Management of the Hanford Engineer Works in World War II

Management of the Hanford Engineer Works in World War II PDF Author: Harry Thayer
Publisher: Amer Society of Civil Engineers
ISBN: 9780784401606
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Combining in-depth research with first-hand interviews of key participants in the project, Thayer engagingly recounts an important aspect of America's race to develop atomic weapons. He describes the organization and management methods behind one of the major engineering achievements of the 20th century--the design and construction of the original plutonium-production plant at Hanford, Washington. Hanford's extraordinarily short and successful development is described and placed in the context of the contemporaneous crisis conditions: fear, urgency, and daunting uncertainties in science, engineering, procurement, and construction. The efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DuPont, and the Metallurgical Laboratory are described in depth, in addition to detailed discussions of the desperate nature of the crisis, labor conditions, technologies, and intangibles of those wartime years. Thayer pinpoints 38 principal reasons for Hanford's success; describes what the engineers, builders, and operators actually did; and presents figures and tables to illustrate the severely time-constrained problems of parallel development. About the Author Harry Thayer has participated in the design of more than 70 industrial plants over a career of more than 40 years.

Management of the Hanford Engineer Works in World War II

Management of the Hanford Engineer Works in World War II PDF Author: Harry Thayer
Publisher: Amer Society of Civil Engineers
ISBN: 9780784401606
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Combining in-depth research with first-hand interviews of key participants in the project, Thayer engagingly recounts an important aspect of America's race to develop atomic weapons. He describes the organization and management methods behind one of the major engineering achievements of the 20th century--the design and construction of the original plutonium-production plant at Hanford, Washington. Hanford's extraordinarily short and successful development is described and placed in the context of the contemporaneous crisis conditions: fear, urgency, and daunting uncertainties in science, engineering, procurement, and construction. The efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DuPont, and the Metallurgical Laboratory are described in depth, in addition to detailed discussions of the desperate nature of the crisis, labor conditions, technologies, and intangibles of those wartime years. Thayer pinpoints 38 principal reasons for Hanford's success; describes what the engineers, builders, and operators actually did; and presents figures and tables to illustrate the severely time-constrained problems of parallel development. About the Author Harry Thayer has participated in the design of more than 70 industrial plants over a career of more than 40 years.

Critical Mass

Critical Mass PDF Author: Carter Hydrick
Publisher: TrineDay
ISBN: 1634241185
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
On May 19, 1945, eleven days after the surrender of Nazi Germany in Europe, a U-boat was escorted into Portsmouth Naval Yard, New Hampshire. News reporters covering the surrender of U-234 were ordered, contrary to all previous and later U-boat surrender procedures, to keep their distance from crew members and passengers of U-234, on threat of being shot by the attending Marine guards.Why the tight security? Buried in the nose of the specially-built mammoth boat, sealed in cylinders “lined with gold,” was 1,120 pounds of enriched uranium labeled “U235”the fissile material from which atom bombs are made.Critical Mass documents how these Nazi bomb components were then used by the Manhattan Project to complete both the uranium bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki, to defeat the Japanese and win World War Two and global domination in the modern age.

Tank Closure and Waste Management for the Hanford Site

Tank Closure and Waste Management for the Hanford Site PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1150

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Book Description


The History and Science of the Manhattan Project

The History and Science of the Manhattan Project PDF Author: Bruce Cameron Reed
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3662581752
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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Book Description
The development of atomic bombs under the auspices of the U.S. Army’s Manhattan Project during World War II is considered to be the outstanding news story of the twentieth century. In this book, a physicist and expert on the history of the Project presents a comprehensive overview of this momentous achievement. The first three chapters cover the history of nuclear physics from the discovery of radioactivity to the discovery of fission, and would be ideal for instructors of a sophomore-level “Modern Physics” course. Student-level exercises at the ends of the chapters are accompanied by answers. Chapter 7 covers the physics of first-generation fission weapons at a similar level, again accompanied by exercises and answers. For the interested layman and for non-science students and instructors, the book includes extensive qualitative material on the history, organization, implementation, and results of the Manhattan Project and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing missions. The reader also learns about the legacy of the Project as reflected in the current world stockpiles of nuclear weapons. This second edition contains important revisions and additions, including a new chapter on the German atomic bomb program and new sections on British and Canadian contributions to the Manhattan project and on feed materials. Several other sections have been expanded; reader feedback has been helpful in introducing minor corrections and improved explanations; and, last but not least, the second edition includes a detailed index.

Management of Hazardous Energy

Management of Hazardous Energy PDF Author: Thomas Neil McManus
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439879370
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 810

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Book Description
Hazardous energy present in systems, machines, and equipment has injured, maimed, and killed many workers. One serious injury can stop the growth of your business in its tracks. Management of Hazardous Energy: Deactivation, De-Energization, Isolation, and Lockout provides the practical tools needed to assess hazardous energy in equipment, machines,

The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age

The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age PDF Author: Steve Olson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393634981
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
A thrilling narrative of scientific triumph, decades of secrecy, and the unimaginable destruction wrought by the creation of the atomic bomb. It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs. In the desert of eastern Washington State, far from prying eyes, scientists Glenn Seaborg, Enrico Fermi, and many thousands of others—the physicists, engineers, laborers, and support staff at the facility—manufactured plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and for the bombs in the current American nuclear arsenal, enabling the construction of weapons with the potential to end human civilization. With his characteristic blend of scientific clarity and storytelling, Steve Olson asks why Hanford has been largely overlooked in histories of the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. Olson, who grew up just twenty miles from Hanford’s B Reactor, recounts how a small Washington town played host to some of the most influential scientists and engineers in American history as they sought to create the substance at the core of the most destructive weapons ever created. The Apocalypse Factory offers a new generation this dramatic story of human achievement and, ultimately, of lethal hubris.

