The light from a thousand suns would resemble the radiance of the Almighty.
The lines from the Indian work Bhagavadgita appeared in the head of Robert Oppenheimer, who after years of research witnessed the test explosion of the world’s first atomic bomb in July 1945. Shortly afterwards, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, ending World War II. Oppenheimer, who led the researchers’ work, later began to dread the forces that had been released. He then said that a few other words from the poem also echoed in his head at the explosion:
– I have become Death, the destroyer of the worlds.
On October 11, 1939, banker Alexander Sachs visited US President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Sachs had with him a letter signed by none other than Albert Einstein . The letter told of a recent discovery: that atomic nuclei could be split and huge amounts of energy released. This made it possible to create a weapon that surpassed anything seen so far. Einstein also warned that Nazi Germany was probably already developing such a weapon. Germans first, Hitler’s victory would be secured.
The letter called on the President of the United States to order large-scale nuclear research. But the letter did not turn out to be the success Sachs had hoped for. Roosevelt was tired that day and did not consider the matter urgent.
However, Sachs managed to get an invitation to the president’s breakfast table the next morning and during the night he had devised the following anecdote:
“Once upon a time there was a man named Robert Fulton ,” Sachs told the president. During the Napoleonic Wars , he took precedence over Napoleon and offered to build a fleet of steamships that would help the French invade Britain.
Several of the researchers who made the greatest contribution to the Manhattan Project had been forced to flee Hitler and Italian dictator Mussolini – either because they were of Jewish descent or because they opposed Nazi policies. Among those who fled was the Italian Enrico Fermi, who in the United States carried out the first controlled nuclear fission and thus laid the foundation for the modern nuclear power plants.
But even though thousands of scientists were driven into exile, prominent physicists such as Werner Heisenberg remained in Germany. His colleagues in the United States did not doubt that Heisenberg could construct an atomic bomb.
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Los Alamos
In 1942, General Groves met the physicist Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967). He had come to the idea that it was extremely impractical for the work to take place in several laboratories scattered throughout the United States. The best thing would be to build a new large research center and gather the most important research there. Groves accepted the idea, and in 1943 Oppenheimer was appointed head of the new research laboratory. To avoid the risk of German saboteurs who could be landed on the Atlantic coast by submarine, a site in the state of New Mexico was selected. The scenic spot is called Los Alamos, and for a few years it became the most secretive area in the United States.
From the beginning, the wilderness was pure here, but soon an entire community grew up, and within two years, 6,000 people lived in Los Alamos. Research was also conducted in other places and a total of about 130,000 people worked on the project.
Oppenheimer had studied in Göttingen with the famous Max Born and received his doctorate in 1927. When Oppenheimer was commissioned to lead Los Alamos, he worked at the University of California at Berkeley. In the United States, he was a role model for many younger physicists. The students were happy with Oppenheimer’s way of coughing, keeping his head tilted and holding his hand to his mouth as he spoke.
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Uranium 235
The researchers had discovered that a large amount of the element uranium was needed to build an atomic bomb. Now it is the case that there are elements whose atoms differ slightly. The different variants of the same atom are called isotopes. Uranium occurs in an isotope called U 238 – this is the most common. But there is also an unusual type called U 235.
To produce an atomic bomb, large quantities of U 235 were needed, which so far have only been produced in fractions of a gram.
If you add up a sufficiently large amount of uranium 235, nuclear fission begins by itself, resulting in an atomic explosion. The smallest possible amount that explodes by itself is called “the critical mass”. But how big should the amount be? Oppenheimer, who heard Bohr’s lecture in 1939, had worked with a method of producing U 235 on a large scale and also made studies of the critical mass. The critical mass for U 235 turned out to be around 25 kilos.
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A security risk
In 1937, Oppenheimer’s father died, and he inherited a fortune. It had enabled him to support various left-wing organizations, and several of his friends were Communist sympathizers. All this aroused the interest of the security service.
But when Oppenheimer heard that scientists were being persecuted in the Soviet Union , he and his wife withdrew from left-wing politics. In any case, Oppenheimer claimed that, but the security service was not convinced.
In 1943, in the middle of the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer contacted the FBI and told them that the Soviet Union was trying to obtain information about Los Alamos.
Oppenheimer said he knew the name of a scientist who had been urged to act as an intermediary for Soviet agents.
At first Oppenheimer did not want to reveal the name, but it later emerged that he was referring to his friend Haakon Chevalier. He was fired from his post at Los Alamos and had his scientific career ruined.
Much later, in 1954, Oppenheimer distanced himself from his earlier claims, calling them “a bundle of lies.”
