May 10, 2019 • 8 mins
When the U.S. was building atomic bombs during World War II, it set up a secret city -- Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- to produce the uranium-235 it needed. Learn how this city worked and what it's used for today in this episode of BrainStuff.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff.
Laurin Vogel bomb here. In September of nine two, US
Army Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, commander of the Manhattan Project,
the secret US crash effort to develop the atomic bomb,
faced a critical decision. The project needed to produce uranium
(00:22):
two thirty five, an isotope of uranium whose unstable nucleus
could be easily split to trigger a fission chain reaction
and release an enormous amount of destructive energy. But that
would require a massive, complex manufacturing process involving tens of
thousands of workers, which needed to be kept secret to
thwart interference from spies and sabotaurs. But the question was
(00:43):
where could those facilities possibly be hidden. The U S
officials had already identified potential sites in several parts of
the country, but all of them had drawbacks. Shasta Dam
in California, for example, was too close to the Pacific coast,
and this vulnerable to air attack. In several locations in
Washington State would have required construction of long power lines
to provide the massive amounts of electricity needed for the work.
(01:06):
A site in Illinois, near Chicago was also out officials
didn't want to be close to a big population center,
since the potential health risks of the work were not clear,
and it would have been easier for enemy agents to
blend in around a city. So instead, Groves quickly settled
upon a fifty two tho acre that's twenty one hector
site in rural eastern Tennessee, later expanded slightly. Not only
(01:30):
would it be inconspicuous to anyone outside of the sparsely
populated area, but it was also close to hydroelectric plans
operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which could supply the
enormous amounts of electricity that the plants would require. It
was the perfect place to build both the Clinton Engineer Works,
which would be the atomic complex, and a secret city
to house the workers. The government decided to call the
(01:51):
secret city oak Ridge because it sounded quote sufficiently bucolic
and general, according to an article in a nineteen sixty
nine government review of the project. Not long after choosing
the area, the U. S Government quietly started moving small
farmers who had land on the site, paying them compensation
but not telling them why. Then came trainloads full of
construction equipment and building materials. Construction crews quickly erected the
(02:15):
buildings that would comprise the nondescriptly named campus, as well
as thousands of houses for scientists and workers. Many of
the homes were B one flat tops, a design fashion
from pre fabricated panels and roofing to save construction time.
Building the secret industrial facilities and housing for workers cost
around one point three two billion dollars that's about eighteen
(02:36):
point five billion in today's money. That amounted to sixty
percent of the Manhattan Project's total budget. Over the next
few years, Oakridge grew into a community of seventy five
thousand people. We spoke with d Ray Smith, a retired
historian for the Y twelve National Security Complex who also
is the historian for the city of oak Ridge and
a calumnist for the oak Ridger, a local newspaper. Smith
(02:59):
explained people came from all over the world. Many of
the scientists were Hungarians, a lot came out of Germany
and Great Britain. He explains that others were recruited for
the Clinton engineering works by big US companies working on
the Manhattan Project, who scoured campuses of US colleges and
universities for bright students with needed scigence and technical skills.
For example, a young chemist named Bill Wilcox, who was
(03:21):
approached by an Eastman Kodak recruiter in three later recalled
that he was only told that the job was some
sort of secret war work. He said, I asked where
I'd be working, He wouldn't say it was secret. I
asked what sort of work I'd be doing. He wouldn't
say it was secret. Wilcox eventually ended up at the
Clinton Engineer Works. According to Smith, those who turned down
(03:42):
jobs might end up being drafted into a special engineering
detachment of the U. S. Army and sent to Tennessee. Anyway,
those atomic workers arrived at a place shrouded in secrecy.
Locals knew something mysterious was going on at the site,
but only those who were part of the mission were
allowed inside, passed the guarded gates on the access roads.
The atomic facilities themselves were surrounded by additional security. The
(04:04):
work itself was highly compartmentalized, so that most people knew
only about the small portion of the effort that they
themselves were working on, and only a select few knew
that the overarching mission was to help make the atomic bomb.
