atomic bomb essay 500 words

Essay on Atomic Bomb

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100 Words Essay on Atomic Bomb

What is an atomic bomb.

An atomic bomb is a powerful weapon. It uses nuclear reactions to release a lot of energy. This energy comes from the splitting of atoms, tiny particles that make up everything around us. This process is called nuclear fission.

History of the Atomic Bomb

The first atomic bomb was made during World War II, in a secret project called the Manhattan Project. The United States made it to end the war quickly. They dropped two bombs on Japan in 1945. These bombings ended the war, but also caused much destruction.

Effects of an Atomic Bomb

When an atomic bomb explodes, it creates a huge fireball and a shock wave. These can destroy buildings and harm people. It also releases harmful radiation. This can make people sick, or even cause death. It can also harm the environment.

Atomic Bomb Today

Today, many countries have atomic bombs. They are often seen as a way to prevent war, because no one wants to face their destructive power. But, there are also many people who want to get rid of these weapons, because of the danger they pose to the world.

250 Words Essay on Atomic Bomb

An atomic bomb is a powerful weapon that uses nuclear reactions to create a big explosion. It was first made during World War II. This bomb uses the energy stored in atoms, the tiny particles that make up everything around us.

How Does it Work?

The atomic bomb works on the principle of nuclear fission. In simple words, it’s like splitting an atom into two smaller atoms. When this split happens, a lot of energy is released. This energy is what causes the big explosion. The atoms used in these bombs are usually uranium or plutonium.

The First Atomic Bomb

The first atomic bomb was made by the United States during World War II. This project was called the Manhattan Project. The first bomb was tested in July 1945 in New Mexico. Soon after, two more bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Effects of Atomic Bomb

The effects of an atomic bomb are very harmful. The explosion can destroy buildings and kill many people. It also releases radiation, which can cause sickness and even death. The radiation can stay in the area for many years, making it dangerous for people to live there.

Today, many countries have atomic bombs. There are rules to stop countries from using these bombs because of the damage they can cause. These rules are part of treaties or agreements between countries. Still, the existence of these bombs is a big concern for world peace.

In conclusion, an atomic bomb is a powerful and dangerous weapon. It has had a big impact on our world history and continues to be a concern today.

500 Words Essay on Atomic Bomb

Introduction to atomic bomb.

An atomic bomb is a powerful weapon that uses nuclear reactions to create a big explosion. The energy comes from splitting atoms, a process called nuclear fission. The first atomic bomb was made during World War II.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

The United States made the first atomic bomb during a project called the Manhattan Project. Many scientists worked together to create this weapon. They used uranium and plutonium, two types of elements, to make the bomb. These elements were chosen because they can start a chain reaction. This chain reaction releases a lot of energy quickly, causing a big explosion.

The Use of Atomic Bomb

The first time an atomic bomb was used was in 1945, during World War II. The United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. These bombings caused a lot of damage and killed many people. The bombs ended the war, but they also caused a lot of suffering.

The Impact of Atomic Bomb

The atomic bomb has a big impact. The explosion can destroy buildings and kill people. The heat from the explosion can cause fires. The radiation from the bomb can also make people sick. This sickness, called radiation sickness, can cause death. Even years after the bomb, people can still get sick from the radiation.

The Future of Atomic Bomb

Today, many countries have atomic bombs. There are rules to control who can have these weapons and how they can be used. These rules are important to prevent wars and protect people. But, there is still a risk. If these weapons are used again, it could cause a lot of damage and suffering.

The atomic bomb is a powerful weapon. It has changed the world in many ways. It ended a war, but it also caused a lot of harm. Today, it is important to remember the effects of the atomic bomb and work to prevent its use in the future.

This is a simple overview of the atomic bomb. There is a lot more to learn about this topic. But, hopefully, this gives you a good starting point. Remember, understanding our past can help us make better decisions in the future.

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Atomic Bomb History

By: History.com Editors

Updated: November 9, 2022 | Original: September 6, 2017

The atomic bomb and nuclear bombs are powerful weapons that use nuclear reactions as their source of explosive energy. Scientists first developed nuclear weapons technology during World War II. Atomic bombs have been used only twice in war—both times by the United States against Japan at the end of World War II, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A period of nuclear proliferation followed that war, and during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union vied for supremacy in a global nuclear arms race.

Nuclear Bombs and Hydrogen Bombs

A discovery by nuclear physicists in a laboratory in Berlin, Germany, in 1938 made the first atomic bomb possible, after Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered nuclear fission.

In nuclear fission, the nucleus of an atom of radioactive material splits into two or more smaller nuclei, which causes a sudden, powerful release of energy. The discovery of nuclear fission opened up the possibility of nuclear technologies, including weapons.

Atomic bombs get their energy from fission reactions. Thermonuclear weapons, or hydrogen bombs, rely on a combination of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is another type of reaction in which two lighter atoms combine to release energy.

Manhattan Project

On December 28, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the formation of the Manhattan Project to bring together various scientists and military officials working on nuclear research.

The Manhattan Project was the code name for the American-led effort to develop a functional atomic bomb during World War II . The project was started in response to fears that German scientists had been working on a weapon using nuclear technology since the 1930s.

Who Invented the Atomic Bomb?

Much of the work in the Manhattan Project was performed in Los Alamos, New Mexico , under the direction of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer , the “ father of the atomic bomb .”

On July 16, 1945, in a remote desert location near Alamogordo, New Mexico , the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated—the Trinity Test . It created an enormous mushroom cloud some 40,000 feet high and ushered in the Atomic Age.

Hiroshima And Nagasaki Bombings

Scientists at Los Alamos had developed two distinct types of atomic bombs by 1945—a uranium-based design called “the Little Boy” and a plutonium-based weapon called “the Fat Man.” (Uranium and plutonium are both radioactive elements.)

