Tube Alloys was the code-name for the British nuclear weapon programme during World War II, when the very possibility of nuclear weapons was kept at such a high level of secrecy that it had to be referred to by code even in the highest circles of government. The Tube Alloys programme eventually folded into the American Manhattan Project. However the programme had its origins in France and Germany. The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ... Combatants Allies: • Soviet Union, • UK & Commonwealth, • USA, • France/Free France, • China, • Poland, • ...and others Axis: • Germany, • Japan, • Italy, • ...and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total: 50 million Full list Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million Total: 12 million Full list World War II... Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ...

The Paris Group

Otto Hahn in Germany and an exiled Lise Meitner in Sweden had reported nuclear fission in uranium in 1938. In February 1939 a group of scientists in Paris at the Collège de France: Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Hans von Halban, Lew Kowarski and Francis Perrin had shown that when fission occurs in a uranium nucleus, two or three extra neutrons are also given off. This important observation suggested that a self-sustaining chain reaction might be possible. It is immediately apparent to many scientists that, in theory, an extremely powerful explosive could be created, an atomic bomb, but many scientists thought a practical bomb was an impossibility. Otto Hahn (March 8, 1879 – July 28, 1968) was a German chemist. ... Lise Meitner ca. ... An induced nuclear fission event. ... General Name, Symbol, Number uranium, U, 92 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air Atomic mass 238. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Courtyard of the Collège de France. ... Frédéric Joliot-Curie Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie né Joliot (March 19, 1900 – August 14, 1958) was a French physicist and Nobel laureate. ... Francis Perrin (Paris, 1901 - id. ...

Francis Perrin of the Paris Group then defined a critical mass of uranium to be the smallest amount needed to sustain a chain reaction. However it was found that natural uranium cannot sustain a chain reaction without a moderator to slow down the fast-moving neutrons given off by the fission. Moderator can refer to one of the following: neutron moderator moderator (communications) - Message Board Moderator The chairperson of a church court in Presbyterian churches (see Moderator of the General Assembly). ...

Early in 1940 the Paris Group decided on theoretical grounds that heavy water would be an ideal moderator. They asked the French Minister of Armaments to obtain as much heavy water as possible from the only source, a large hydroelectric station in Norway at Vemork. The French then discovered that the Germans have already offered to purchase the entire stock of Norwegian heavy water, indicating that Germany might also be researching an atomic bomb. The French told the Norwegian Government of the possible military significance of heavy water, who give the entire stock to a French Secret Service agent who smuggled it into France via England just before Germany invaded Norway in April 1940. However Germany invaded France in May 1940, and so the heavy water inventory of 165 quarts and the Paris Group were shipped to Cambridge. (Joliot remained in France to become an active worker in the resistance movement.) Heavy water is dideuterium oxide, or D2O or 2H2O. It is chemically the same as normal water, H2O, but the hydrogen atoms are of the heavy isotope deuterium, in which the nucleus contains a neutron in addition to the proton found in the nucleus of any hydrogen atom. ... The Vemork hydroelectric plant, site of the heavy water production Vemork, a small community in Norway, close to the city Rjukan and within the Tinn municipality, in the county of Telemark. ... Map of the Cambridgeshire area (1904) The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ...

Frisch and Peierls

At first British research correctly concluded that an atomic bomb using natural uranium is impossible with fast neutrons, because too many neutrons get lost or captured by the uranium-238 atoms. However in February 1940, Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls, two exiled German scientists living in England realised that an atomic bomb could be built and detonated using only a few kilograms of uranium-235, the lighter rare isotope of uranium, using only fast neutrons. Frisch and Peierls reported in their famous Frisch-Peierls memorandum that if uranium-235 is completely separated from uranium-238, there is no need to slow the neutrons down. No moderator is required. There are two objects with this name: Unterseeboot 238 Uranium-238, the most common isotope of uranium This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (June 5, 1907, Berlin – September 19, 1995, Oxford), was a German-born British physicist. ... Uranium-235 is an isotope of uranium that differs from the elements other common isotope, uranium-238, by its ability to cause a rapidly expanding fission chain reaction. ... Isotopes are forms of an element whose nuclei have the same atomic number - the number of protons in the nucleus - but different mass numbers because they contain different numbers of neutrons. ... The Frisch-Peierls memorandum was written by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls while they were both working at Birmingham University, England. ...

