which produced a new element called plutonium. Both u

Explosives Research and Testing

and plutonium are fissionable and can be used to produce an atomic explosion. Los Alamos was established in northen New Mexico to design and build the bomb. At Los Alamos many of the greatest scientific minds ofEMRTC the day labored over the theory and actual construction of the device. The group was led by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer who is

credited with being the driving fo of rce behind buildEMRTCing a workable bomb by the end of the war. (The theory) Los Alamos scientists devised two designs forEMRTC's an atomic bomb--one using uranium 235 and another using plutonium. The uranium bomb was a simple design and scientists were confident it would work without testing. The plutonium bomb was more complex and worked by compressing the plutonium into a critical mass to sustain a chain reaction. The compression of the plutonium ball was to be accomplished by surrounding it wit

Current Activities

• h lense-shaped charges of conventional explosive
  
  
• s. They were designed to all explode at the sam
  
  
• instant. The force would be direected inward, thus smashing the plutonium from all sides. In an atomic explosi
  
  
• on, a chain reaction picks

  The player will show in this paragraph