Saturday, January 24, 2009

Looking back at energy...

A really interesting website is the Department of Energy's timeline it begins in 1939 and goes all the way to 2004. I have no idea why it stopped at 2004, but it is a very interesting read to go back from then to now. You'll discover things like how quickly the United States developed and used technology when it comes to war:

January 19, 1942
President Roosevelt approves production of the atomic bomb following receipt of a National Academy of Sciences report determining that a bomb is feasible.

June 17, 1942
President Roosevelt instructs the Army to take responsibility for construction of atomic weapons complex. The Army delegates the task to the Corps of Engineers, which establishes the Manhattan Engineer District.

September 19, 1942
Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, head of the Manhattan Engineer District, selects Oak Ridge, Tennessee, site for facilities to produce nuclear materials. Isotope separation of uranium235 takes place in the gaseous diffusion plant built in the K-25 area of the site, in the electromagnetic plant in the Y-12 area, and in the liquid thermal diffusion plant. A pilot pile (reactor) and plutonium separation facility are built and operated at the X-10 area.

November 25, 1942
Groves selects Los Alamos, New Mexico, as site for separate scientific laboratory to design an atomic bomb.

December 2, 1942
Metallurgical Laboratory scientists led by Enrico Fermi achieve the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction in pile constructed under the west grandstand at Stagg field in Chicago.

January 16, 1943
Groves selects Hanford, Washington, as site for full-scale plutonium production and separation facilities. Three reactors--B, D, and F--are built.

April 12, 1945
President Roosevelt dies. Harry S. Truman becomes President.

May 7, 1945
Germany surrenders.

July 16, 1945
Trinity device being readied Los Alamos scientists successfully test a plutonium implosion bomb in the Trinity shot at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

August 6, 1945
The gun model uranium bomb, called Little Boy, is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

August 9, 1945
The implosion model plutonium bomb, called Fat Man, is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Five days later, Japan surrenders.

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