Tube Alloys
Encyclopedia
Tube Alloys was the code-name for the British
nuclear weapon
directorate during World War II
, when the development 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. 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
.
The Tube Alloys programme in Britain and Canada, effectively the first nuclear weapons project of its type, was eventually subsumed into the American-led Manhattan Project
. Both programmes had some elements of earlier research accomplished in France and Germany.
in Germany and Lise Meitner
, exiled in Sweden
, reported nuclear fission
in uranium
in 1938. This was followed up by a group of scientists at the Collège de France
in Paris
: Frédéric Joliot-Curie
, Hans von Halban
, Lew Kowarski
, and Francis Perrin
. In February 1939, the Paris Group showed that when fission occurs in a uranium
nucleus
, two or three extra neutron
s are also given off. This important observation suggested that a self-sustaining chain reaction
might be possible. It was 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.
Francis Perrin of the Paris Group defined a critical mass
of uranium to be the smallest amount that could 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. 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, the large Norsk Hydro
hydroelectric station at Vemork
in Norway
. The French then discovered that Germany had 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. Norway then gave the entire stock to a French Secret Service agent, who secretly brought it to France, and then had it transferred onto England by Charles "Jack" Howard, Earl of Suffolk
, on the steamer SS Broompark, just before Germany invaded Norway in April 1940. The heavy water was subsequently secretly stored in the Tower of London
in the same place as the Crown Jewels
were kept. When Germany invaded France in May 1940, the Paris Group moved to Cambridge
and brought the heavy water inventory of 188 litres. Joliot-Curie remained in France and became an active worker in the French Resistance
movement.
, a German scientist who was working in the United Kingdom when Adolf Hitler
came to power in Germany, and had then elected to stay, was working at the University of Birmingham
. Peierls attempted to derive the critical mass of a block of pure uranium. In a paper entitled "Critical Conditions on Neutron Multiplication" delivered to the Cambridge Philosophical Society
on 14 June 1939, he calculated that it was of the order of tons, too large to make into a practical bomb. However, with his friend Otto Frisch, a fellow German scientist living in exile in England, Peierls then began to examine the neutron cross-section
of uranium-235
, the rare lighter isotope
that makes up only 0.7% of natural uranium, the rest being uranium-238
. Their calculations indicated that it was within an order of magnitude
of 10 kilograms (22 lb), small enough to be carried by a bomber
of the day.
Frisch and Peierls reported to their professor Marcus Oliphant who informed Henry Tizard
. The March 1940 Frisch–Peierls memorandum resulted in Tizard setting up of the British 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.
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.
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.
had been commissioned 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 realized that an atomic bomb was "not just feasible; it was inevitable".
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). Very early experiments were carried out by Michael Clapham - who at the time was working on print technology at the Kynoch Works in Aston in Birmingham according to and interview he gave to a BBC documentary broadcast In Feb 2000 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/643913.stm) ’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 prototype gaseous diffusion equipment itself was manufactured by Metropolitan-Vickers
(MetroVick) at Trafford Park, Manchester, at a cost of £150,000 for four units. Some of the Tube Alloys secret development work was carried out by Britain's Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd
(ICI) based at Billingham, Northeast England.
Evidence in a TV programme transmitted by Tyne Tees Television
(Northern Life) established a connection between work carried out at ICI and nuclear material.
was at the Cavendish Laboratory
by Egon Bretscher
and Norman Feather
.
They realized that a slow neutron reactor fuelled with uranium would theoretically produce substantial amounts of plutonium-239 as a by-product. This is because U-238 absorbs slow neutrons and forms a new isotope U-239. The new isotope's nucleus rapidly emits an electron through beta decay
producing a 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 from uranium, and could easily be separated from it.
This new development was also confirmed in independent work by Edwin M. McMillan and Philip Abelson
at Berkeley Radiation Laboratory also in 1940. Nicholas 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, using a cyclotron
rather than a reactor.
, Mark Oliphant crossed the Atlantic in an unheated bomber in August 1941. He found that Lyman Briggs had not circulated the reports to the Uranium Committee
, but had kept them in a safe. Oliphant then contacted Ernest Lawrence
, James Conant
, Enrico Fermi
and Arthur Compton
and managed to increase the urgency of the American research programmes. 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.
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 major disappointment which hindered the British and the Canadians, who were collaborating on heavy water production and several other aspects of the research programme.