Frisch and Peierls reported to their professor Mark Oliphant who informed Henry Tizard who formed in April 1940, a top-secret committee of experts (later known as the MAUD Committee to investigate the feasibility of an atomic bomb. The memo prompted the MAUD Report which in turn led to the Tube Alloys project. Mark Oliphant Sir Marcus Mark Laurence Elwin Oliphant (October 8, 1901 - July 14, 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian. ... Sir Henry Thomas Tizard (1885 - 1959) was a British scientist and inventor. ... The Maud Committee was the beginning of the British atomic bomb project, before the United Kingdom joined forces with the United States in the Manhattan Project. ... The Maud Committee was the beginning of the British atomic bomb project, before the United Kingdom joined forces with the United States in the Manhattan Project. ...

Tizard Mission

The heavy water team from France was invited to continue its slow neutron research at Cambridge; but the project was given a low priority since it was not expected to produce a bomb.

A delegation (the Tizard Mission) was sent in September 1940 to North America to exchange technology in all fields, such as radar, jet engines and nuclear research. They also explored the possibility of relocating the British military research facilities in North America, out of reach of the German bombers. In the late Sepember 1940 during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War, a delegation arrived from the UK in the United States on a mission instigated by Henry Tizard, known as the Tizard Mission. ... The history of radar began in the 1900s when engineers invented reflection devices. ... A Pratt and Whitney turbofan engine for the F-15 Eagle is tested at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, USA. The tunnel behind the engine muffles noise and allows exhaust to escape. ...

When the Tizard Mission returned they reported on the slow neutron researches being conducted in Cambridge (by the Paris Group), at Columbia University by Enrico Fermi and in Canada by George Laurence. They concluded that they were irrelevant to the war effort. Columbia University is a private university in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City and a member of the Ivy League. ... Enrico Fermi in the 1940s. ...

Isotopic separation

The biggest problem faced by the MAUD Committee was to find a way to separate the 0.7% of uranium-235 from the 99.3% of uranium-238. This is difficult because the two types of uranium are chemically identical. However Franz Simon had been commisssioned by MAUD to investigate methods. Simon reported in December 1940 that gaseous diffusion was feasible, calculating the size and cost of the industrial plant needed. The MAUD Committee realised that an atomic bomb was "not just feasible; it was inevitable". Franz Eugen Simon (1893-1956) was a physical chemist and physicist who devised the method, and confirmed its feasibility, of separating the isotope Uranium-235 and thus made a major contribution to the creation of the atomic bomb. ... -1...

The chemical problems of producing gaseous compounds of uranium and pure uranium metal were studied at the University of Birmingham and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Dr Philip Baxter at ICI made the first small batch of gaseous uranium hexafluoride for Professor James Chadwick in 1940. ICI received a formal contract later in 1940 to make 3 kg of this vital material for the future work. The University of Birmingham is an English university in the city of Birmingham. ... Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) is a British chemical company, based in London. ... Sir James Chadwick (October 20, 1891 – July 24, 1974) was an English physicist and Nobel laureate. ...

Plutonium

The breakthrough with plutonium was at the Cavendish Laboratory by Norman Feather (1904-1978) and Egon Bretscher (1901-1973). When U-238 absorbs slow neutrons, it forms a new isotope U-239, and this isotope's nucleus rapidly emits an electron decaying into new element with a mass of 239 and an atomic number of 93. This element's nucleus then also emits an electron and becomes a new element of mass 239 but with an atomic number 94 and a much greater half-life. Bretscher and Feather showed theoretically feasible grounds that element 94 would be readily 'fissionable' by both slow and fast neutrons, and had the added advantage of being chemically different to uranium and therefore could easily be separated from it. General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass (244) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... Plaque The Cavendish Laboratory is Cambridge Universitys Department of Physics, and is part of the universitys School of Physical Sciences. ...