While the war in Europe had ended in April, fighting in the Pacific continued between Japanese forces and U.S. troops. In late July, President Harry Truman called for Japan’s surrender with the Potsdam Declaration . The declaration promised “prompt and utter destruction” if Japan did not surrender.

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb from a B-29 bomber plane called the Enola Gay over the city of Hiroshima , Japan. The “Little Boy” exploded with about 13 kilotons of force, leveling five square miles of the city and killing 80,000 people instantly. Tens of thousands more would later die from radiation exposure.

When the Japanese did not immediately surrender, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb three days later on the city of Nagasaki . The “Fat Man” killed an estimated 40,000 people on impact.

Nagasaki had not been the primary target for the second bomb. American bombers initially had targeted the city of Kokura, where Japan had one of its largest munitions plants, but smoke from firebombing raids obscured the sky over Kokura. American planes then turned toward their secondary target, Nagasaki.

Citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb,” Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s surrender on August 15—a day that became known as ‘ V-J Day ’—ending World War II.

The Cold War

The United States was the only country with nuclear weaponry in the years immediately following World War II. The Soviet Union initially lacked the knowledge and raw materials to build nuclear warheads.

Within just a few years, however, the U.S.S.R. had obtained—through a network of spies engaging in international espionage—blueprints of a fission-style bomb and discovered regional sources of uranium in Eastern Europe. On August 29, 1949, the Soviets tested their first nuclear bomb.

The United States responded by launching a program in 1950 to develop more advanced thermonuclear weapons. The Cold War arms race had begun, and nuclear testing and research became high-profile goals for several countries, especially the United States and the Soviet Union.

Cuban Missile Crisis

Over the next few decades, each world superpower would stockpile tens of thousands of nuclear warheads. Other countries, including Great Britain, France, and China, developed nuclear weapons during this time, too.

To many observers, the world appeared on the brink of nuclear war in October of 1962. The Soviet Union had installed nuclear-armed missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. This resulted in a 13-day military and political standoff known as the Cuban Missile Crisis .

President John F. Kennedy enacted a naval blockade around Cuba and made it clear the United States was prepared to use military force if necessary to neutralize the perceived threat.

Disaster was avoided when the United States agreed to an offer made by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the United States promising not to invade Cuba.

Three Mile Island

Many Americans became concerned about the health and environmental effects of nuclear fallout—the radiation left in the environment after a nuclear blast—in the wake of World War II and after extensive nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific during the 1940s and 1950s.

The antinuclear movement emerged as a social movement in 1961 at the height of the Cold War. During Women Strike for Peace demonstrations on November 1, 1961 co-organized by activist Bella Abzug , roughly 50,000 women marched in 60 cities in the United States to demonstrate against nuclear weapons.

The antinuclear movement captured national attention again in the 1970s and 1980s with high profile protests against nuclear reactors after the Three Mile Island accident—a nuclear meltdown at a Pennsylvania power plant in 1979.

In 1982, a million people marched in New York City protesting nuclear weapons and urging an end to the Cold War nuclear arms race. It was one of the largest political protests in United States history.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

The United States and Soviet Union took the lead in negotiating an international agreement to halt the further spread of nuclear weapons in 1968.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (also called the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT) went into effect in 1970. It separated the world’s countries into two groups—nuclear weapons states and non-nuclear weapons states.

Nuclear weapons states included the five countries that were known to possess nuclear weapons at the time—the United States, the U.S.S.R., Great Britain, France and China.

According to the treaty, nuclear weapons states agreed not to use nuclear weapons or help non-nuclear states acquire nuclear weapons. They also agreed to gradually reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons with the eventual goal of total disarmament. Non-nuclear weapons states agreed not to acquire or develop nuclear weapons.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, there were still thousands of nuclear weapons scattered across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Many of the weapons were located in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. These weapons were deactivated and returned to Russia.

Illegal Nuclear Weapon States

Some countries wanted the option of developing their own nuclear weapons arsenal and never signed the NPT. India was the first country outside of the NPT to test a nuclear weapon in 1974.

Other non-signatories to the NTP include: Pakistan, Israel and South Sudan. Pakistan has a known nuclear weapons program. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though has never officially confirmed or denied the existence of a nuclear weapons program. South Sudan is not known or believed to possess nuclear weapons.

North Korea

North Korea initially signed the NPT treaty, but announced its withdrawal from the agreement in 2003. Since 2006, North Korea has openly tested nuclear weapons, drawing sanctions from various nations and international bodies.

North Korea tested two long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2017—one reportedly capable of reaching the United States mainland. In September 2017, North Korea claimed it had tested a hydrogen bomb that could fit on top an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Iran, while a signatory of the NPT, has said it has the capability to initiate production of nuclear weapons at short notice.

Pioneering Nuclear Science: The Discovery of Nuclear Fission. International Atomic Energy Agency . The Development and Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. NobelPrize.org . Here are the facts about North Korea’s nuclear test. NPR .

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Atomic Bomb, Essay Example

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When it comes to war, there are always two sides. This is true with the atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan August 6, 1945.  On that fatal day, the bomb was a total destruction of the city, Hiroshima.  This casualty rate was estimated to be seventy to eighty thousand people.  With fatalities of this magnitude, arguments arise about the good and bad of such a massive attack.  Reviewing the correspondence and the specifications of the attack allows the separation of the good and the bad that are involved in this attack.  The United States reacted in the way they felt was best to stop Japan from their fatal actions and corrupt leaders.