The slow neutron research at the Cavendish Laboratory
, Cambridge University 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 become 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.
The first eight staff arrived in Montreal at the end of 1942, and occupied a house belonging to McGill University
. Three months later they moved into a 200 square metre area in a new building at the University of Montreal. The laboratory grew quickly to over 300 staff; about half were Canadians recruited by George Laurence
. A subgroup of theoreticians was recruited and headed by a Czechoslovak physicist George Placzek
. Placzek proved to be a very capable group leader, and generally regarded as the only member of the staff with the stature of the highest scientific rank and close personal contacts to many key physicists involved in the Manhattan project. The Director of the laboratory was Hans von Halban
, but he proved to be an unfortunate choice as he was a poor administrator, and did not work well with the National Research Council of Canada
. The Americans saw him as a security risk, and objected to the French atomic patents claimed by the Paris Group (in association with ICI).
The Montreal team in Canada depended on the Americans for supplies of heavy water from the US heavy water plant in Trail, British Columbia
(which was under American contract), as well as technical information about plutonium. The Americans said that they would 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. The Quebec Agreement
in 1943 had led to more co-operation with America, though most of the British Mission scientists were based at Berkeley or Los Alamos.
In April 1944 a Combined Policy Committee meeting at Washington agreed that Canada would build a heavy water reactor. Scientists who were not British subjects would leave, and John Cockcroft
would become the new Director of the Montreal Laboratory. The Americans fully supported the project with information and visits. They also supplied material e.g. uranium and heavy water. The Chalk River Laboratories
opened in 1944, and in 1946 the Montreal Laboratory was closed. The project developed the ZEEP
reactor.
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 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
on 19 August 1943. The British then handed over all of their material to the Americans and in return received the copies of all the American progress reports to the President. The British effort was then subsumed into the Manhattan Project
until after the war.
In a section of the Quebec Agreement formally entitled "Articles of Agreement governing collaboration between the authorities of the USA and UK 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
It was also agreed that any post-war advantages of an industrial or commercial nature would be decided at the discretion of the US President.
William Penney
, one of the Tube Alloys scientists, 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 programme.
In 1945, US President Harry S. Truman
had agreed to Churchill's request that British observers could witness the dropping of the bomb on Japan. But when Group Captain
Leonard Cheshire
and Professor William Penney
went to Tinian, they were not allowed by Groves
and/or LeMay
to go on the Hiroshima flight, and only after protests went in the observation plane Big Stink
on the Nagasaki flight. While Penney knew much of the theory of the Project, so did other members of Project Alberta
who also flew over Japan.
The Smyth Report
was issued by the US War Department on 12 August 1945, giving the story of the atomic bomb and including the technical details that could now be made public. It made few references to the British contribution to the bomb, and a White Paper, Statements Relating to the Atomic Bomb was hurriedly drafted by Michael Perrin
. This account was issued just after Attlee had replaced Churchill as Prime Minister, and was the only official statement on the British contribution for fifteen years.
and possibly also Austrian expatriate Engelbert Broda
, and John Cairncross
. Alan Nunn May
was also recruited later in Canada. Lavrenty Beria’s report to Stalin of March 1942 included the MAUD report and other British documents.
(AERE or the Harwell Laboratory) near Harwell, Oxfordshire
was established by John Cockcroft
in 1946 as the main centre for military and civilian atomic energy
research and development in Britain. Former RAF bases were selected for AERE and AWRE as they were isolated, with large hangars. Hans von Halban
was invited back to the UK by Frederick Lindemann (Lord Cherwell) to lead a team at the nearby Clarendon Laboratory
in Oxford University, and worked there for eight years until 1955.
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. This partly resulted from the arrest for espionage of Alan Nunn May
in 1946.
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
- "That won't do at all .. we've got to have this .. I don't mind for myself, but I don't want any other Foreign Secretary of this country to be talked to or at by a Secretary of State in the United States as I have just had in my discussions with Mr Byrnes
. We've got to have this thing over here whatever it costs .. We've got to have the bloody Union Jack on top of it." Dr Penney left the United States and returned to the UK where he initiated his plans for an Atomic Weapons Section. The project was code-named High Explosive Research (or HER). In May 1947, Dr Penney was appointed to lead the project, based at the Royal Armament Research Development Establishment
(RARDE) at Fort Halstead
and the Royal Arsenal
at Woolwich (AWE).
