Critical Assembly: A Technical History of Los Alamos During the Oppenheimer Years, 1943-1945Cambridge University Press, 12 févr. 2004 - 528 pages This volume is a lucid and accurate history of the technical research that led to the first atomic bombs. The authors explore how the "critical assembly" of scientists, engineers, and military personnel at Los Alamos, responding to wartime deadlines, collaborated to create a new approach to large-scale research. The book opens with an introduction laying out major themes. After a synopsis of the prehistory of the bomb project, from the discovery of nuclear fission to the start of the Manhattan Engineer District, and an overview of the early materials program, the book examines the establishment of the Los Alamos Laboratory, the implosion and gun assembly programs, nuclear physics research, chemistry and metallurgy, explosives, uranium and plutonium development, confirmation of spontaneous fission in pile-produced plutonium, the thermonuclear bomb, critical assemblies, the Trinity test, and delivery of the combat weapons. |
Table des matières
Introduction | 1 |
Early Research on Fission 19331943 | 12 |
The Early Materials Program 19331943 | 24 |
Setting Up Project Y June 1942 to March 1943 | 40 |
Research in the First Months of Project Y April to September 1943 | 67 |
Creating a Wartime Community September 1943 to August 1944 | 91 |
The Gun Weapon September 1943 to August 1944 | 111 |
The Implosion Program Accelerates September 1943 to July 1944 | 129 |
Exploring the Plutonium Implosion Weapon August 1944 to February 1945 | 267 |
Finding the Implosion Design August 1944 to February 1945 | 293 |
Building the Implosion Gadget March 1945 to July 1945 | 315 |
Critical Assemblies and Nuclear Physics August 1944 to July 1945 | 335 |
The Test at Trinity January 1944 to July 1945 | 350 |
Delivery June 1943 to August 1945 | 378 |
Epilogue | 398 |
The Legacy of Los Alamos | 403 |
New Hopes for the Implosion Weapon September 1943 to July 1944 | 163 |
The Nuclear Properties of a Fission Weapon September 1943 to July 1944 | 178 |
Uranium and Plutonium Early 1943 to August 1944 | 205 |
The Discovery of Spontaneous Fission in Plutonium and the Reorganization of Los Alamos | 228 |
Building the Uranium Bomb August 1944 to July 1945 | 249 |
Notes | 418 |
Name Index | 493 |
| 501 | |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
active material Alamos Story Alvarez April assembly atomic bomb Bacher Bainbridge Berkeley betatron Bethe blast calculations chain reaction chamber chemistry chemists Chicago committee Compton Conant critical mass cyclotron division early electronics energy experimental experiments Fermi fission cross section flash photography gadget Governing Board Minutes Groves Hawkins Hewlett and Anderson high explosive hydride implosion implosion program initiator interview by Henriksen interview by Hoddeson interview by Westfall isotope July June Kistiakowsky laboratory lenses Los Alamos Primer Manhattan Project Manley March McMillan measurements Met Lab metal metallurgy method military Neddermeyer nuclear physics Oppenheimer ordnance P-Division Progress Report Parsons Peierls physicists plutonium polonium Primacord problems produce projectile purification RaLa Ramsey Robert Robert Oppenheimer scientists Seaborg Segrè Sept Serber shots Smith sphere spontaneous fission studies tamper technical Teller Tinian Trinity Trinity test uranium uranium hydride velocity Wahl wartime Water Boiler wave weapon X-ray