The Manhattan Project is infamous throughout the world as the spark that ignited irreversible change. It was a change that would end a world conflict and make nations wary of nuclear energy for all time.

Nuclear fission was first discovered in Germany in 1938, although several European scientists had been exploring the potential of the atom for years. Nuclear fission occurs when the nucleus of a single atom is split, cutting the atom in half and emitting deadly neutrons. A series of nuclear fissions is commonly known as a chain reaction and has the ability to produce or destroy, depending on the motives of its operators.

On December 2, 1942 the first successful nuclear fission experiment took place at the University of Chicago underneath the college stadium.  Enrico Fermian Italian Nobel prize-winning scientist was the first physicist to experiment with the capabilities of neutrons. Once on American soil, Fermi partnered with Niels Bohr a fellow scientist who proffered the idea of a nuclear chain reactionThey worked together for the University of Chicago.

By 1939, Fermi, Bohr, Einstein and others were actively working on the consequences of nuclear power. There had been no successful experiment to date, but it seemed to all involved only a matter of time. As World War II engulfed the world in a violence it could hardly contemplate, the band of physicists realized just how dangerous their work on atoms, neutrons and chain reactions could be in the hands of Nazi Germany. What they had discovered could change warfare forever. They decided to inform the president.

Albert Einsteinbeginning in 1939, wrote at least four letters to President Roosevelt explaining the implications of the experiments in America and in Europe on the properties of uranium and atomic division. As Einstein expounded on the possibilities of atomic energy to give the world new fuels, he simultaneously emphasized the potential harm of the same energy in the wrong hands.

The Depression still dominated FDR’s administration and finding funds for aiding and supervising the Manhattan Project seemed temporarily unnecessary. That is until the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 and America’s entry into the war. Funding for the Manhattan Project fueled experiments at colleges around the United States as scientists raced to stay ahead of the Nazis. So here then was the beginning of the arms race.

On a cold winter day in Chicago, unbeknownst by the majority of the world, the scientists set up their equipment under the racquetball courts of the college and were witness to the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction. In those moments of brilliant light and scientific progress, a new darkness descended upon the planet: the possibility to destroy millions of people in the blink of an eye.

Today, at least eight countries admit to holding nuclear weapons: China, France India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, UK and the USA. These are the countries that admit to harnessing the violent potential of nuclear energy. There is no way to know for certain if these are the only countries with nuclear arms. Those few brilliant scientists on December 2, 1942 could not have known how dangerous their research would become.

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