Main Idea: Would the Manhattan Project have been possible without the West?

Chicago, Illinois Chicago Pile – first controlled nuclear fission Oak Ridge, Tennessee Uranium enrichment using gas diffusion of UF 6 Hanford, Washington Plutonium production Los Alamos, New Mexico Secret site where the first bombs were fabricated Trinity site, New Mexico Where first bomb was tested

The US Government’s secret project to research, develop, and test an atomic weapon.

A huge undertaking like no other. Production of ample amounts of "enriched" uranium to sustain a chain reaction.

Robert Oppenheimer Enrico Fermi Albert Einstein

Money Buildings/Sites Oak Ridge and Hanford Laboratories Los Alamos, NM Materials

For the Manhattan Project, the U.S. government built three cities from scratch in isolated areas, too secret to be placed on any map. Known as "Site Y," Los Alamos, New Mexico was the research center of the Manhattan Project, home to the laboratory run by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Initially allocated $300,000 for construction, three times Oppenheimer's estimate, with a planned completion date of 15 March It soon became clear that the scope of Project Y was greater than expected, and by the time construction finished in 30 November 1943, over $7 million had been spent.

The large number of refugees and immigrants working on the Manhattan Project gave the American nuclear program an international character unusual in such a top-secret program— and unique amongst the nuclear programs that followed in other countries—and helped give life in Los Alamos, NM during the war its unique character.

Anyone who entered the grounds of the Los Alamos laboratory or one of the other "secret cities" had to have a purpose and a pass. At all the sites, signs and billboards admonished workers to protect the project's secrets: "What you see here, what you do here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here!"

Knowledge was compartmentalized. Workers were told only what they needed to know and were forbidden to discuss their jobs with anyone other than designated supervisors. At Los Alamos, Oppenheimer insisted that weekly scientific colloquia and other exchanges were essential to solve difficult problems. But this openness among the top echelon of scientists at Los Alamos was an exception and was contained "inside the fence." For everyone else, it was "Stick to your knitting!"

Anglo personnel, European emigré scientists, local Hispanics, and American Indians all contributed to the operation of the town. With Puebloans, Hispanics, Europeans, and people from throughout the United States in residence, the town of Los Alamos held a multifarious mixture of traditional and modern. Without the cooperation of all the people who worked there, the project might have disintegrated into chaos. Instead, the people at Site Y found a common language through the codes and code-switching to combat the chaos and work to end the war.

There were so many different cultures in Los Alamos, not only Hispanics from northern New Mexico, but other parts of the country.

On an international scale, the laboratory at Site Y ushered in the nuclear age; on a local scale, it brought many changes to Pueblo communities that claimed the Pajarito Plateau as their ancestral land. Some of these changes meant new commercial opportunities and employment for some of the northern Pueblos; others set in motion a legacy that is still controversial today. Close interaction with members of the Pueblos also enriched the lives of many Los Alamosans, Americans and foreigners alike, who had never before encountered Native American cultures. Local economies shifted from the centuries-old subsistence or bartering system to a cash economy

Most women found themselves at the Hill because their husbands had been recruited to work on the Manhattan Project. Isolated from the outside world by barbed-wire barricades, and from the intellectual life of the Lab by the stringent regulations which prevented scientists from discussing the project with their spouses, these women had to create new lives and identities for themselves. To limit the effects of life in an isolated community and keep low morale at bay, the Los Alamos administration encouraged women to work. The majority of female residents were employed on a part-time basis as teachers, administrative assistants, lab technicians, nurses, and switchboard operators.

The first nuclear device ever detonated was an implosion-type bomb at the Trinity test, conducted at New Mexico's Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range on 16 July 1945.

The two bombs. "Little Boy" is seen on the left, and "Fat Man" is seen on the right

From the creation of the Manhattan Engineer District in 1941, time was more important than any other metric July 16, At 5:29:45 a.m. the first atom bomb, Gadget, is exploded at Los Alamos August 6, 1945 Little Boy is dropped over Hiroshima August 9, 1945 Fat Man is dropped over Nagasaki September 2, 1945 Japan surrenders

Grew to employ more than 130,000 people Initially $6,000 was invested The entire project cost totaled $1.9 billion $20 Billion now (1996) Over 90% of the cost was for building factories and producing the fissile materials, with less than 10% for development and production of the weapons. Approximately 12.7% of ammunitions for WW2

The success of the Manhattan Project ensured that the military, large-scale government science, and the state of New Mexico would be tied together for decades to come. The original plans for Los Alamos involved the laboratory being shut down at the end of the war. But the United States never fully demobilized after World War II, instead settling into the edgy stare-down of the Cold War. As the USSR developed nuclear weapons and stockpiles on both sides skyrocketed, Los Alamos and its weapons research became more important than ever.

Today, New Mexico has more scientific and technical workers per capita than any other state in the union. Electronics firms relocate to New Mexico to be near Los Alamos and Sandia, and to take advantage of the pools of expertise they draw on. Federal investment and the National Laboratories have made New Mexico a center of science and technology.