In April 1950 an abandoned World War II airfield, RAF Aldermaston
in Berkshire was selected as the permanent home for Britain's nuclear weapons programme. This was to become the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE). 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.
In 1958 the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement
was signed, providing for resumed nuclear weapons cooperation with the United States.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
directorate during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when the development 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. Later in the war, tube alloy came to refer specifically to the synthetic element plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
, whose very existence was secret until its use in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
.
The Tube Alloys programme in Britain and Canada, effectively the first nuclear weapons project of its type, was eventually subsumed into the American-led Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
. Both programmes had some elements of earlier research accomplished in France and Germany.
The Paris Group
Otto HahnOtto Hahn
Otto Hahn FRS was a German chemist and Nobel laureate, a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is regarded as "the father of nuclear chemistry". Hahn was a courageous opposer of Jewish persecution by the Nazis and after World War II he became a passionate campaigner...
in Germany and Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner FRS was an Austrian-born, later Swedish, physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, an achievement for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize...
, exiled in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, reported nuclear fission
Nuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...
in uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
in 1938. This was followed up by a group of scientists at the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
: Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie , born Jean Frédéric Joliot, was a French physicist and Nobel laureate.-Early years:...
, Hans von Halban
Hans von Halban
Hans von Halban was a French physicist, of Austrian-Jewish descent.- Family :He was descended on his father's side from Polish Jews, who left Kraków for Vienna in the 1850s...
, Lew Kowarski
Lew Kowarski
Lew Kowarski was a naturalized French physicist, of Russian-Polish descent. He was a lesser known but important contributor to nuclear science.-Early life:...
, and Francis Perrin
Francis Perrin
Francis Perrin was a French physicist,the son of Nobel prize-winning physicist Jean Perrin.- Physicist :Francis Perrin was born in Paris and attended École Normale Supérieure in Paris.In 1928 he obtained a doctorate in mathematical sciences from the faculté des sciences of Paris, based upon a...
. In February 1939, the Paris Group showed that when fission occurs in a uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
nucleus
Atomic nucleus
The nucleus is the very dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom. It was discovered in 1911, as a result of Ernest Rutherford's interpretation of the famous 1909 Rutherford experiment performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, under the direction of Rutherford. The...
, two or three extra neutron
Neutron
The neutron is a subatomic hadron particle which has the symbol or , no net electric charge and a mass slightly larger than that of a proton. With the exception of hydrogen, nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons, which are therefore collectively referred to as nucleons. The number of...
s are also given off. This important observation suggested that a self-sustaining chain reaction
Chain reaction
A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events....
might be possible. It was 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.
Francis Perrin of the Paris Group defined a critical mass
Critical mass
A critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties A critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The...
of uranium to be the smallest amount that could sustain a chain reaction. However, it was found that natural uranium cannot sustain a chain reaction without a moderator
Neutron moderator
In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, thereby turning them into thermal neutrons capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction involving uranium-235....
to slow down the fast-moving neutrons given off by the fission. Early in 1940, the Paris Group decided on theoretical grounds that heavy water
Heavy water
Heavy water is water highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium; e.g., heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction...
would be an ideal moderator. They asked the French Minister of Armaments to obtain as much heavy water as possible from the only source, the large Norsk Hydro
Norsk Hydro
Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. Hydro is the fourth largest integrated aluminium company worldwide. It has operations in some 40 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state holds a 43.8 percent...
hydroelectric station at Vemork
Vemork
Vemork is the name of a hydroelectric power plant outside Rjukan in Tinn, Norway. The plant was built by Norsk Hydro and opened in 1911, its main purpose being to fix nitrogen for the production of fertilizer. Vemork was later the site of the first plant in the world to mass-produce heavy water...
in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. The French then discovered that Germany had 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. Norway then gave the entire stock to a French Secret Service agent, who secretly brought it to France, and then had it transferred onto England by Charles "Jack" Howard, Earl of Suffolk
Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk
Charles Henry George Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk, 13th Earl of Berkshire, GC was an English bomb disposal expert who was also an earl in the Peerage of England, belonging to the ancient Howard family. He was styled Viscount Andover until 1917...