Although the FBI demanded that Oppenheimer be fired from his post, General Groves could not be persuaded. Oppenheimer was necessary for the bomb to be completed.
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The bombs
In May 1945, Germany capitulated, its ally Japan was still undefeated but hard-pressed. Now Groves pushed his scientists to the limit. The bomb must be completed before Japan surrenders. Several of the researchers had been seized by conscientious objections – especially as it turned out that the Germans had not worked on an atomic bomb at all. Japan could be defeated anyway – maybe a demonstration of the bomb would suffice.
But for Groves, such thoughts were completely foreign. An invasion of Japan would cost the lives of 1 million Americans, according to the most pessimistic estimates, and thousands of US soldiers had already died in the Pacific. In addition, the work on the bomb had cost $ 2 billion – would this money just be thrown into the lake?
Stronger than the sun
On July 16, 1945, the test bomb was ready to be detonated. The observers, including Oppenheimer and Groves, were gathered 9 kilometers from the blasting area, and at half past five in the morning it would happen. There was a long wait, and hardly a word was said.
Suddenly a white light appeared to strike the mountains and the sky. A sponge-shaped cloud grew larger and larger and eventually reached all the way to the sky. The nuclear age had begun.
– The whole area was lit up by an intense light, many times stronger than the midday sun, said General Farell. Only 30 seconds later did the explosion occur, the air pressure hit people and objects hard, and then almost immediately followed a loud, persistent thunderous thunder, as a warning of the last day.
The experiment was successful.
On August 6, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan and on August 9, one on Nagasaki . In Hiroshima, 100,000 people were killed and the entire city was reduced to ashes. Japan capitulated, and World War II ended.
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The Cold War
Immediately after the war, the development that Niels Bohr, among others, had warned about and tried to avert, began. The Soviet Union and the United States became bitter enemies. The Americans, who thought they were alone in the secret behind the atomic bomb, discovered after a few years that the Soviet Union had also learned it and started making nuclear weapons .
Physicists and other scientists in the East and West were also involved in the battle. Before the Second World War, independent of security interests, they could have sent each other interesting research findings and discoveries without thinking that it could be of security policy interest. Now the superpowers’ suspicion of each other made this impossible. Much of what the physicists came up with was automatically classified as secret.
In the United States, government officials were forced to sign a declaration of loyalty, and anyone suspected of being disloyal could be fired. In the Soviet Union, the result could be a concentration camp or execution.
New charges
After World War II, Oppenheimer was famous across all borders, and the awards rained down on him. But the security services had not forgotten their suspicions, and by the end of 1953, the FBI had compiled an indictment. Oppenheimer was accused of being a communist friend and of delaying the disclosure of the names of Soviet agents. He had also worked to avert a proliferation of nuclear weapons and an arms race with the Soviet Union . In addition, Oppenheimer had opposed the design of the hydrogen bomb, which would be even more powerful than the atomic bomb. This, too, was blamed on him.
In 1953, communist terror was widespread in the United States, and a number of people in various areas lost their jobs on the mere suspicion that they sympathized with the Soviet Union or communism . Oppenheimer was immediately deprived of all access to classified material, and his case was heard in a hearing before a special secret committee.
The interrogations with Oppenheimer attracted enormous attention, even though what was said was classified.
During the war, Oppenheimer had increasingly transformed from a scientist to an administrator, and he associated with the leading circles of the government and the military. His colleagues did not recognize him.
-He began to believe that he was God the Father himself, who would put everything right, writes one of his co-workers.
Support for Oppenheimer
Many of the former employees still supported Oppenheimer. As a researcher, he had been asked to give an opinion on the hydrogen bomb. If Oppenheimer’s view could then be turned against him, the same could happen to any other researcher whose conclusions did not suit the government.
The interrogation ended with Oppenheimer not being found guilty of treason, but he lost the right to take part in classified material.
Oppenheimer lost his government duties and gradually began to think about the moral issues raised by nuclear physics and the threat posed by nuclear bombs to humanity. Other researchers had done the same.
Lise Meitner was offered to participate in the Manhattan project but declined with the words:
– I do not want anything to do with any bomb.
Albert Einstein regretted signing the letter to Roosevelt in 1939.
– I do not know with what weapons the Third World War will be fought, but the fourth will be fought with stones.
It is a statement that is often attributed to Einstein, but it is not certain if he really said so.
When the worst communist terror subsided, Oppenheimer was restored. In 1963, he received the Atomic Energy Commission’s medal from US President Lyndon Johnson.
Robert Oppenheimer died in 1967 of throat cancer.