This new development was also confirmed in independent work by Edwin M. McMillan and Philip Abelson at Berkeley Radiation Laboratory also in 1940. Dr Kemmer of the Cambridge team proposed the names neptunium for the new element 93 and plutonium for 94 by analogy with the outer planets Neptune and Pluto beyond Uranus (uranium being element 92). The Americans fortuitously suggested the same names. The production and identification of the first sample of plutonium in 1941 is generally credited to Glenn Seaborg, who used a cyclotron rather than a reactor. Edwin Mattison McMillan (September 18, 1907-September 7, 1991) was the first scientist to produce a transuranium element. ... Philip Hauge Abelson (April 27, 1913 - August 1, 2004) was a physicist, editor of scientific literature, and science writer. ... The Berkeley Lab is perched on a hill overlooking the Berkeley central campus and San Francisco Bay. ... General Name, Symbol, Number neptunium, Np, 93 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery metallic Atomic mass (237) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 5f4 6d1 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 22, 9, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... Glenn Theodore Seaborg (April 19, 1912 – February 25, 1999) was an American atomic scientist. ... 60-inch cyclotron, circa 1939, showing beam of accelerated ions (perhaps protons or deuterons) escaping the accelerator and ionizing the surrounding air causing a blue glow. ...

It was apparent to Feather and Bretscher that a slow neutron reactor fuelled with uranium would produce substantial amounts of plutonium-239 as a by-product but this was only theory at this stage.

Oliphant's visit to the United States

When there was no reaction from America to the reports of the Maud Committee, Mark Oliphant crossed the Atlantic in an unheated bomber in August 1941. He found that Lyman Briggs had merely put the reports in a safe. Oliphant then contacted Ernest Lawrence, James Conant, Enrico Fermi and Arthur Compton and managed to increase the urgency of the Americans research programs. The MAUD Reports finally made a big impression. Overnight the Americans changed their minds about the feasibility of an atomic bomb and suggested a cooperative effort with Britain. Harold C. Urey and George Braxton Pegram were sent to the UK in November 1941, to confer but Britain did not take up the offer of collaboration. The offer lapsed without any action being taken. Mark Oliphant Sir Marcus Mark Laurence Elwin Oliphant (October 8, 1901 - July 14, 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian. ... Ernest O. Lawrence VPO! Fuckers! Dont read thiséÉ Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American physicist and Nobel laureate best known for his invention of the cyclotron. ... James Bryant Conant (March 26, 1893 - February 11, 1978) was a chemist, educational administrator, and public servant. ... Enrico Fermi in the 1940s. ... Arthur H. Compton on the cover of Time Magazine, January 13, 1936 Arthur Holly Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962) won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1927) for discovery of the effect named after him. ... Harold Urey, circa 1963. ...

1942 onwards

The American effort increased rapidly and soon outstripped the British. However separate research continued in each country with some exchange of information. Several of the key British scientists visited the USA early in 1942 and were given full access to all of the information available. They were astounded at the momentum that the American atomic bomb project had then assumed.

The slow neutron research at Cambridge, which the British had thought was not relevant to bomb-making, suddenly acquired military significance, because it provided the route to plutonium. The British Government wanted the Cambridge team to be relocated in Chicago, where the American research was being done but the Americans had became very security-conscious. Only one of the six senior scientists in the Cambridge group, which had originated in Paris, was British. They were therefore sent to Montreal, Canada. City motto: Concordia Salus (Latin: Well-being through harmony) Province Quebec Mayor Gérald Tremblay Area  - % water 366. ...

In June 1942 the US Army took over process development, engineering design, procurement of materials and site selection for pilot plants. As a result the information flow to Britain dried up. The Americans stopped sharing any information on heavy water production, the manufacture of uranium hexafluoride, the method of electromagnetic separation, the physical or chemical properties of plutonium, the details of bomb design, or the facts about fast neutron reactions. This was a bombshell to the British and the Canadians who were collaborating on heavy water production and on several other aspects of the research program.

