Dayton Project
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Dayton Project was one of several sites involved in the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs. Charles Allen Thomas an executive of the Monsanto corporation was assigned to develop the neutron generating devices that triggered the nuclear detonation of the atomic bombs once the critical mass had been "assembled" by the force of conventional explosives.
Thomas established the project in the Runnymede Playhouse on the grounds of the Talbott family estate in a wealthy residential section of Oakwood a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. The Playhouse was a leisure facility that included a ballroom, indoor squash and tennis courts as well as a stage for community theater. It was located at the intersection of Runnymede Road and Dixon Avenue (latitude 39 degrees, 43 minutes, 29.8 seconds; longitude 84 degrees, 10 minutes, 48.3 seconds). The Talbotts were among the heirs of the Delco (by then a part of General Motors) fortune. Before the war, Thomas worked as a chemist for Delco/GM and was married to Margaret Talbott. He promised his mother-in-law that he would return the building to the family intact after the war. He was unable to keep his promise because the building had become contaminated with radioactivity. The facility (also known as Dayton Unit IV) was in use for nuclear work until 1949 when Mound Laboratories was opened in Miamisburg, Ohio. The Playhouse was dismantled in 1950 and later buried in Tennessee.[1]
The neutron generator used on the implosion design (such as the Fat Man bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki) was coded named "Urchin". It was composed of alternating layers of polonium (Po-210) and beryllium separated by gold foil. The initiator, located in the center of the bomb, was carefully designed to ensure that during the implosion of the bomb core, the polonium and beryllium mixed. Once the elements mixed, alpha particles emitted by the polonium were absorbed by the beryllium causing it to emit neutrons. The precise timing of the neutron pulse was necessary to avoid pre-detonation of the bomb which would have resulted in a "fizzle" rather than the desired blast. In modern nuclear weapons a pulsed neutron emitting tube has replaced polonium/beryllium initiators, as polonium-210 has a relatively short half-life and thus would need to be replaced every few months.
[edit] References
- DeBrosse, Jim. "The Dayton Project", Dayton Daily News, Cox Enterprises, 2004-12-05, p. A1. (with photos)
|
|||||||||||||
