On September 11, the Atomic Heritage Foundation, the National Trust for Historical Preservation, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Energy Communities Alliance, and representatives of the local communities met with Congressional staff to discuss how to get the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Act enacted this year. 

Congressional staff remain "cautiously optimistic" that the bill will pass as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), but urged us to continue to keep the pressure on. Follow these links to easily email your House Representatives and Senators to ask them to support a Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

At the B Reactor's 70th anniversary event, Rep. Doc Hastings said, "I may have a few tricks up my sleeve...If we can preserve Gettysburg and Antietam, we can certainly preserve the Manhattan Project in the three states that won the greatest struggle of the 20th century."

One of the most important companies involved in the Manhattan Project was the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Founded by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont in 1802, the DuPont Company was a major chemical and munitions manufacturer with an impressive track record of innovation and safety. In the early 1900s, DuPont developed smokeless gunpowder and provided 40% of the gunpowder used by the Allies in World War I.

Irénée du Pont, Jr

The Oppenheimer House at Los Alamos

We are pleased to announce that the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) has awarded the Atomic Heritage Foundation (AHF) two grants to expand our Ranger in Your Pocket series with online tours of Manhattan Project sites. 

The first NTHP grant, from the Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation, is for $5,000 to support a program on Manhattan Project properties in the Scientific Laboratory National Historic Landmark District in Los Alamos, NM. This district includes Bathtub Row, where J. Robert Oppenheimer and other Manhattan Project leaders and their families lived, Fuller Lodge, Ashley Pond and other properties.

 The second grant, from NTHP's Innovation Fund, is for $10,000 for "Hanford's Pioneers." Representatives of the Hanford tribes will talk about the importance of the land to their history and culture. Members of farming families will talk about the Hanford Irrigation District and the wooden pipes that carried water from the Columbia River.

We are very grateful to the National Trust for Historic Preservation for their generous and timely support. We hope that the Trust's recognition will help us leverage additional donations that we need for these projects. Please consider a contribution! 

The WGN America television show "Manhattan" continues to hold a captive audience on Sunday nights. With just three episodes left in its first season, "Manhattan" captures the immense pressure Los Alamos scientists were under to develop an atomic bomb. 

In the 6th episode, a villainous looking Werner Heisenberg (the director of the German atomic program) walks into a laboratory filled with scientists and armed Nazi guards. The protagonist of the show, Frank Winter, is told that the Germans are several months ahead of the Manhattan Project in the race for the bomb.

At the beginning of the 8th episode, Charlie Isaacs discovers that the Thin Man plutonium bomb design will not work. The spontaneous fission rate of reactor-produced plutonium is much too high. Charlie has struggled with the moral questions of developing such a powerful bomb and debates whether to tell his boss that Thin Man is doomed. But after his wife Abby tells him that some of her Jewish family were probably murdered by the Nazis, Charlie realizes that for the Nazis to get the bomb first would be an unimaginable disaster. Instead, Charlie secretly allies himself with Frank Winter's efforts on an implosion design.

George Kistiakowsky

Several top news sites featured articles on the Manhattan Project this month. National Geographic published a piece by award-winning journalist George Johnson, 8 Places That Showcase Atomic Age Archaeology for Tourists. The highlighted places include the Chicago Pile-1 site, Los Alamos, the Trinity Site, Bikini Atoll, and the Nevada Test Site. How many Atomic Age sites have you visited?

Last month, the Department of Energy finally declassified a secret report detailing the security surrounding the Manhattan Project and the effort to develop the world's first atomic bomb. Published in December 1945, the secret report concludes that the project was "more drastically guarded than any other highly secret war development."

David Greenglass

Keeping the Manhattan Project a secret was still a challenge, says Sam Roberts, a journalist for the New York Times who discusses the report in his article, The Difficulties of Nuclear Containment. From 1943 until 1945, Army investigators recorded 1,500 leaks, 200 acts of sabotage and 100 confirmed cases of espionage during the Project. Army officials posed as "exterminators, gamblers, and hotel clerks" to uncover potential saboteurs and spies.

However, government officials were entirely unaware that one of America's biggest wartime allies, the Soviet Union, was determined to steal Manhattan Project secrets and develop its own atomic weapon. Several years after the report was published, it was revealed that several Manhattan Project employees including Klaus Fuchs, David Greenglass, and George Koval had stolen atomic secrets and passed them to the Soviet Union.

Winston Dabney applied to be assigned to the Manhattan Project and was transferred from Camp Claiborne, Louisiana to Los Alamos in early 1944. Shortly after he arrived, Dabney was promoted to Master Sergeant, where he was responsible for sending military records to Oak Ridge, organizing payroll, and ordering military supplies.

In part 6 of his interview with Stephane Groueff, General Leslie R. Groves discusses his relationship with some of the famous scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, including J. Robert Oppenheimer, Harold Urey, Vannevar Bush, James B. Conant, and Ernest O. Lawrence. Groves also discusses the Chevalier incident and how Oppenheimer's affiliation with the Communist party raised suspicions among fellow scientists of his motivations. 

Colonel James C. Marshall set up the Manhattan Engineer District (MED), established by general order on August 13, 1942. Marshall presided over the initial stages of the Project until General Leslie R. Groves assumed control on September 17, 1942. In this interview, Marshall discusses the military's involvement in the Manhattan Project and the challenges of securing funds, choosing project sites, and collaborating with scientists and officials. Marshall also discusses navigating government bureaucracy, going back and forth between different offices, seeking approval for various actions, and dealing with superiors with whom he often disagreed.

Lawrence Myers is a chemist who worked at Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project. In his interview, he discusses attending the University of Chicago, where he was invited to begin working on the Manhattan Project conducting experiments on uranium. He later moved to Oak Ridge along with a group of Chicago scientists. His wife joined him thanks to some chemistry coursework she had completed while in Chicago. Following the Project, Myers worked at Argonne National Laboratory before taking a position at the new medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Herman Snyder worked on the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge as a soldier in the Special Engineer Detachment. He worked at the K-25 Plant for many years, and later at the Y-12 Plant. He discusses the many innovations that caused K-25 to run so smoothly. Snyder also reminisces about the sense of community at Oak Ridge, and recalls having to scrounge a pass to get his new bride through the gates into Oak Ridge.

In July 1945 William E. Tewes was transferred from New York, where he was working on gaseous diffusion, to Oak Ridge. He worked on the leak testing operation at K-25. He discusses the many scientific and engineering innovations of the K-25 Plant, raising a family in Oak Ridge, and the friends he made among his fellow Manhattan Project workers.

Dr. Harold Urey was an American physical chemist and winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Urey worked on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University, overseeing the development of the gaseous diffusion method. He discusses working with numerous colleagues, including Arthur Compton, Enrico Fermi, and General Leslie Groves. He also discusses his early life, education, and work following the war.