The Story of Nuclear Energy: The Nuclear Bomb

Worlds Within Worlds: The Story of Nuclear Energy, Volume 3 (of 3), by Isaac Asimov is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Volume III, NUCLEAR FISSION: The Nuclear Bomb

The Nuclear Bomb

Although the theory of the nuclear bomb seemed clear and simple, a great many practical difficulties stood in the way. In the first place, if only uranium atoms underwent fission a supply of uranium had at least to be obtained in pure form, for if the neutrons struck nuclei of elements other than uranium, they would simply be absorbed and removed from the system, ending the possibility of a chain reaction. This alone was a heavy task, since there had been so little use for uranium in quantity that there was almost no supply in existence and no experience in how to purify it.

Secondly, the supply of uranium might have to be a large one, for neutrons didn’t necessarily enter the first uranium atom they approached. They moved about here and there, making glancing collisions, and travelling quite a distance, perhaps, before striking head-on and entering a nucleus. If in that time they had passed outside the lump of uranium, they were useless.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Albert Einstein

 Old Grove Rd.

Nassau Point

Peconic, Long Island

August 2nd, 1939

F.D. Roosevelt,

President of the United States,

White HouseWashington, D.C.

Sir:

Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. I believe therefore that it is my duty to bring to your attention the following facts and recommendations:

In the course of the last four months it has been made probable—through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America—that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.

This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable—though much less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.

Albert Einstein

The United States has only very poor ores of uranium in moderate quantities. There is some good ore in Canada and the former Czechoslovakia, while the most important source of uranium is Belgian Congo.

In view of this situation you may think it desirable to have some permanent contact maintained between the Administration and the group of physicists working on chain reactions in America. One possible way of achieving this might be for you to entrust with this task a person who has your confidence and who could perhaps serve in an inofficial capacity. His task might comprise the following:

a) to approach Government Departments, keep them informed of the further development, and put forward recommendations for Government action, giving particular attention to the problem of securing a supply of uranium ore for the United States;

b) to speed up the experimental work, which is at present being carried on within the limits of the budgets of University laboratories, by providing funds, if such funds be required, through his contacts with private persons who are willing to make contributions for this cause, and perhaps also by obtaining the co-operation of industrial laboratories which have the necessary equipment.

I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium from the Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over. That she should have taken such early action might perhaps be understood on the ground that the son of the German Under-Secretary of State, von Weizsäcker, is attached to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut in Berlin where some of the American work on uranium is now being repeated.

Yours very truly,

(Albert Einstein)

As the quantity of uranium within which the fission chain reaction was initiated grew larger, more and more of the neutrons produced found a mark and the fission reaction would die out more and more slowly. Finally, at some particular size—the “critical size”—the fission reaction did not die at all, but maintained itself, with enough of the neutrons produced finding their mark to keep the nuclear reaction proceeding at a steady rate. At any greater size the nuclear reaction would accelerate and there would be an explosion.

It wasn’t even necessary to send neutrons into the uranium to start the process. In 1941 the Russian physicist Georgii Nikolaevich Flerov (1913- ) found that every once in a while a uranium atom would undergo fission without the introduction of a neutron. Occasionally the random quivering of a nucleus would bring about a shape that the nuclear interaction could not bring back to normal and the nucleus would then break apart. In a gram of ordinary uranium, there is a nucleus undergoing such “spontaneous fission” every 2 minutes on the average. Therefore, enough uranium need only be brought together to surpass critical size and it will explode within seconds, for the first nucleus that undergoes spontaneous fission will start the chain reaction.

First estimates made it seem that the quantity of uranium needed to reach critical size was extraordinarily great. Fully 99.3% of the metal is uranium-238, however, and, as soon as fission was discovered, Bohr pointed out that there were theoretical reasons for supposing that it was the uranium-235 isotope (making up only 0.7% of the whole) that was the one undergoing fission. Investigation proved him right. Indeed, the uranium-238 nucleus tended to absorb slow neutrons without fission, and to go on to beta-particle production that formed isotopes of neptunium and plutonium. In this way uranium-238 actually interfered with the chain reaction.

In any quantity of uranium, the more uranium-235 present and the less uranium-238, the more easily the chain reaction would proceed and the lower the critical size needed. Vast efforts were therefore made to separate the 2 135isotopes and prepare uranium with a higher than normal concentration of uranium-235 (“enriched uranium”).

Of course, there was no great desire for a fearful explosion to get out of hand while the chain reaction was being studied. Before any bomb could be constructed, the mechanism of the chain reaction would have to be studied. Could a chain reaction capable of producing energy (for useful purposes as well as for bombs) be established? To test this, a quantity of uranium was gathered in the hope that a controlled chain reaction of uranium fission could be established. For that purpose, control rods of a substance that would easily absorb neutrons and slow the chain reaction were used. The metal, cadmium, served admirably for this purpose.

Then, too, the neutrons released by fission were pretty energetic. They tended to travel too far too soon and get outside the lump of uranium too easily. To produce a chain reaction that could be studied with some safety, the presence of a moderator was needed. This was a supply of small nuclei that did not absorb neutrons readily, but absorbed some of the energy of collision and slowed down any neutron that struck it. Nuclei such as hydrogen-2, beryllium-9, or carbon-12 were useful moderators. When the neutrons produced by fission were slowed, they travelled a smaller distance before being absorbed in their turn and the critical size would again be reduced.