There were many arguably positive sides for the atomic bomb attack on Japan.  Truman administration had felt the power in the possession of the atomic bomb would be the leverage they needed for inducing Moscow’s acquiescence.  Truman as well as his advisors had alternate options besides the atomic bomb.  They had intended on unconditional surrender and the anti-soviet reflection was heavy in their thinking.  This means that the soviet actions, politics, and failure to comply led the United States to resort to such a drastic measure.  The resistance that Japan was demonstrated with their fatal actions needed addressed.  They had committed mass suicide on Saipan pushing kamikaze attacks on Okinawa, and 100,000 people were killed in Tokyo by a fire bombing.

The United States reviewed the capabilities of Japan whose economy and society was tremendous strain”; nevertheless, “the ground component of the Japanese armed forces remains Japan’s greatest military asset.”   Another positive to the choice of the atomic bomb was that the United States only had two bombs ready.  They didn’t have an option to waste one to make a demonstration in a rural area.  Also consider Richard Frank estimate’s the depiction of the Japanese army’s terms for peace: “for surrender to be acceptable to the Japanese army it would be necessary for the military leaders to believe that it would not entail discrediting the warrior tradition and that it would permit the ultimate resurgence of a military in Japan.” That, Frank argues, would have been “unacceptable to any Allied policy maker”.  If the United States invaded Japan as opposed the bombs used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have caused a greater casualty rate.

There were many negative sides for the atomic bomb attack on Japan.  Herbert P. Bix has argued that the Japanese leadership would “probably not” have “surrendered if the Truman administration had clarified the status of the emperor” when it demanded unconditional surrender.  Japan was ready to admit defeat already.  There were more than 60 cities that were destroyed war and conventional bombing as well.   Another document associate with this attack showed the cons of the attack.  This document has played a role in arguments developed by Barton J. Bernstein that a few figures such as Marshall and Stimson were “caught between an older morality that opposed the intentional killing of noncombatants and a newer one that stressed virtually total war.” The United States did not provide enough time after the bombing of Hiroshima before attacking Nagasaki for the word to get out.  Meaning the attack lost value because there was not enough time for the bombing to be enough to prevent the second attack.  Finally, the casualty rates were excessive making this attack looked on negatively.  After Hiroshima, It was reported in a message from Captain William S. Parsons and others regarding the ultimate impact of the detonation.  It immediately killed at least 70,000 people, with many dying later from radiation sickness and other causes.

The United States reacted in the way they felt was best to stop Japan from their fatal actions and corrupt leaders.  The facts and proof associated with this bombing allows the reader to see both the positive and negatives sides of the US attack.  Regardless of the personal opinions for right and wrong, it is clear that this was and still is a big debate for the validity of an attack on this magnitude.  This 1945 attack took hundreds of thousands of lives, some military and some civilian.  Regardless of the events, the end results were favorable for the surrender of Japan.

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Photo Essay

How do humans make sense of the bomb?

Photography and introduction by Robert Del Tredici . Captions by Robert Del Tredici and Gordon Edwards . | October 7, 2021 

From the moment the atomic bomb was invented, humanity has struggled to make sense of it. It is a weapon of war, an enforcer of peace, a talisman of sovereignty, a fountainhead of undying radioactivity, and a fateful burden for humans into the far future. Yet the bomb’s physical presence—its deep grit and material magnitude of its mass production—has remained culturally invisible.

I wanted to take on this invisibility. I found out that the American bomb’s home ground had 12 factories, each making different materials and parts. I learned that each factory had a public relations officer. And I found out that the airspace above each plant was unrestricted.

But before engaging with the US nuclear weapons complex, I went to Hiroshima. I needed to find the human meaning of the bomb. One Hiroshima survivor told me, “If you weren’t there when it happened, you can have no idea what it was like.” Another told me, “Nuclear weapons and human beings cannot coexist.” I told them I wanted to photograph all of the American bomb-factories. An elderly survivor came over to me, put her hand on my arm and said, “Yes, you must do this.” Five years later, I completed my book of photographs and field notes, At Work in the Fields of the Bomb .

Model of the Uranium Atom

American Museum of Science and Energy, Los Alamos, New Mexico June 11, 1982

Of all the naturally occurring materials found on Earth, uranium is the only element whose atoms can be split in a process that releases energy and neutrons in a chain reaction. The neutrons go on to split more atoms, which release more energy and more neutrons, until an exponential increase in energy ignites an atomic fireball. In the photo, two boys play at shouldering the model of the atom, which is too big for them to handle.

The atomic bomb was conceived within living memory, and unless abolition ends it, the bomb will be passed on to our grandchildren’s grandchildren—a burden weightier than Atlas could have imagined.

Robert Del Tredici

Robert Del Tredici is an artist, teacher, and photographer. His first nuclear work documented the1978 accident at Three Mile Island. He went on to... Read More

Gordon Edwards

Gordon Edwards is a mathematician, physicist, nuclear consultant, and president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (www.ccnr.org).... Read More

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Monument to the Splitting of the Atom

Chelyabinsk City, Russia May 18, 1992

A remarkable Soviet-era monument lies on the outskirts of the formerly secret city of Chelyabinsk . It features a larger-than-life statue of Igor Kurchatov, father of the Soviet atomic bomb, standing in front of two monolithic slabs of granite depicting the foundational nuclear-weapons event: the splitting of the atom. Two hemispheres represent the fragments of the broken atom. Semicircles emanating from each hemisphere symbolize the enormous energy released when atoms are fissioned. Atoms split in hundreds of different ways, and each shard is a new radioactive element. A nuclear blast scatters these fission fragments in all directions. Many are lofted high into the stratosphere, travel around the globe, and eventually descend to earth as radioactive fallout. Soviet monument-designers made this core event of the bomb robustly visible.