, on the steamer SS Broompark, just before Germany invaded Norway in April 1940. The heavy water was subsequently secretly stored in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
in the same place as the Crown Jewels
Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom
The collective term Crown Jewels denotes the regalia and vestments worn by the sovereign of the United Kingdom during the coronation ceremony and at other state functions...
were kept. When Germany invaded France in May 1940, the Paris Group moved to Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
and brought the heavy water inventory of 188 litres. Joliot-Curie remained in France and became an active worker in the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
movement.
Frisch and Peierls
Meanwhile, Rudolf PeierlsRudolf Peierls
Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, CBE was a German-born British physicist. Rudolf Peierls had a major role in Britain's nuclear program, but he also had a role in many modern sciences...
, a German scientist who was working in the United Kingdom when Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
came to power in Germany, and had then elected to stay, was working at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
. Peierls attempted to derive the critical mass of a block of pure uranium. In a paper entitled "Critical Conditions on Neutron Multiplication" delivered to the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Cambridge Philosophical Society
The Cambridge Philosophical Society is a scientific society at University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1819. The name derives from the medieval use of the word philosophy to denote any research undertaken outside the fields of theology and medicine...
on 14 June 1939, he calculated that it was of the order of tons, too large to make into a practical bomb. However, with his friend Otto Frisch, a fellow German scientist living in exile in England, Peierls then began to examine the neutron cross-section
Neutron cross-section
In nuclear and particle physics, the concept of a neutron cross section is used to express the likelihood of interaction between an incident neutron and a target nucleus. In conjunction with the neutron flux, it enables the calculation of the reaction rate, for example to derive the thermal power...
of uranium-235
Uranium-235
- References :* .* DOE Fundamentals handbook: Nuclear Physics and Reactor theory , .* A piece of U-235 the size of a grain of rice can produce energy equal to that contained in three tons of coal or fourteen barrels of oil. -External links:* * * one of the earliest articles on U-235 for the...
, the rare lighter isotope
Isotope
Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...
that makes up only 0.7% of natural uranium, the rest being uranium-238
Uranium-238
Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature. It is not fissile, but is a fertile material: it can capture a slow neutron and after two beta decays become fissile plutonium-239...
. Their calculations indicated that it was within an order of magnitude
Order of magnitude
An order of magnitude is the class of scale or magnitude of any amount, where each class contains values of a fixed ratio to the class preceding it. In its most common usage, the amount being scaled is 10 and the scale is the exponent being applied to this amount...
of 10 kilograms (22 lb), small enough to be carried by a bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
of the day.
Frisch and Peierls reported to their professor Marcus Oliphant who informed Henry Tizard
Henry Tizard
Sir Henry Thomas Tizard FRS was an English chemist and inventor and past Rector of Imperial College....
. The March 1940 Frisch–Peierls memorandum resulted in Tizard setting up of the British MAUD Committee
MAUD Committee
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.-Frisch & Peierls:...
to investigate the feasibility of an atomic bomb. The memo prompted the MAUD Report
MAUD Committee
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.-Frisch & Peierls:...
which in turn led to the Tube Alloys project.
Tizard Mission
The heavy water team from France was invited to continue its slow neutron research at Cambridge University; but the project was given a low priority since it was not expected to produce a bomb.A delegation (the Tizard Mission
Tizard Mission
The Tizard Mission officially the British Technical and Scientific Mission was a British delegation that visited the United States during the Second World War in order to obtain the industrial resources to exploit the military potential of the research and development work completed by the UK up...
) was sent in September 1940 to North America to exchange technology in all fields, such as radar
History of radar
The history of radar starts with experiments by Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century that showed that radio waves were reflected by metallic objects. This possibility was suggested in James Clerk Maxwell's seminal work on electromagnetism...
, 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.
When the Tizard Mission returned they reported on the slow neutron researches being conducted in Cambridge (by the Paris Group), at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
by Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
and in Canada by George Laurence
George Laurence
George Craig Laurence was a Canadian nuclear physicist. He was educated at Dalhousie University, and at Cambridge University under Ernest Rutherford....
. They concluded that they were irrelevant to the war effort.
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 SimonFrancis Simon
Sir Francis Simon, born Franz Eugen Simon , was a German and later British 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.-Early life:He was born to a...
had been commissioned by MAUD to investigate methods. Simon reported in December 1940 that gaseous diffusion
Gaseous diffusion
Gaseous diffusion is a technology used to produce enriched uranium by forcing gaseous uranium hexafluoride through semi-permeable membranes. This produces a slight separation between the molecules containing uranium-235 and uranium-238 . By use of a large cascade of many stages, high separations...
was feasible, calculating the size and cost of the industrial plant needed. The MAUD Committee realized that an atomic bomb was "not just feasible; it was inevitable".
