattan Project. Some confessed and only received time in prison, while others received more severe punishment.

Dubbed the most important atomic spy in history, Klaus Fuchs was a primary physicist on the Manhattan Project and a lead scientist at Britain's nuclear facility by 1949. Just weeks after the Soviets exploded their atomic bomb in August 1949, a decryption of a 1944 message revealed that information describing important scientific processes related to construction of the A-bomb had been sent from the United Sates to Moscow. FBI agents identified Klaus Fuchs as the author. He later served nine years in prison. (Holmes, page 5).

"When he was recruited to work at Los Alamos, Ted Hall was haunted, he explained decades later, by thoughts of how to spare humanity the devastation of nuclear power. Finally, on leave in New York in October 1944, he decided to equalize the playing field, contacted the Soviets and volunteered to keep them apprised of the bomb research." (Holmes, page 6) Ted Hall was never charged with treason because another convicted spy could not identify him as his contact. He died in 1999. "Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of spying at a low level, but they adamantly denied all charges for years until they were found guilty in court. They were both sentenced to death for treason and for denying it." (Holmes, page 7)

The use of the atomic bombs did end World War II, but started the cold war with the Soviet Union. Overall though, the use of the atomic bombs probably saved more lives than an invasion of Japan would have. It was estimated that the United States army would lose 1 million men if it invaded Japan. The use of the atomic bombs drastically changed warfare forever, and now much more destruction was possible.