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Home | Technology | Energy

The Making Of The Atomic Bomb: A Visit To The Uranium-Enrichment Facilities Of Oak Ridge, Tennessee

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East Tennessee in the state's eastern edge is characterized by mountain ranges and nuclear laboratories and science and technology research facilities. These facilities were part of the wartime effort to build the world's first atomic bombs that were later dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan during the Second World War.

The Y-12 National Laboratory Complex that is one of the most important nuclear plants involved in the development of the country's nuclear defense is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This facility of the United States Department of the National Nuclear Security Administration is operated by B&W Y-12 on a contractual basis.

The Y-12 National Laboratory Complex is the only facility in the entire country that fabricates components and precision parts for nuclear weapons. Opened in 1943, the first nuclear project accomplished at Y-12 was isolating uranium-235 from uranium-238, a natural uranium, using magnetic isotope separation technology. Uranium-235 is used to create nuclear bombs. Some of the uranium-235 component of Little Boy, the infamous bomb dropped in Hiroshima during the Second World War, came from this facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Today, Y-12 is also involved in evaluating subsystems returned from stockpile and in dealing with recovered nuclear materials.

Another United States Department of Energy (DOE) facility located in East Tennessee is the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). A multi-program facility involved in applied research and development, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the largest science, energy, and technology laboratory of the DOE. ORNL conducts research on many areas including: neutron scattering, nanotechnology, biological systems, high-performance computing, inter facial chemistry, mass spectrometry, nuclear medicine, and electron microscopy.

In the past, that is, before the end of the Second World War, Oak Ridge National Laboratory was part of the Manhattan Project, the project that developed the world's first atomic bombs. Manhattan Project was a collaboration between the US, Canada, and the UK. Known mainly during the Manhattan Project as site X-10, the Oak Ridge, Tennessee facility was involved primarily in the production of uranium-235 for the first atomic bombs.

The East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), located also in Oakridge, is a cluster of different industrial facilities that have their beginnings as far as the Manhattan Project. ETTP was previously engaged in the enriching of uranium in the uranium-235 isotope for commercial use (nuclear energy plants) and for national defense (building of atomic weapons). However, ETTP was closed in 1986.

Before it was shut down, ETTP was the home of three gaseous diffusion plants: K-29, K-31, and K-33. These facilities played a very important role in build-up and maintenance of national defense by enriching uranium for nuclear weapons. At the time, K-25 was the largest uranium-enrichment facility in the US, bigger even than Oak Ridge X-10.

In 1997, however, the East Tennessee Technology Park was re-opened and underwent Re-industrialization. The aim of Re-industrialization is threefold: restoring the environment, decontamination of abandoned facilities, and handling of legacy wastes.

East Tennessee was where the first uranium-235 were successfully separated and massively produced, paving the way for the creation of the very first atomic bombs that ended the Second World War. While the nuclear facilities here are no longer engaged in making atomic bombs, they continue to play big roles in developing and maintaining the country's national defense as well as nuclear energy resource.

Article Source: http://bytepowered.org/articles

Beth Olignerf distributes information on water and sewer damage issues for Memphis Tennessee Water Damage Restoration and Memphis Tennessee Flood Damage Cleanup

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