Making Public What Was Once Secret: Los Alamos and The Manhattan Project | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans (2024)

FAQs

What did the Manhattan Project secretly make? ›

Project Y was the designation for the top-secret design and production of the atomic bombs for the Manhattan Project. General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project chose Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist, to lead Project Y, which is today better known as Los Alamos.

Los Alamos, New Mexico, was the site of Project Y, or the top-secret atomic weapons laboratory directed by J. Robert Oppenheimer.

The Manhattan Project was an unprecedented, top-secret World War II government program in which the United States rushed to develop and deploy the world's first atomic weapons before Nazi Germany.

These scientists worked together to develop the theoretical and experimental tests that created the first atomic weapons, using enriched uranium from Oak Ridge and plutonium from Hanford. Today, the nucleus of this once-secret city is still Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Newly declassified documents reveal that Gen. Leslie Groves—director of the Manhattan Project, the top-secret operation that built the atomic bomb during World War II—misled Congress and the public about the effects of radiation. He did so initially out of ignorance, then denial, and finally, willful deception.

Today, those few who are still alive are a rare breed. Among them is Peter Lax, a 94-year-old mathematics genius and retired professor at New York University, who at the time of the Trinity test was just a 19-year-old corporal stationed at Los Alamos.

The radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today is on a par with the extremely low levels of background radiation (natural radioactivity) present anywhere on Earth. It has no effect on human bodies.

Though only one showed any signs of radiation sickness in following days, their exposure levels were far above what were thought to be safe. The first radiation related fatality for Manhattan Project staff occurred at Los Alamos just days after the end of the war.

Quartz is the only surviving mineral in most trinitite. Trinitite no longer contains sufficient radiation to be harmful unless swallowed. It still contains the radionuclides ²⁴¹Am, ¹³⁷Cs and ¹⁵²Eu owing to the Trinity test using a plutonium bomb.

Despite a worldwide campaign for clemency, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953. At least two other scientists associated with the Manhattan Project also served as spies for Soviet Union: Allan Nunn May and Bruno Pontecorvo.

What were the secret towns in the Manhattan Project? ›

Three secret communities supported the top-secret Manhattan Project: Los Alamos, New Mexico; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Richland, Washington. These communities were a mix of military personnel and civilian employees from all different backgrounds.

Today, the nucleus of this once-secret city is still Los Alamos National Laboratory, though you'll find plenty of historic and cultural resources to explore as well. Start your adventure with our visitor center in Los Alamos, NM.

The Manhattan Project kept a secret are: To avoid public outcry against the bomb. To prevent other nations from building bombs. To avoid spies learning of the work.

Tours on Lab property are limited due to the secure nature of Los Alamos National Laboratory, but a series of tours are offered twice a year with advanced registration. Each tour lasts approximately four hours and there are two tours per day with a maximum of 30 participants on each.

Led by scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the staff at this secret Manhattan Project location called Los Alamos was responsible for the development and testing of the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan in August, 1945.

The project resulted in two types of atomic bombs, developed concurrently during the war: a relatively simple gun-type fission weapon and a more complex implosion-type nuclear weapon.

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. Scientists, used to the free exchange of ideas, rebelled against the compartmentalization.

It was our custom to warn Japanese civilians before bombing their cities because we were attempting to destroy military targets, not kill civilians. We dropped leaflets over Hiroshima but did not mention the atomic bomb.

Spying for the Soviets

In 1943, Fuchs was sent to join the Manhattan Project as part of a British team of scientists. He played a key role in the project over the next three years, developing many of the designs, equations and techniques used to build the first atomic bombs.