Freedom's Forge

Freedom's Forge PDF Author: Arthur Herman
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0812982045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SELECTED BY THE ECONOMIST AS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR “A rambunctious book that is itself alive with the animal spirits of the marketplace.”—The Wall Street Journal Freedom’s Forge reveals how two extraordinary American businessmen—General Motors automobile magnate William “Big Bill” Knudsen and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser—helped corral, cajole, and inspire business leaders across the country to mobilize the “arsenal of democracy” that propelled the Allies to victory in World War II. Drafting top talent from companies like Chrysler, Republic Steel, Boeing, Lockheed, GE, and Frigidaire, Knudsen and Kaiser turned auto plants into aircraft factories and civilian assembly lines into fountains of munitions. In four short years they transformed America’s army from a hollow shell into a truly global force, laying the foundations for the country’s rise as an economic as well as military superpower. Freedom’s Forge vividly re-creates American industry’s finest hour, when the nation’s business elites put aside their pursuit of profits and set about saving the world. Praise for Freedom’s Forge “A rarely told industrial saga, rich with particulars of the growing pains and eventual triumphs of American industry . . . Arthur Herman has set out to right an injustice: the loss, down history’s memory hole, of the epic achievements of American business in helping the United States and its allies win World War II.”—The New York Times Book Review “Magnificent . . . It’s not often that a historian comes up with a fresh approach to an absolutely critical element of the Allied victory in World War II, but Pulitzer finalist Herman . . . has done just that.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A compulsively readable tribute to ‘the miracle of mass production.’ ”—Publishers Weekly “The production statistics cited by Mr. Herman . . . astound.”—The Economist “[A] fantastic book.”—Forbes “Freedom’s Forge is the story of how the ingenuity and energy of the American private sector was turned loose to equip the finest military force on the face of the earth. In an era of gathering threats and shrinking defense budgets, it is a timely lesson told by one of the great historians of our time.”—Donald Rumsfeld

United States Army in World War 2, Special Studies, Manhattan, the Army, and the Atomic Bomb (Clothbound)

United States Army in World War 2, Special Studies, Manhattan, the Army, and the Atomic Bomb (Clothbound) PDF Author:
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160872884
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 684

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Book Description
he U.S. Army played a key role in the formation and administration of the Manhattan Project, the World War II organization which produced the atomic bombs that not only contributed decisively to ending the war with Japan but also opened the way to a new atomic age. The volume begins with a prologue, designed to provide the reader with a brief survey of the history of atomic energy and to explain in layman’s terms certain technical aspects of atomic science essential to an understanding of the major problems occurring in the development of an atomic weapon. Early chapters describe the beginning of the Army’s atomic mission, including the formation of the Manhattan District, the first steps in acquiring the means to produce atomic weapons and the appointment of General Groves. Subsequent topical chapters trace the building and operation of the large-scale process plants for the production of fissionable materials; the administration of a broad range of support activities, such as security and community management; and the fabrication, testing, and combat employment of atomic bombs. A concluding section describes how the Army dealt with the difficult problems arising during its unexpectedly prolonged postwar trusteeship of the project until December 1946, when the newly created civilian agency – the United States Atomic Energy Commission – assumed responsibility for atomic energy matters.

Racing for the Bomb

Racing for the Bomb PDF Author: Robert S. Norris
Publisher: Skyhorse
ISBN: 1632201011
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 652

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Book Description
In September 1942, Colonel Leslie R. Groves was given the job of building the atomic bomb. As a career officer in the Army Corps of Engineers, Groves had overseen hundreds of military construction projects, including the Pentagon. Until now, scientists have received the credit for the Manhattan Project’s remarkable achievements. And yet, it was Leslie R. Groves who made things happen. It was Groves who drove manufacturers, construction crews, scientists, industrialists, and military and civilian officials to come up with the money, the materials, and the plans to solve thousands of problems and build the bomb in only two years. It was his operation, and in Racing for the Bomb he emerges as a take-charge, can-do figure who succeeds in the face of formidable odds. Revealed for the first time in Racing for the Bomb, Groves played a crucial and decisive role in the planning, timing, and targeting of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions. Norris offers new insights into the complex and controversial questions surrounding the decision to drop the bomb in Japan and Groves’s actions during World War II, which had a lasting imprint on the nuclear age and the Cold War that followed. Grove’s extensive influence on key institutions of postwar America has been overlooked for too long. In this full-scale biography, which includes archival material and family letters and documents and features several previously unpublished photographs, Norris places Groves at the center of the amazing Manhattan Project story. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Nature at War

Nature at War PDF Author: Thomas Robertson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108419763
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
"World War II was the largest and most destructive conflict in human history. It was an existential struggle that pitted irreconcilable political systems and ideologies against one another across the globe in a decade of violence unlike any other. There is little doubt today that the United States had to engage in the fighting, especially after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The conflict was, in the words of historians Allan Millett and Williamson Murray, "a war to be won." As the world's largest industrial power, the United States put forth a supreme effort to produce the weapons, munitions, and military formations essential to achieving victory. When the war finally ended, the finale signaled by atomic mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, upwards of 60 million people had perished in the inferno. Of course, the human toll represented only part of the devastation; global environments also suffered greatly. The growth and devastation of the Second World War significantly changed American landscapes as well. The war created or significantly expanded a number of industries, put land to new uses, spurred urbanization, and left a legacy of pollution that would in time create a new term: Superfund site"--