Replica of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in an exhibit entitled The Social Impact of Flight, Washington DC June 26, 1981

The United States had so precisely calculated the physics of the Hiroshima uranium bomb that it did not see a need for prior testing . Still, the Department of Energy listed the Hiroshima explosion as a " nuclear test " until 2000 when it was reclassified as a “ combat detonation .”

From 1945 until 1952, an American censorship regime called The Press Code oversaw the suppression of bomb-related information within Japan. Images of mushroom clouds and reports of damage from the bomb's light, blast, heat, and radiation were forbidden. Scientific and medical reports, especially dealing with radiation effects, were confiscated. Eyewitness accounts of the bombing and its aftermath were stifled. Books, broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, film, literature, even letters and phone-calls, were subject to censorship. These measures were imposed to maintain “ public tranquility ” and to keep secret all aspects of the bomb’s “ performance or characteristics .” Meanwhile, American agencies explained to the American people three aspects of the atomic bomb:

It was a breakthrough in physics. It ended the war. It saved lives.

The Press Code ended in 1952—the year that the United States detonated the world’s first hydrogen bomb, the Teller-Ulam “Ivy Mike” bomb, in the Marshall Islands. At 10.4 megatons , the world’s first thermonuclear explosion was about 700 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. One megaton is equivalent to one million tons of TNT.

Yoshito Matsushige

Hiroshima City, Japan September 5, 1984

Matsushige lived 2.7 kilometers (about 1.5 miles) from the epicenter of the Hiroshima explosion. He is the only photographer known to have taken pictures inside Hiroshima the day the A-bomb exploded. He was stunned by the devastation he witnessed amidst thousands of corpses and a growing firestorm. He walked through the city for five hours with film for 24 pictures but, overwhelmed by what he saw, took only two through his tears. He returned home, took two pictures of his damaged house, then went out again and managed to take one more picture of a policeman signing vouchers for food.

“Before I became a professional cameraman, I had just been an ordinary person,” Matsushige said. His parting words to me were: "There should never be a war in which nuclear weapons are used. So, I hope that you listen to as many people as possible in Hiroshima, and that you make as many people as possible know how terrible the A-bomb is. That is my wish."

Hiroshima survivors make three observations about the first A-bomb used in war:

If you weren’t there when it happened, you have no idea what went on. It must never happen again to anyone for any reason. Nuclear weapons and human beings cannot coexist.

All the Warheads in the US Nuclear Arsenal

Boston Science Museum February 13, 1986

Denver artist Barbara Donachy’s installation, Amber Waves of Grain , depicts in one glance the 25,000 warheads in the US nuclear arsenal at the height of the Cold War, along with the nuclear submarines, bombers, and ballistic missiles designed to deliver them. The number of warheads declined after the Cold War, but US nuclear forces are on the rise again.

Humans co-exist with the bomb. Were A-bomb survivors wrong when they said that nuclear weapons and human beings cannot coexist? Perhaps they were suggesting that those who are prepared to unleash this annihilating power should no longer consider themselves human.

Edward Teller

Palo Alto, California December 21, 1984

Edward Teller once told me, “You must never refer to me as the father of anything.” Nevertheless, he did sire the hydrogen bomb, also known as the H-bomb, by integrating nuclear fission with nuclear fusion in a single “physics package” called a thermonuclear weapon. The H-bomb’s explosive power can be hundreds of times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. Teller also inspired Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars program, which poured federal funds into space-based weaponry portrayed as a shield against incoming nuclear-armed missiles.

At a public meeting in Montreal on May 13, 1996, a woman asked Teller if she should be worried about radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl meltdown that had happened two weeks earlier. Teller’s answer : “If you explode all the nuclear weapons in all the arsenals of the world, a large fraction of humanity will not be injured, and the damage will be more or less confined to the places where the hostilities occurred.”

Teller’s response clashes with Albert Einstein’s 1946 warning : “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”

Howard Morland’s Model of an H-Bomb Warhead

US Supreme Court, Washington, DC July 10, 1983

Howard Morland was the first to make the inner workings of the H-bomb publicly visible. He pieced together its physics and deduced its internal design from unclassified literature and informal conversations with industry and government officials. In 1979, the US government sued to prevent the publication of Morland’s article entitled “ The H-Bomb Secret .” According to Morland, the secret of the H-bomb is that there is no secret. His insight came from a diagram in the Encyclopedia Americana that showed a sphere the size of a soccer ball that contained a smaller ball of plutonium surrounded by conventional explosives—the tell-tale sign of an implosion-type atomic bomb. The author of the text accompanying the diagram? None other than Edward Teller. In court, Morland demonstrated the public nature of his information, won the case , and published his article.

A warhead the size of Howard Moreland’s model would weigh about 270 pounds, based on personal communication with Moreland. The dark plutonium ball seen here is called the “ plutonium trigger ” for the H-bomb because it kick-starts the weapon’s fission-fusion-fission series of blast events. Under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, thousands of American and Soviet nuclear warheads were dismantled simply by removing their plutonium triggers, which rendered the weapons harmless.

Nuclear Weapons Designer Ted Taylor

Damascus, Maryland October 13, 1986

Ted Taylor was no fan of the city-busting H-bombs that were based on the principle of mutually assured destruction, also known as MAD. He thought weapons designers should develop fission bombs for use in combat. He was responsible for miniaturizing some of the nuclear weapons in the US nuclear arsenal, which led to a new generation of fission bombs. He designed the largest and the smallest A-bombs ever deployed. The smallest was the W54 Davy Crockett battlefield missile, which weighed 51 pounds , fit inside a bowling bag , and had an explosive yield of up to 20 tons of TNT.