The chemical problems of producing gaseous compounds of uranium and pure uranium metal were studied at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
and Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
(ICI). Very early experiments were carried out by Michael Clapham - who at the time was working on print technology at the Kynoch Works in Aston in Birmingham according to and interview he gave to a BBC documentary broadcast In Feb 2000 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/643913.stm) ’Dr Philip Baxter
Philip Baxter
Sir John Philip Baxter, KBE , better known as Philip Baxter, was a British chemical engineer. He was the second director of the University of New South Wales from 1953, continuing as vice-chancellor when this position's title was changed in 1955...
at ICI made the first small batch of gaseous uranium hexafluoride
Uranium hexafluoride
Uranium hexafluoride , referred to as "hex" in the nuclear industry, is a compound used in the uranium enrichment process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It forms solid grey crystals at standard temperature and pressure , is highly toxic, reacts violently with water...
for Professor James Chadwick
James Chadwick
Sir James Chadwick CH FRS was an English Nobel laureate in physics awarded for his discovery of the neutron....
in 1940. ICI received a formal contract later in 1940 to make 3 kg of this vital material for the future work. The prototype gaseous diffusion equipment itself was manufactured by Metropolitan-Vickers
Metropolitan-Vickers
Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, they were particularly well known for their industrial electrical equipment such as generators, steam...
(MetroVick) at Trafford Park, Manchester, at a cost of £150,000 for four units. Some of the Tube Alloys secret development work was carried out by Britain's Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
(ICI) based at Billingham, Northeast England.
Evidence in a TV programme transmitted by Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
(Northern Life) established a connection between work carried out at ICI and nuclear material.
Plutonium
The breakthrough with plutoniumPlutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
was at the Cavendish Laboratory
Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences. It was opened in 1874 as a teaching laboratory....
by Egon Bretscher
Egon Bretscher
Egon Bretscher was a Swiss physicist.Born near Zurich, Switzerland and educated at the ETH there, Bretscher gained a PhD degree in organic chemistry at Edinburgh in 1926. He returned to Zurich as privat docent to Peter Debye, later moving in 1936 to work in Rutherford’s laboratory at the Cavendish...
and Norman Feather
Norman Feather
Norman Feather FRS FRSE PRSE , was an English physicist.He was Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh from 1945 to 1975, then Emeritus Professor...
.
They realized that a slow neutron reactor fuelled with uranium would theoretically produce substantial amounts of plutonium-239 as a by-product. This is because U-238 absorbs slow neutrons and forms a new isotope U-239. The new isotope's nucleus rapidly emits an electron through beta decay
Beta decay
In nuclear physics, beta decay is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle is emitted from an atom. There are two types of beta decay: beta minus and beta plus. In the case of beta decay that produces an electron emission, it is referred to as beta minus , while in the case of a...
producing a 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 from uranium, and could easily be separated from it.
This new development was also confirmed in independent work by Edwin M. McMillan and Philip Abelson
Philip Abelson
Philip Hauge Abelson was an American physicist, a scientific editor, and a science writer.-Life:Abelson was born in 1913 in Tacoma, Washington. He attended Washington State University where he received degrees in chemistry and physics, and the University of California, Berkeley , where he earned...
at Berkeley Radiation Laboratory also in 1940. Nicholas Kemmer
Nicholas Kemmer
Nicholas Kemmer FRS, was a Russian born British nuclear physicist who played an integral and an edge leading role in United Kingdom's nuclear programme, and was known as a mentor of Abdus Salam – a Nobel laureate in Physics....
of the Cambridge team proposed the names neptunium
Neptunium
Neptunium is a chemical element with the symbol Np and atomic number 93. A radioactive metal, neptunium is the first transuranic element and belongs to the actinide series. Its most stable isotope, 237Np, is a by-product of nuclear reactors and plutonium production and it can be used as a...
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, using a cyclotron
Cyclotron
In technology, a cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator. In physics, the cyclotron frequency or gyrofrequency is the frequency of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to the direction of a uniform magnetic field, i.e. a magnetic field of constant magnitude and direction...
rather than a reactor.
Oliphant's visit to the United States
When there was no reaction from America to the reports of the MAUD CommitteeMAUD Committee
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.-Frisch & Peierls:...