Access to buildings other than the one you were working
in was highly restricted to keep information from getting out,
oak Ridge became a self contained community with most everything
(04:24):
that its workers needed. The secret city had stores, movie houses,
a high school, a bank, a three bed hospital, tennis
and handball courts, and even in its own symphony orchestra
led by a Manhattan Project scientist. People who lived their
tended victory gardens, raised families, and led what was pretty
much in normal American existence, that is, except for the
secrecy that surrounded them and their work. A billboard reminded workers,
(04:47):
let's keep our trap shut. They knew they had to
be cautious not to say anything about their jobs to anyone,
even their own spouses. A young scientist told one of
the first reporters to write about the subject, when Louis
Felstein would sit around the dinner table, and the strain
was terrible, but it was all in the difficult effort
of producing uranium two thirty five. There's only a tiny
(05:09):
amount of the stuff zero point seven percent in uranium,
or most of which is uranium two thirty eight, which
doesn't fission, is easily and a bomb such as Little Boy,
the one dropped on Hiroshima required one d and forty
one pounds. That's sixty of uranium two thirty five. You
have to separate a lot of material to get that
much two thirty five. To solve that problem, the Clinton
(05:32):
Engineer Works Y twelve plant used special devices called calutrons,
which utilized the electromagnetic separation process developed by Nobel winning
physicist ernest O. Lawrence at the University of California, Berkeley.
The calutrons used heat and powerful magnets to separate the
two isotopes and then to collect just the uranium two
thirty five isotope because it's so much lighter in weight.
(05:52):
To gather enough uranium two thirty five for the project's purposes,
the Y twelve facility employed twenty two thousand workers to
run one thousand, one hundred and fifty two calcutrons literally
around the clock. Meanwhile, another part of the works, the
X ten graphite reactor, used neutrons committed from uranium two
thirty five to convert uranium two thirty eight into an
isotope of a different element, plutonium two thirty nine, another
(06:15):
easily fissionable material suitable for making atomic bombs. As Smith explains,
after X ten demonstrated that the process could work, the
actual plutonium used to make Fatman the bomb dropped in
Nangasaki was produced in the B reactor at the Hanford
Engineer Works near Richmond, Washington. Finally, on August six, the
(06:36):
world witnessed to the results of the secret City's labors
when the United States dropped an atomic bomb containing uranium
two thirty five produced there on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The Knoxville, Tennessee New Sentinels front page headline proudly proclaimed
atomic super bomb made at oak Ridge strikes Japan. That
wasn't completely correct. Though the uranium two thirty five came
(06:56):
from Tennessee, parts of the bomb were made at three
different plants, so that none of the would have the
complete design. The destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was horrific,
and it was a or perhaps the turning point of
the war. After the war, the various parts of the
once secret Tennessee atomic complex were split up. Part eventually
was reborn as the oak Ridge National Laboratory, which helped
(07:18):
pioneer the field of nuclear medicine, producing ice topes for
use in treating cancer. And as diagnostic tools, in addition
to doing cutting edge research in areas ranging from nanotechnology
to wireless charging of electric vehicles. Another portion became the
Y twelve National Security Complex, which produced components for tens
of thousands of thermonuclear weapons in the U s Arsenal
during the Cold War and later helped disassemble US and
(07:41):
former Soviet nuclear weapons. A third part is now the
site of the East Tennessee Technology Park. Though there's no
evidence that German or Japanese spies ever managed to infiltrate
the Clinton Engineer Works, a Soviet spy named George Coval
did manage to get a job there and apparently passed
along information about the atomic work to the Soviets. In
two thousand seven, he was honored posthumously with a Hero
(08:03):
of the Russian Federation Medal, the nation's highest honor, by
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Today's episode was written by Patrick J.
Kaiger and produced by Tyler CLAYG. Brain Stuff is a
production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more
on this and lots of other historical topics, including lots
of further reading on Oak City and the atomic age,
(08:23):
visit our home Planet, how Stuff works dot com and
for more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the iHeart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff.