But Taylor’s years in the weapons business left him disillusioned and alarmed. He identified poorly guarded plutonium stockpiles throughout the US nuclear weapons complex. He was among the first to warn the public that plutonium created in civilian power reactors could be used for nuclear weapons. In his later years, he spoke of nuclear weapons as an addiction and the bomb as “spherically evil”—that is, abominable from every angle. He also came to champion solar energy as a promising alternative to both fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Ball of Plutonium

Held by Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Kansas City, Missouri October 13, 1986

This glass sphere, 3.2 inches across, is the exact size of the plutonium ball in the Nagasaki bomb. In that bomb, only a small amount of the original plutonium mass—about the weight of a butterfly —was actually converted into the energy of the explosion.

Plutonium is not found in nature, but it is created inside every uranium-fueled nuclear reactor. Some uranium atoms absorb neutrons without splitting, and these heavier atoms spontaneously transmute into plutonium atoms. This means that plutonium is a derivative of uranium. The first reactors were built for the sole purpose of converting uranium to plutonium for bombs.

Uranium cannot be used as a nuclear explosive until it is highly enriched, and uranium enrichment is a slow, costly, energy-intensive operation. Plutonium is different in that once it is chemically extracted from irradiated fuel, it is immediately weapons usable—no enrichment required. Unlike uranium, any grade of plutonium extracted from nuclear fuel can be used as bomb material, although certain grades are preferred by bomb-makers. Plutonium has a smaller critical mass than highly enriched uranium, allowing for smaller, more compact fission “triggers” in thermonuclear weapons. For this reason, plutonium has been chosen over uranium as a trigger in the US nuclear arsenal. Uranium is still used in the second stage of a thermonuclear weapon."

Peaceful Atoms: The CANDU Reactor

Darlington, Ontario, Canada January 21, 1987

The Canadian Deuterium Uranium reactor—known and trademarked as the CANDU—had its distant origins in the Manhattan Project. This civilian reactor fissions natural, unenriched uranium, suspended in a moderator of heavy water (deuterium oxide) to produce heat, steam, electricity— and plutonium . The reactor produces plutonium more abundantly than any other commercial reactor except the breeder. Canadians have sometimes referred to it as a “ near breeder .” The CANDU reactor is used for peaceful purposes, but the plutonium in the first atomic bomb that India detonated in 1974 came from a copy of the first Canadian heavy-water research reactor, a CANDU precursor. India, Pakistan, Argentina, South Korea, Romania, and China have operating CANDU reactors.

Spent Fuel in Dry Storage

Gentilly, Quebec July 14, 1999

These concrete and steel dry casks contain irradiated nuclear fuel from the Gentilly-1 CANDU reactor in Bécancour, Quebec on the St. Lawrence River. Irradiated fuel is the most radioactive byproduct of a nuclear reactor. Designated as “high-level nuclear waste,” it is millions of times more radioactive than unfissioned fuel because of the accumulation of fission fragments in the used fuel. To prevent lethal radiation exposures, irradiated fuel must be handled robotically from the time it is removed from the reactor and submerged in circulating water to cool for seven to 10 years until it is inserted into a dry cask for 20 or more years of further cooling. After 30 years of cooling, the irradiated fuel—still requiring robotic handling—is considered ready for deep underground storage. It can, however, remain longer in wet or dry storage should an underground repository be unavailable. To prevent the waste from being placed beyond human control, some advocate “ rolling stewardship ” as an alternative to the deep burial and abandonment of irradiated fuel.

All irradiated nuclear fuel contains plutonium, the primary explosive metal of the bomb. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,400 years. This means it must be isolated for 10 times that period, or a quarter of a million years. Plutonium can be extracted from spent nuclear fuel and used to build nuclear weapons at any time in the future.

What, then, is the real product of a nuclear reactor? Is it the several decades of useful electricity, or the quarter-million years of weapons-usable plutonium, or the tens of millions of years of radiotoxic nuclear wastes?

Hanford Tank Farm

Hanford Nuclear Reservation, 200 Area, Richland, Washington November 16, 1984

These million-gallon, double-walled carbon steel tanks are designed to contain high-level liquid radioactive waste. Hanford’s plutonium reprocessing program generated such waste when extracting plutonium from irradiated reactor fuel for use in bombs. To free up the plutonium locked inside reactor fuel, the fuel is chopped to bits and the bits are dissolved in boiling nitric acid. The plutonium is then chemically separated from the corrosive liquid, which still contains the intensely radioactive fission fragments. These new tanks have replaced older, single-walled tanks at Hanford that leaked 1 million gallons of the liquid into Hanford soil not far from the Columbia River. The double-walled tanks were a hoped-for solution to the challenge of safely containing these dangerous wastes for a few more decades.

Radioactive Releases from the Kyshtym Disaster

Conference presentation in Chelyabinsk-40’s Hall of the People May 20, 1992

The speaker displays a chart showing the toxicity of various radioactive elements released to the environment during a chemical explosion 35 years earlier known as the Kyshtym disaster . On September 29, 1957, an underground tank containing high-level liquid reprocessing wastes exploded, spewing radioactive materials over 7,700 square miles. This forced the evacuation of 10,000 people from 22 villages. The most contaminated region, which came to be known as the East Ural Radioactive Trace, remains uninhabitable today. The exploded tank held the same kind of liquid reprocessing wastes as the Hanford tanks. The Kyshtym wastes came from the Mayak Chemical Combine 55 miles away. Mayak’s five plutonium-production reactors and its reprocessing plant were engaged in a massive undertaking: to catch up with the American nuclear weapons program. It succeeded.