, Mark Oliphant crossed the Atlantic in an unheated bomber in August 1941. He found that Lyman Briggs had not circulated the reports to the Uranium Committee
S-1 Uranium Committee
The S-1 Uranium Committee was a Committee of the National Defense Research Committee that succeeded the Briggs Advisory Committee on Uranium and later evolved into the Manhattan Project.- World War II begins :...
, but had kept them in a safe. Oliphant then contacted Ernest Lawrence
Ernest Lawrence
Ernest Orlando Lawrence was an American physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his invention, utilization, and improvement of the cyclotron atom-smasher beginning in 1929, based on his studies of the works of Rolf Widerøe, and his later work in uranium-isotope separation for the Manhattan Project...
, James Conant
James Conant
James Conant may refer to:* James Bryant Conant , American chemist and educational administrator* James F. Conant , American philosopher...
, Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
and Arthur Compton
Arthur Compton
Arthur Holly Compton was an American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his discovery of the Compton effect. He served as Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1945 to 1953.-Early years:...
and managed to increase the urgency of the American research programmes. 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.
Montreal Laboratory
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.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 major disappointment which hindered the British and the Canadians, who were collaborating on heavy water production and several other aspects of the research programme.
The slow neutron research at the Cavendish Laboratory
Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences. It was opened in 1874 as a teaching laboratory....
, Cambridge University 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 become 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
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada.
The first eight staff arrived in Montreal at the end of 1942, and occupied a house belonging to McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
. Three months later they moved into a 200 square metre area in a new building at the University of Montreal. The laboratory grew quickly to over 300 staff; about half were Canadians recruited by George Laurence
George Laurence
George Craig Laurence was a Canadian nuclear physicist. He was educated at Dalhousie University, and at Cambridge University under Ernest Rutherford....
. A subgroup of theoreticians was recruited and headed by a Czechoslovak physicist George Placzek
George Placzek
Georg Placzek was a Czech physicist.Born in Brno, Moravia, Placzek studied physics in Prague and Vienna. He worked with Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, Rudolf Peierls, Werner Heisenberg, Victor Weisskopf, Enrico Fermi, Niels Bohr, Lev Landau, Edoardo Amaldi, Emilio Segrè, Leon van Hove and many other...
. Placzek proved to be a very capable group leader, and generally regarded as the only member of the staff with the stature of the highest scientific rank and close personal contacts to many key physicists involved in the Manhattan project. The Director of the laboratory was Hans von Halban
Hans von Halban
Hans von Halban was a French physicist, of Austrian-Jewish descent.- Family :He was descended on his father's side from Polish Jews, who left Kraków for Vienna in the 1850s...
, but he proved to be an unfortunate choice as he was a poor administrator, and did not work well with the National Research Council of Canada
National Research Council of Canada
The National Research Council is an agency of the Government of Canada which conducts scientific research and development.- History :...
. The Americans saw him as a security risk, and objected to the French atomic patents claimed by the Paris Group (in association with ICI).
The Montreal team in Canada depended on the Americans for supplies of heavy water from the US heavy water plant in Trail, British Columbia
Trail, British Columbia
Trail is a city in the West Kootenay region of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada.-Geography:Trail has an area of . The city is located on both banks of the Columbia River, approximately 10 km north of the United States border. This section of the Columbia River valley is located between the...
(which was under American contract), as well as technical information about plutonium. The Americans said that they would 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. The Quebec Agreement
Quebec Agreement
The Quebec Agreement is an Anglo-Canadian-American document outlining the terms of nuclear nonproliferation between the United Kingdom and the United States, and signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 19, 1943, two years before the end of World War II, in Quebec City,...
in 1943 had led to more co-operation with America, though most of the British Mission scientists were based at Berkeley or Los Alamos.