Laurin Vogel bomb here. In September of nine two, US
Army Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, commander of the Manhattan Project,
the secret US crash effort to develop the atomic bomb,
faced a critical decision. The project needed to produce uranium
(00:22):
two thirty five, an isotope of uranium whose unstable nucleus
could be easily split to trigger a fission chain reaction
and release an enormous amount of destructive energy. But that
would require a massive, complex manufacturing process involving tens of
thousands of workers, which needed to be kept secret to
thwart interference from spies and sabotaurs. But the question was
(00:43):
where could those facilities possibly be hidden. The U S
officials had already identified potential sites in several parts of
the country, but all of them had drawbacks. Shasta Dam
in California, for example, was too close to the Pacific coast,
and this vulnerable to air attack. In several locations in
Washington State would have required construction of long power lines
to provide the massive amounts of electricity needed for the work.
(01:06):
A site in Illinois, near Chicago was also out officials
didn't want to be close to a big population center,
since the potential health risks of the work were not clear,
and it would have been easier for enemy agents to
blend in around a city. So instead, Groves quickly settled
upon a fifty two tho acre that's twenty one hector
site in rural eastern Tennessee, later expanded slightly. Not only
(01:30):
would it be inconspicuous to anyone outside of the sparsely
populated area, but it was also close to hydroelectric plans
operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which could supply the
enormous amounts of electricity that the plants would require. It
was the perfect place to build both the Clinton Engineer Works,
which would be the atomic complex, and a secret city
to house the workers. The government decided to call the
(01:51):
secret city oak Ridge because it sounded quote sufficiently bucolic
and general, according to an article in a nineteen sixty
nine government review of the project. Not long after choosing
the area, the U. S Government quietly started moving small
farmers who had land on the site, paying them compensation
but not telling them why. Then came trainloads full of
construction equipment and building materials. Construction crews quickly erected the
(02:15):
buildings that would comprise the nondescriptly named campus, as well
as thousands of houses for scientists and workers. Many of
the homes were B one flat tops, a design fashion
from pre fabricated panels and roofing to save construction time.
Building the secret industrial facilities and housing for workers cost
around one point three two billion dollars that's about eighteen
(02:36):
point five billion in today's money. That amounted to sixty
percent of the Manhattan Project's total budget. Over the next
few years, Oakridge grew into a community of seventy five
thousand people. We spoke with d Ray Smith, a retired
historian for the Y twelve National Security Complex who also
is the historian for the city of oak Ridge and
a calumnist for the oak Ridger, a local newspaper. Smith
(02:59):
explained people came from all over the world. Many of
the scientists were Hungarians, a lot came out of Germany
and Great Britain. He explains that others were recruited for
the Clinton engineering works by big US companies working on
the Manhattan Project, who scoured campuses of US colleges and
universities for bright students with needed scigence and technical skills.
For example, a young chemist named Bill Wilcox, who was
(03:21):
approached by an Eastman Kodak recruiter in three later recalled
that he was only told that the job was some
sort of secret war work. He said, I asked where
I'd be working, He wouldn't say it was secret. I
asked what sort of work I'd be doing. He wouldn't
say it was secret. Wilcox eventually ended up at the
Clinton Engineer Works. According to Smith, those who turned down
(03:42):
jobs might end up being drafted into a special engineering
detachment of the U. S. Army and sent to Tennessee. Anyway,
those atomic workers arrived at a place shrouded in secrecy.
Locals knew something mysterious was going on at the site,
but only those who were part of the mission were
allowed inside, passed the guarded gates on the access roads.
The atomic facilities themselves were surrounded by additional security. The
(04:04):
work itself was highly compartmentalized, so that most people knew
only about the small portion of the effort that they
themselves were working on, and only a select few knew
that the overarching mission was to help make the atomic bomb.