Particle of Plutonium in the Lung Tissue of an Ape

Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley, California September 20, 1982

A ball of plutonium the size of an orange can destroy a city, but it takes only a speck to kill a human. Plutonium gives off energetic alpha particles as it disintegrates. Such particles do not travel far, but once inside the lung they can do extraordinary damage to cells within their limited range. The black star in the upper part of this picture are the tracks made by alpha particles from a microscopic speck of plutonium in the lung tissue of an ape. These alpha tracks, magnified 500 times, occurred over a 48-hour period. Their invisibly tiny source has a half-life of 24,400 years. Sensitive lung tissue bombarded by alpha particles can develop into lung cancer years later. Hundreds of thousands of people have died from ingesting or inhaling alpha-emitters, including dial painters from radium, uranium miners from radon gas, and cigarette smokers from polonium. Inhaling plutonium dust is life-threatening because the alpha-emitting particulates are insoluble and can lodge in lung tissue for a long time, irradiating that tissue 24 hours a day.

Alice Stewart

Birmingham Regional Cancer Center Registry, England September 13, 1981

Alice Stewart demonstrated in 1956 that a single diagnostic X-ray to the abdomen of a pregnant woman increases the incidence of childhood leukemia in her offspring by 50 to 100 percent. Stewart’s conclusions were not attacked by those in the biomedical community but by physicists and engineers from the nuclear industry and the military , who for years had been assuring people that such low levels of radiation exposure were harmless. In response, Stewart undertook a larger study that confirmed her earlier results with irrefutable data. In this way she became a world authority on the health effects of low-level ionizing radiation. Stewart compared the challenge of detecting radiation damage to finding a needle in a haystack. Her maxim for discovering low-level radiation effects in a human population was: “In order to find radiation damage, you have to want to find it.” Stewart went on to study radiation-induced illnesses in uranium miners, Japanese A-bomb survivors, and, with Thomas Mancuso, Hanford’s plutonium workers . Her final work focused on the health effects of naturally occurring background radiation.

Alvin Weinberg

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee August 13, 1983

Originally educated as a biophysicist, Alvin Weinberg soon became an atomic pioneer. He helped design the military production reactors at Hanford to convert uranium to plutonium for the Manhattan Project. Later, he conceived the pressurized water reactor, which became the most prevalent civilian power reactor in the world and the preferred propulsion unit for nuclear submarines. His post-war career at Oak Ridge National Laboratory featured the molten-salt-reactor experiment, based on earlier work for a nuclear aircraft engine to power long-range strategic bombers.

Weinberg envisioned a future nuclear-powered society with thousands of reactors, most of them breeders, that required constant reprocessing of irradiated fuel to recover plutonium for re-use as fuel. In 1977, he addressed 2,000 nuclear scientists at an International Conference on Nuclear Power and Its Fuel Cycle in Salzburg Austria, with the words: “We nuclear scientists have not faced up to the prospect of complete success." He defined such success as 5,000 to 20,000 operating reactors worldwide. He said that the nuclear community would need to plan for at least one meltdown every four years and advised siting reactors away from cities. He suggested that a multi-millennial nuclear priesthood would be necessary to handle the meltdowns, supervise the reprocessing, safeguard the plutonium, and segregate all nuclear activities from direct contact with civil society. He declared that nuclear power is a Faustian bargain : the prize, unlimited energy; the price, eternal vigilance.

Two Nuclear Jet Aircraft Engines

EBR-1 facility near Arco, Idaho National Laboratory November 9, 1984

The fission reactor designed to power a nuclear aircraft engine was developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by Alvin Weinberg and his team. Called the Nuclear Propulsion Project, it was Oak Ridge’s largest post-war project and consumed one-quarter of the lab’s budget. The project sought to run an engine to propel a bomber further and allow it to stay aloft longer than other Strategic Air Command bombers. President Kennedy cancelled the billion-dollar project in 1961. By then, the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles had reduced the military rationale for long-range bombers. Also, the challenge of preventing high levels of radiation exposures to the nuclear bomber crew proved insurmountable.

To minimize engine size and avoid high pressures, the aircraft's nuclear reactor had used a mix of molten salt and liquid fissile material as both fuel and coolant. Even after the nuclear aircraft program was cancelled, the molten salt reactor experiment continued under Weinberg. Recently, small start-ups have been trying to revive the molten-salt concept for their small modular nuclear reactors. Other “advanced concepts” are also being proposed, including some cooled by helium gas, liquid metal, and molten salt, with fuel made from reprocessed plutonium or from uranium enriched much more than fuel for commercial reactors. These small modular nuclear reactor designs are based on reactors built more than 60 years ago—reactors that were never successfully commercialized—such as Alvin Weinberg’s experimental molten salt reactor.

Maids of Muslyumovo

Chelyabinsk Oblast, Southern Urals Region, Russia May 19, 1992

These women live in a village on the River Techa, 35 kilometers downstream from five plutonium-production reactors and a plutonium reprocessing plant. They are victims of chronic exposure to high-level liquid reprocessing wastes similar to that which devastated the Kyshtym region. In its haste to match the US nuclear weapons program, the Mayak Chemical Combine dumped high-level liquid reprocessing wastes into the Techa River over a four-year period. The river water turned black. Villagers fell ill. Many died. Though medical personnel were forbidden to use the word “ radiation ,” 23 of 40 villages were evacuated. Muslyumovo was the largest village on the river, but its ethnic Tartar-Bakshir population was not evacuated.

In the photo Muslyumovo women are watching Westerners measure radioactivity in water, weeds, and silt from the Techa as it flows past their town. On this day, the village had been informed for the first time how the inhabitants’ health had been affected by Mayak’s dumping of radioactive wastes into their air and water over four decades.

Thanks to photography, these women are not faceless victims. The instant their moment of truth was captured by the camera they became living witnesses with vivid expressions of concern, shock, and realization triggered by decades of betrayal and poisoning. They stand in for all those who have stumbled into the raw knowledge of the true cost of our addiction to the mass-production of the bomb.