In April 1944 a Combined Policy Committee meeting at Washington agreed that Canada would build a heavy water reactor. Scientists who were not British subjects would leave, and John Cockcroft
John Cockcroft
Sir John Douglas Cockcroft OM KCB CBE FRS was a British physicist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for splitting the atomic nucleus with Ernest Walton, and was instrumental in the development of nuclear power....
would become the new Director of the Montreal Laboratory. The Americans fully supported the project with information and visits. They also supplied material e.g. uranium and heavy water. The Chalk River Laboratories
Chalk River Laboratories
The Chalk River Laboratories is a Canadian nuclear research facility located near Chalk River, about north-west of Ottawa in the province of Ontario.CRL is a site of major research and development to support and advance nuclear technology, in particular CANDU reactor...
opened in 1944, and in 1946 the Montreal Laboratory was closed. The project developed the ZEEP
ZEEP
The ZEEP reactor was a nuclear reactor built at the Chalk River Laboratories near Chalk River, Ontario, Canada . ZEEP first went critical at 3:45 PM, September 5, 1945...
reactor.
The Quebec Agreement
Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
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
Quebec Agreement
The Quebec Agreement is an Anglo-Canadian-American document outlining the terms of nuclear nonproliferation between the United Kingdom and the United States, and signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 19, 1943, two years before the end of World War II, in Quebec City,...
was finally signed by Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
on 19 August 1943. The British then handed over all of their material to the Americans and in return received the copies of all the American progress reports to the President. The British effort was then subsumed into the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
until after the war.
In a section of the Quebec Agreement formally entitled "Articles of Agreement governing collaboration between the authorities of the USA and UK 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 US President.
William Penney
William Penney, Baron Penney
William George Penney, Baron Penney OM, KBE PhD, DSc, , FRS, FRSE, FIC, Hon FCGI was a British mathematician who was responsible for the development of British nuclear technology, following World War II...
, one of the Tube Alloys scientists, was an expert in shock-waves. In June 1944 he went to America to work at Los Alamos
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
as part of the British delegation to the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
. 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 programme.
In 1945, US President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
had agreed to Churchill's request that British observers could witness the dropping of the bomb on Japan. But when Group Captain
Group Captain
Group captain is a senior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks above wing commander and immediately below air commodore...
Leonard Cheshire
Leonard Cheshire
Group Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, VC, OM, DSO and Two Bars, DFC was a highly decorated British RAF pilot during the Second World War....
and Professor William Penney
William Penney, Baron Penney
William George Penney, Baron Penney OM, KBE PhD, DSc, , FRS, FRSE, FIC, Hon FCGI was a British mathematician who was responsible for the development of British nuclear technology, following World War II...
went to Tinian, they were not allowed by Groves
Leslie Groves
Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves, Jr. was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. As the son of a United States Army chaplain, Groves lived at a...
and/or LeMay
Curtis LeMay
Curtis Emerson LeMay was a general in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of American Independent Party candidate George Wallace in 1968....
to go on the Hiroshima flight, and only after protests went in the observation plane Big Stink
Big Stink
Big Stink was the name of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber that participated in the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945...
on the Nagasaki flight. While Penney knew much of the theory of the Project, so did other members of Project Alberta
Project Alberta
Project Alberta was a section of the Manhattan Project which developed the means of delivering the first atomic bombs, used by the United States Army Air Forces against the Empire of Japan during World War II...
who also flew over Japan.
The Smyth Report
Smyth Report
The Smyth Report was the common name given to an administrative history written by physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth about the Allied World War II effort to develop the atomic bomb, the Manhattan Project...
was issued by the US War Department on 12 August 1945, giving the story of the atomic bomb and including the technical details that could now be made public. It made few references to the British contribution to the bomb, and a White Paper, Statements Relating to the Atomic Bomb was hurriedly drafted by Michael Perrin
Michael Perrin
Sir Michael Willcox Perrin was a scientist who created the first practical polythene, directed the first British atomic bomb programme, and managed the Allied intelligence of the Nazi atomic bomb.- Chemistry career :...
. This account was issued just after Attlee had replaced Churchill as Prime Minister, and was the only official statement on the British contribution for fifteen years.
Soviet spies in the Tube Alloys project
The USSR got details of British initial research, from Klaus FuchsKlaus Fuchs
Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who in 1950 was convicted of supplying information from the American, British and Canadian atomic bomb research to the USSR during and shortly after World War II...
and possibly also Austrian expatriate Engelbert Broda
Engelbert Broda
Engelbert Broda was a KGB spy and the main Soviet source of information on American and British nuclear research. He was a physicist and a chemist.- Life :...
, and John Cairncross
John Cairncross
John Cairncross was a British intelligence officer during World War II, who passed secrets to the Soviet Union...