Toward the end of 1942 the initial stage of the project reached a climax. Blocks of graphite containing uranium metal and uranium oxide were piled up in huge quantities (enriched uranium was not yet available) in order to approach critical size. This took place under the stands of a football stadium at the University of Chicago, with Enrico Fermi (who had come to the United States in 1938) in charge.[1]

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The large structure was called an “atomic pile” at first because of the blocks of graphite being piled up. The proper name for such a device, and the one that was eventually adopted, was, however, “nuclear reactor”.

On December 2, 1942, calculations showed that the nuclear reactor was large enough to have reached critical size. The only thing preventing the chain reaction from sustaining itself was the cadmium rods that were inserted here and there in the pile and that were soaking up neutrons.

Cutaway model of the West Stands of Stagg Field showing the first pile in the squash court beneath it.

The exterior of the building.

Graphite layers form the base of the pile, left. On the right is the seventh layer of graphite and edges of the sixth layer containing 3¼-inch pseudospheres of black uranium oxide. Beginning with layer 6, alternate courses of graphite containing uranium metal and/or uranium oxide fuel were separated by layers of solid graphite blocks.

Tenth layer of graphite blocks containing pseudospheres of black and brown uranium oxide. The brown briquets, slightly richer in uranium, were concentrated in the central area. On the right is the nineteenth layer of graphite covering layer 18 containing slugs of uranium oxide.

One by one the cadmium rods were pulled out. The number of uranium atoms undergoing fission each second rose and, finally, at 3:45 p.m., the uranium fission became self-sustaining. It kept going on its own (with the cadmium rods ready to be pushed in if it looked as though it were getting out of hand—something calculations showed was not likely).

News of this success was announced to Washington by a cautious telephone call from Arthur Holly Compton (1892-1962) to James Bryant Conant (1893- ). “The Italian navigator has landed in the new world”, said Compton. Conant asked, “How were the natives?”, and the answer was, “Very friendly”.

This was the day and moment when the world entered the “nuclear age”. For the first time, mankind had constructed a device in which the nuclear energy being given off was greater than the energy poured in. Mankind had tapped the reservoirs of nuclear energy and could put it to use. Had Rutherford lived but 6 more years, he would have seen how wrong he was to think it could never be done.

The people of earth remained unaware of what had taken place in Chicago and physicists continued to work toward the development of the nuclear bomb.

Enriched uranium was successfully prepared. Critical sizes were brought low enough to make a nuclear bomb small enough to be carried by plane to some target. Suppose one had 2 slabs of enriched uranium, each below critical size, but which were above critical size if combined. And suppose an explosive device were added that, at some desired moment, could be set off in such a way that it would drive 1 slab of enriched uranium against the other. There would be an instant explosion of devastating power. Or suppose the enriched uranium were arranged in loosely packed pieces to begin with so that the flying neutrons were in open air too often to maintain the chain reaction. A properly arranged explosion might compress the uranium into a dense ball. Neutron absorption would become more efficient and again, an explosion would follow.

Nuclear Fission of Uranium: A neutron hits the nucleus of an atom of uranium. The neutron splits the nucleus into two parts and creates huge amounts of energy in the form of heat. At the same time other neutrons are released from the splitting nucleus and these continue the fission process in a chain reaction.

On July 16, 1945, a device that would result in a nuclear explosion was set up near Alamogordo, New Mexico, with nervous physicists watching from a safe distance. It worked perfectly; the explosion was tremendous.

By that time Nazi Germany had been defeated, but Japan was still fighting. Two more devices were prepared. After a warning, one was exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and the other over Nagasaki 2 days later. The Japanese government surrendered and World War II came to an end.

It was with the blast over Hiroshima that the world came to know it was in the nuclear age and that the ferocious weapon of the nuclear bomb existed. (The popular name for it at the time was “atomic bomb” or “A-bomb”.)

During the war, German scientists may have been trying to develop a nuclear bomb, but, if so, they had not yet succeeded at the time Germany met its final defeat. Soviet physicists, under Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov (1903-1960), were also working on the problem. The dislocation of the war, which inflicted much more damage on the Soviet Union than on the United States, kept the Soviet effort from succeeding while it was on. However, since the Soviets were among the victors, they were able to continue after the war.

In 1949 the Soviets exploded their first nuclear bomb. In 1952 the British did the same; in 1960, the French; and in 1964, the Chinese.

Although many nuclear bombs have been exploded for test purposes, the two over Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been the only ones used in time of war.

Nor need nuclear bombs be considered as having destructive potential only. There is the possibility that, with proper precautions, they might be used to make excavations, blast out harbors or canals, break up underground rock formations 141to recover oil or other resources, and in other ways do the work of chemical explosives with far greater speed and economy. It has even been suggested that a series of nuclear bomb explosions might be used to hurl space vehicles forward in voyages away from earth.

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Isaac Asimov. 2015. Worlds Within Worlds: The Story of Nuclear Energy, Volume 3 (of 3). Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/49821/49821-h/49821-h.htm#c33

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