As the coronavirus crisis shows, we need science now more than ever.

The Bulletin elevates expert voices above the noise. But as an independent, nonprofit media organization, our operations depend on the support of readers like you. Help us continue to deliver quality journalism that holds leaders accountable. Your support of our work at any level is important . In return, we promise our coverage will be understandable, influential, vigilant, solution-oriented, and fair-minded. Together we can make a difference.

Keywords: Edward Teller , Hiroshima , Nagasaki , atomic bomb , atomic bomb survivors , nuclear energy , nuclear risk , nuclear weapons , plutonium , radioactive , radioactive waste Topics: Analysis , Hiroshima & Nagasaki , Multimedia , Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Risk , Nuclear Weapons

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This amazing photo essay tells a powerful story. Thank you.

As a part of the US nuclear weapon force in the ’70’s and 80’s, and warhead custodian, I saw the naiveté of the public in general as to the potential devastation that these WMDs would cause if used, even in a defensive capacity. Most of my time was spent with air defense missiles with nuclear warheads to destroy armadas of enemy bombers or missiles. It think MAD is what saved us, but as we have seen the unprincipled leadership of late, I don’t think long-term thought is part of the thought process today. I weep and pray for my children …  Read more »

Bravo for this thorough work, Bob, that you had the great generosity to share with the members of Les Artistes pour la Paix (Montréal) through numerous slide shows and exhibitions in the last 25 years!

The only way to make sense of the bomb is to hold it in slight regard. Once made, it must now be seen as obsolete. Nature makes billions of species, most of whom do not survive. The nuclear bomb must be thought of this way– obsolete, not fit to exist, if we are to survive our adolescence as a species and as a world. (of course, to ‘give up’ nuclear weapons means to give up all the supply chains and ethics chains and military strategy chains that brought it to existence, that keep it in our present and our future. …  Read more »

Thank you for this combination of lyrical prose and stunning photos, chilling in its power. It is so important to begin to expose this vast yet hidden enterprise, so aptly described as a peculiar addiction.

Compelling photos and descriptions. This history must be known and also to never forget that nuclear power, security risks, health effects and disasters are all causal and associative to each of the elements (atoms). Simon J. Daigle, B.Sc., M.Sc., M.Sc(A)

This photo essay is an effective way to reach to reach more of the uninterested public. We need to reach and convince at least 50% of the public in countries with nuclear power and weapons before the nuclear conundrum may be ended.

Thanks for these and for your wonderful book, At Work in the Fields of the Bomb.

Sorry to nitpick, but the American Museum of Science and Energy (first picture, taken June 11, 1982), is in Oakridge, TN. The Bradbury Science Museum, not shown, is in Los Alamos, New Mexico

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The Atomic Bomb Essay

• Author Kimberly Ball
• Category General Essays

Disclaimer: This paper has been submitted by a student. This is not a sample of the work written by professional academic writers.

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The atomic bomb was the only nuclear weapon used for war. It has only ever been used twice in warfare, and has not been used since. The invention of the atomic bomb caused catastrophic events and wiped out tens of thousands of people. But who decided this was necessary and why?

The invention of the atomic bomb is said to have started in Berlin, one year before World War II commenced. A group of chemists or physicists, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and Fritz Strassman discovered nuclear fission, this is said to be the dawn of a new era: the atomic age. The main Allied and Axis countries raced to begin the development of new and superior weapons.

The Manhattan Project was launched soon after the discovery of nuclear fission. It was authorised by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the American president at the time, his main objective was to end the war in the pacific, that being between the United States and Japan. Most of the developmental and experimental work was performed by J. Robert Openheimer, a theoretical physicist and one of the major contributors to the invention of the atomic bomb. The Government managed to persuade Albert Einstein to help them create the bomb, he was very concerned that Germany may develop the nuclear technology first and feared the potential outcome. Even though Einstein helped the government create and develop nuclear technology he regretted doing so after the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

There were risks taken with the development of the atomic bomb. After Japan bombings, countries were racing to get their hands on the new nuclear technology in order to arm themselves and improve their military weapons.

Espionage was a very big issue at the time, especially in the Soviet Union. The Russians were using spies in the United States to get blueprints for the atomic bomb in order to improve on their weaponry.

When two bombs were dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the two major cities of Japan were severely affected. At the hypocentre, the area in which the bomb dropped directly, people and buildings were immediately disintegrated. Around 60 000- 80 000 people died immediately due to the distance from the atomic bomb, and more than 200 000 people died soon after because of effects of the bomb, such as cancer and radiation poisoning. The dropping of the atomic bomb also caused anarchy in Japan, because civilians were so frightened that an additional bombing would occur. The United States were very much aware of these risks because they had deployed an atomic bomb prior to the Japan bombings and were able to see how extreme the bomb was. They could tell by research that the bomb gave off tremendous amounts of radiation and could cause much harm to people.

The President of the United States at the time of the bombings was President Harry S. Truman, who made the official decision of the deployment of the atomic bombs. President Truman’s main objective was to end the war with the least amount of deaths. He believed that the only option that would result in the least amount of deaths was to bomb a populated area in Japan. Truman weighed in the odds and noted that a conventional air raid would result in approximately 5 times the amount of deaths than the atomic bomb did, and a normal ground invasion would cause the death of many soldiers in combat.

To deploy the atomic bomb in an unpopulated area as a demonstration of the United State’s power and to threaten Japan, was not a reliable strategy because Japan could have taken a considerate amount of time to decide whether or not to end the war, this was an issue for the U.S. because they were eager to end the war as soon as possible. Another problem was that they were not certain that the bomb would actually perform as required, from this they were worried that it would cause Japan to fight back even more than before, because they would know about a potential catastrophic weapon that would harm Japan.

