Who developed the plutonium for the Manhatten project

Factual Questions
1

If I understand it correctly (and I very well might not) the army didn’t know much about it and the teams working on the Manhatten project were vying to get a hairs worth of it to experiment with, who was developing it?

IOW, who made it?

2

Oak Ridge.

3

Hanford.

4

All of the facilities producing it were part of the Manhattan Project. Yes, it was hard to get even a hair’s worth, and harder still to get enough for a weapon. But that’s what they did. Of course, the difficulty didn’t scale linearly: A lot of the effort was just in getting the large-scale facilities up and running.

5

Ob: Possibly the best single volume ever written on a complex segment of modern history. If Rhodes missed any element of the bomb’s history, it wasn’t worth including. :slight_smile:

6

Thanks all for the links.

7

This is the correct answer. Oak Ridge only produced research quantities of plutonium. The plutonium for the first atomic bombs was produced at Hanford: Manhattan Project: Oak Ridge and Hanford Come Through, 1944-1945

Initially the plan was to build the plutonium production facilities at Oak Ridge, which was already producing uranium. However it later became clear the gigantic the scale of the industrial system to produce this. It would require over 75,000 acres and a vast additional amount of electrical power, and Oak Ridge was already straining TVA generating capacity.

Gen. Leslie Groves was also worried that a site disaster would take down both uranium and plutonium production and possibly threaten the city of Knoxville, so it was decided to locate the plutonium facilities at Hanford, WA. This is all documented in the book Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project, by Leslie R. Groves.

8

[technical note: I see you linked to Amazon; I was rerouted to Walmart. Will look in ATMB about this…]

ETA: ATMB thread here: Changing links? - About This Message Board - Straight Dope Message Board

9

Slightly OT, but still interesting: an excerpt from Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman in which Richard Feynman recalls his time at Los Alamos:

10

Coincidentally, this video about Hanford was shown on Oregon Public Broadcasting a couple of nights ago. It’s very informative for anyone wanting to know more about the effort to produce an atomic bomb and the aftermath problems which continue to this day.

11

Paducah, Kentucky…Unfortunately.

12

No, that was a Uranium production plant.

But, they did manage to do quite a bit of Plutonium contamination along the way…

13

I took a tour of the B Reactorr at Hanford back in May. I have to say, walking into the main room and seeing the reactor right there in front of me was an “Oh, WOW!” moment. If you’re ever in the area and are a history buff at all, the reactor is a must-see.

14

YES… Exactly the inference.
I lived there. My Father worked there.

15

I agree! I also highly recommend the tours (there are a couple). I’m hoping that with the creation of the new National Park, that the tours might become a bit more frequent. Right now, you sign up long in advance and the spots fill quickly (at least the last time I tried to go with friends).

Now I need to get to NM and TN to see the rest of the sites.