Access to buildings other than the one you were working
in was highly restricted to keep information from getting out,
oak Ridge became a self contained community with most everything
(04:24):
that its workers needed. The secret city had stores, movie houses,
a high school, a bank, a three bed hospital, tennis
and handball courts, and even in its own symphony orchestra
led by a Manhattan Project scientist. People who lived their
tended victory gardens, raised families, and led what was pretty
much in normal American existence, that is, except for the
secrecy that surrounded them and their work. A billboard reminded workers,
(04:47):
let's keep our trap shut. They knew they had to
be cautious not to say anything about their jobs to anyone,
even their own spouses. A young scientist told one of
the first reporters to write about the subject, when Louis
Felstein would sit around the dinner table, and the strain
was terrible, but it was all in the difficult effort
of producing uranium two thirty five. There's only a tiny
(05:09):
amount of the stuff zero point seven percent in uranium,
or most of which is uranium two thirty eight, which
doesn't fission, is easily and a bomb such as Little Boy,
the one dropped on Hiroshima required one d and forty
one pounds. That's sixty of uranium two thirty five. You
have to separate a lot of material to get that
much two thirty five. To solve that problem, the Clinton
(05:32):
Engineer Works Y twelve plant used special devices called calutrons,
which utilized the electromagnetic separation process developed by Nobel winning
physicist ernest O. Lawrence at the University of California, Berkeley.
The calutrons used heat and powerful magnets to separate the
two isotopes and then to collect just the uranium two
thirty five isotope because it's so much lighter in weight.
(05:52):
To gather enough uranium two thirty five for the project's purposes,
the Y twelve facility employed twenty two thousand workers to
run one thousand, one hundred and fifty two calcutrons literally
around the clock. Meanwhile, another part of the works, the
X ten graphite reactor, used neutrons committed from uranium two
thirty five to convert uranium two thirty eight into an
isotope of a different element, plutonium two thirty nine, another
(06:15):
easily fissionable material suitable for making atomic bombs. As Smith explains,
after X ten demonstrated that the process could work, the
actual plutonium used to make Fatman the bomb dropped in
Nangasaki was produced in the B reactor at the Hanford
Engineer Works near Richmond, Washington. Finally, on August six, the
(06:36):
world witnessed to the results of the secret City's labors
when the United States dropped an atomic bomb containing uranium
two thirty five produced there on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The Knoxville, Tennessee New Sentinels front page headline proudly proclaimed
atomic super bomb made at oak Ridge strikes Japan. That
wasn't completely correct. Though the uranium two thirty five came
(06:56):
from Tennessee, parts of the bomb were made at three
different plants, so that none of the would have the
complete design. The destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was horrific,
and it was a or perhaps the turning point of
the war. After the war, the various parts of the
once secret Tennessee atomic complex were split up. Part eventually
was reborn as the oak Ridge National Laboratory, which helped
(07:18):
pioneer the field of nuclear medicine, producing ice topes for
use in treating cancer. And as diagnostic tools, in addition
to doing cutting edge research in areas ranging from nanotechnology
to wireless charging of electric vehicles. Another portion became the
Y twelve National Security Complex, which produced components for tens
of thousands of thermonuclear weapons in the U s Arsenal
during the Cold War and later helped disassemble US and
(07:41):
former Soviet nuclear weapons. A third part is now the
site of the East Tennessee Technology Park. Though there's no
evidence that German or Japanese spies ever managed to infiltrate
the Clinton Engineer Works, a Soviet spy named George Coval
did manage to get a job there and apparently passed
along information about the atomic work to the Soviets. In
two thousand seven, he was honored posthumously with a Hero
(08:03):
of the Russian Federation Medal, the nation's highest honor, by
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Today's episode was written by Patrick J.
Kaiger and produced by Tyler CLAYG. Brain Stuff is a
production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more
on this and lots of other historical topics, including lots
of further reading on Oak City and the atomic age,
(08:23):
visit our home Planet, how Stuff works dot com and
for more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the iHeart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
BrainStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Josh Clark
Jonathan Strickland
Ben Bowlin
Lauren Vogelbaum
Cristen Conger
Christian Sager
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.