From these problems Truman decided it best to bomb a populated area of Japan, but more importantly a city that was the centre of military development. This was important because the United States wanted to destroy Japan’s ability to continue the war.

After the events of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima, President Truman refused to deploy anymore atomic bombs, and would only do so is absolutely necessary. He said in his response to a letter from a senator, “But I can’t bring myself to believe that because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in the same manner,” in reference to the Japanese.

To conclude , the atomic bomb was a disastrous invention and caused many people to die. After these events occurred, came the dawn for the atomic age, that such as the Cold War. The United States saw this as their only way out of the war between them and Japan, and decided to take action before things would take a turn for the worst.

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The World War Ii: The Atomic Bomb

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Exploring Atomic Bomb History Beyond Los Alamos

The Atomic Museum in Las Vegas explains to visitors that Nevada and other states also played a role — for better or worse — in the creation of nuclear energy.

By Michael Janofsky

Reporting from Las Vegas

This article is part of our Museums special section about how institutions are striving to offer their visitors more to see, do and feel.

The blockbuster movie about J. Robert Oppenheimer might have left the impression that only New Mexico was involved in developing America’s atomic bomb.

Hardly. Neighboring Nevada played a vital role, too. And the Atomic Museum in this glittery town known for gambling and big-name entertainment will tell you all about it — and more.

Here, just beyond the major hotels and casinos is a museum dedicated to the history and science of nuclear weapons as a critical part of America’s national security for more than 85 years. It’s one of 200 museums around the country affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and a thematic partner to nearly a dozen others that highlight various aspects of the nation’s nuclear programs.

The Atomic Museum makes clear the genius and necessity of developing awesome nuclear power while not ignoring the lethal impact it had on ordinary people — the moral conflict at the core of “Oppenheimer,” winner of seven Academy Awards for 2023, including best picture and best actor for Cillian Murphy in the title role.

Among a wealth of actual and facsimile objects used in development and testing are an identical shell casing of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, and a replica of the actual bomb that it would have encased. Elsewhere is a display meant to honor the Japanese people killed and injured by Fat Man and L ittle Boy, a smaller bomb dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier. T ogether, they killed more than 200,000 people by some estimates, effectively ending World War II.

“We understand the topic is complicated,” Joseph Kent, the deputy director and curator of the museum, said of exhibits that move visitors along a detailed chronology of the nation’s atomic program with an emphasis on Nevada’s role as a former site for atmospheric and underground testing. “We try to inform the public without getting into whether it’s all good or bad. That’s not really for us to decide.”

The starting point of the museum is a gallery dedicated to the Manhattan Project and the Trinity test overseen by Oppenheimer in July 1945, the world’s first nuclear detonation, set off in a remote area of New Mexico. At the time, Oppenheimer was the first director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

While the Trinity exhibit was opened in 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the test, it helped spur attendance at the museum once the Covid pandemic subsided. Kent said the film and recent nuclear saber-rattling toward Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin helped the museum draw more than 50,000 visitors in 2023, the most in five years.

“After people watched ‘Oppenheimer’ and they hear about what’s going on in the world, they realize they don’t know as much about this topic as they probably should,” he said. “Atomic bombs, nuclear weapons, Oppenheimer, the Soviet Union, the Cold War — they want to find a place where they can learn about them in an addressable form.”

Beyond weapons, the museum offers a window into the science that produced them, but also the everyday life they influenced. In one diorama of a 1950s family, the parents look away in fear from a boxy television set showing a nuclear explosion. Another display shows how the word “atom” became a cultural touchstone — a Kix cereal box promoting an “Atomic Bomb Ring” inside, an “Atoman” comic book and a canister once filled with “Atomic Fireballs” candy. Nearby is a scale model of a blazing red Ford Nucleon, a proposed nuclear-powered car from 1957 that the company never produced.

The visceral center of the museum is the Ground Zero Theater, which uses a 15-minute black-and-white film of an actual nuclear test to approximate what it was like to work on it. Watching from benches, visitors see the explosion, then experience what happens next — utter silence, followed by a deafening roar filling the room and the benches shaking to simulate waves of the aftershock.

Later, Troy Wade, who served as a test site controller, appears on the screen.

“When you see it here you recognize that it’s a very, very terrible weapon of war and when you see one, you understand what it can do and why it must never be used,” he says. “But you understand the value of having it and having your enemies know that you’re not afraid to use it if you want.”

Other areas have more artifacts of the early days of development. One showcase displays two dozen types of Geiger counters. Another has an authentic Fizeau instrumentation package , a huge cubic device of instruments, recorders and cameras that was positioned 500 feet above a test explosion to capture temperature, pressure and levels of radiation.

The museum pays tribute to other sites that contributed important elements of the nuclear program, including the vast expanse of rugged federal land 65 miles north of here, known in its early days as the Nevada Test Site. About 100 atmospheric tests were conducted there from 1951 through 1962 and more than 800 underground tests from 1963 through 1992. Renamed the Nevada National Security Sites, it’s now where scientists maintain warheads. Free public tours are held monthly.

There are also nods to those among America’s 18 national laboratories that continue to conduct research and development in energy, technology and related fields, including Los Alamos and the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

While the subject matter of the Atomic Museum may be more cerebral than other Las Vegas attractions, like the Burlesque Hall of Fame or the Mob Museum, it does serve to remind people of a nervous period of American history following World War II, when fear was pervasive, schoolchildren practiced hiding under their desks, families built fallout shelters and America kept developing ever more powerful weapons, just in case.

“One of our guiding principles is we are not here to try to change people’s minds,” Kent said of nuclear development. “Our goal is to provide an informed opinion. Whether you are for or against nuclear weapons testing, ultimately we can all agree that the history needs to be remembered.”