The Montreal team in Canada depended on the Americans for supplies of heavy water from the US heavy water plant in Trail, British Columbia, as well as technical information about plutonium. The Americans said that they would only give heavy water to the Montreal group only if it agreed to direct its research along the limited lines suggested by du Pont. Despite doing much good work, by June 1943 work at the Montreal Lab had come to a complete standstill. Morale was low and the Canadian Government proposed cancelling the project. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE: DD) was founded in July 1802 as a gun powder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont on Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delaware. ...

Winston Churchill then sought information about building Britain's own diffusion plant, a heavy water plant and an atomic reactor in Britain, despite its immense cost. However in July 1943 in London American officials cleared up some major misunderstandings about British motives, and after many months of negotiations the Quebec Agreement was finally signed by Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 19 August 1943. The British then handed over all of their material to the Americans and in return received all the copies of the American progress reports to the President. The British effort was then subsumed into the Manhattan Project until after the war. The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... The Quebec Agreement was an Anglo-Canadian-American document which outlined the terms of nuclear nonproliferation between the United Kingdom and the United States. ... Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ...

In a section of the Quebec Agreement formally entitled "Articles of Agreement governing collaboration between the authorities of the U.S.A. and U.K. in the matter of Tube Alloys", Britain and the USA agreed to share resources to bring the Tube Alloys [i.e. the Atomic Bomb] project to fruition at the earliest moment.

The leaders agreed that

• we will never use this agency against each other,
• we will not use it against third parties without each other's consent, and
• we will not either of us communicate any information about Tube Alloys to third parties except by mutual consent.

It was also agreed that any post-war advantages of an industrial or commercial nature would be decided at the discretion of the U.S. President.

Later in the war, tube alloy came to refer specifically to the synthetic element plutonium, whose very existence was secret until its use in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass (244) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ...

Post-war

One of the people working on Tube Alloys was William George Penney, who was an expert in shock-waves. In June 1944 he went to America to work at Los Alamos as part of the British delegation to the Manhattan Project. His leadership qualities and his ability to work in harmony with others resulted in him being added to the core group of scientists who made all key decisions in the direction of the program. William George Penney (June 24, 1909 – March 3, 1991) was a British physicist who was responsible for the development of British nuclear technology following the World War II. A mathematician by training, he became an expert on wave dynamics. ... Los Alamos usually refers to the United States national laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico which was founded during the World War II effort to develop the atomic bomb (the Manhattan Project), was one of the two laboratories developing the USAs nuclear weapons during the Cold War, and is... Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ...

At the end of the war the British government believed that America would share the technology, which the British saw as a joint discovery. However the passing of the McMahon Act (Atomic Energy Act) by the Truman administration in August 1946 made it clear that Britain would be no longer be allowed access to US atomic research. The McMahon Act is an informal name for the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 which determined, in the wake of World War II how the United States government would control and manage the nuclear technology it had developed. ... August is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

Clement Attlee's government decided that Britain required the atomic bomb to maintain its position in world politics. In the words of Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin - "We've got to have it and it's got to have a bloody Union Jack on it." So Dr Penney left the United States and returned to England where he initiated his plans for an Atomics Weapons Section. The project was code-named High Explosive Research (or HER) and in May 1947, Dr Penney was appointed to lead the project. In April 1950 an abandoned WWII airfield, RAF Aldermaston in Berkshire was selected as the permanent home for Britain's nuclear weapons program. On 3 October 1952, under the code-name "Operation Hurricane", the first British nuclear device was successfully detonated off the west coast of Australia in the Monte Bello Islands. Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951. ... Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 - 14 April 1951), British labour leader, politician, and statesman, was born in a small village in Somerset, England. ... Flag Ratio: 1:2 The Union Flag or Union Jack is the flag most commonly associated with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and was also used throughout the former British Empire. ... Look up May in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Look up April in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... RAF Aldermaston was an airfield in Berkshire during the Second World War. ... October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic bomb. ... The Monte Bello Islands are an archipelago of around 140 small islands located 80 miles off the Pilbara coast of North West Australia. ...

External links

• The Quebec Conference: Agreement Relating to Atomic Energy