. Alan Nunn May
Alan Nunn May
Alan Nunn May was an English physicist, and a confessed and convicted Soviet spy, who supplied secrets of British and United States atomic research to the Soviet Union during World War II.-Early years, education:...
was also recruited later in Canada. Lavrenty Beria’s report to Stalin of March 1942 included the MAUD report and other British documents.
Post-war
The Atomic Energy Research EstablishmentAtomic Energy Research Establishment
The Atomic Energy Research Establishment near Harwell, Oxfordshire, was the main centre for atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1990s.-Founding:...
(AERE or the Harwell Laboratory) near Harwell, Oxfordshire
Harwell, Oxfordshire
Harwell is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse west of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-Amenities:...
was established by John Cockcroft
John Cockcroft
Sir John Douglas Cockcroft OM KCB CBE FRS was a British physicist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for splitting the atomic nucleus with Ernest Walton, and was instrumental in the development of nuclear power....
in 1946 as the main centre for military and civilian atomic energy
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
research and development in Britain. Former RAF bases were selected for AERE and AWRE as they were isolated, with large hangars. Hans von Halban
Hans von Halban
Hans von Halban was a French physicist, of Austrian-Jewish descent.- Family :He was descended on his father's side from Polish Jews, who left Kraków for Vienna in the 1850s...
was invited back to the UK by Frederick Lindemann (Lord Cherwell) to lead a team at the nearby Clarendon Laboratory
Clarendon Laboratory
The Clarendon Laboratory, located on Parks Road with the Science Area in Oxford, England , is part of the Physics Department at Oxford University...
in Oxford University, and worked there for eight years until 1955.
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. This partly resulted from the arrest for espionage of Alan Nunn May
Alan Nunn May
Alan Nunn May was an English physicist, and a confessed and convicted Soviet spy, who supplied secrets of British and United States atomic research to the Soviet Union during World War II.-Early years, education:...
in 1946.
Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
's government decided that Britain required the atomic bomb to maintain its position in world politics. In the words of Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin was a British trade union leader and Labour politician. He served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1945, as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government.-Early...
- "That won't do at all .. we've got to have this .. I don't mind for myself, but I don't want any other Foreign Secretary of this country to be talked to or at by a Secretary of State in the United States as I have just had in my discussions with Mr Byrnes
James F. Byrnes
James Francis Byrnes was an American statesman from the state of South Carolina. During his career, Byrnes served as a member of the House of Representatives , as a Senator , as Justice of the Supreme Court , as Secretary of State , and as the 104th Governor of South Carolina...
. We've got to have this thing over here whatever it costs .. We've got to have the bloody Union Jack on top of it." Dr Penney left the United States and returned to the UK where he initiated his plans for an Atomic Weapons Section. The project was code-named High Explosive Research (or HER). In May 1947, Dr Penney was appointed to lead the project, based at the Royal Armament Research Development Establishment
Defence Research Agency
The Defence Research Agency , was an executive agency of the UK Ministry of Defence from April 1991 until April 1995. At the time the DRA was Britain's largest science and technology organisation...
(RARDE) at Fort Halstead
Fort Halstead
Fort Halstead is a research site of Dstl, an Executive Agency of the UK Ministry of Defence. It is situated on the crest of the Kentish North Downs, overlooking the town of Sevenoaks...
and the Royal Arsenal
Royal Arsenal
The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, originally known as the Woolwich Warren, carried out armaments manufacture, ammunition proofing and explosives research for the British armed forces. It was sited on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England.-Early history:The Warren...
at Woolwich (AWE).
In April 1950 an abandoned World War II airfield, RAF Aldermaston
RAF Aldermaston
RAF Aldermaston was a World War II airfield. It was used by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Eighth and Ninth Air Force as a troop carrier group base, and was assigned USAAF station No 467.-Origins:...
in Berkshire was selected as the permanent home for Britain's nuclear weapons programme. This was to become the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE). On 3 October 1952, under the code-name "Operation Hurricane
Operation Hurricane
Operation Hurricane was the test of the first British atomic device on 3 October 1952. A plutonium implosion device was detonated in the lagoon between the Montebello Islands, Western Australia....
", the first British nuclear device was successfully detonated off the west coast of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in the Monte Bello Islands.
In 1958 the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement
1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement
The 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement is a bilateral treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom on nuclear weapons cooperation.It was signed after the UK successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb during Operation Grapple. While the U.S...
was signed, providing for resumed nuclear weapons cooperation with the United States.