Manhattan Project feed materials program: Difference between revisions

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{{main|Manhattan Project}}

[[File:Uranium processing.png|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Chart describing the processing of uranium]]

The '''Manhattan Project feed materials program''' located and procured [[uranium ore]]s, and refined and processed them into feed materials for use in the [[Manhattan Project]]'s [[isotope enrichment]] plants at the [[Clinton Engineer Works]] in [[Oak Ridge, Tennessee]], and its [[nuclear reactor]]s at the [[Hanford Engineer Works]] in [[Washington state]].

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|File:Autunite-20885.jpg |[[Autunite]] from [[Spokane County]], Washington, US

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A major deposit was found at [[Shinkolobwe]] in what was then the [[Belgian Congo]] in 1915, and extraction was begun by a Belgian mining company, [[Union Minière du Haut-Katanga]], after the First World War. The first batch of uranium ore arrived in Belgium in December 1921.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vanthemsche |first=Guy |title=Belgium and the Congo, 1885-1980 |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-19421-1 |___location=Cambridge |pages=192}}</ref> Only the richest uranium-bearing ore was exported to [[Olen, Belgium]] for the production of [[radium]] metal by [[Biraco]], a subsidiary company of Union Minière du Haut Katanga. The metal became an important export of Belgium from 1922 up until World War II.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Adams |first=A |date=January 1993 |title=The origin and early development of the Belgian radium industry |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/016041209390274L |journal=Environment International |volume=19 |issue=5 |pages=491–501 |bibcode=1993EnInt..19..491A |doi=10.1016/0160-4120(93)90274-l |issn=0160-4120}}</ref>

The high grade of the ore from the mine—65% or more [[triuranium octoxide]]) ({{chem2|U3O8}}), known as black oxide, when most sites considered 0.03% to be good—enabled the company to dominate the market. Even the 2,000 tonnes of tailings from the mine considered too poor to bother processing contained up to 20% uranium ore.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947a|pp=S4–S5}}{{sfn|Nichols|1987|p=47}}<ref>{{cite news |date=4 August 2020 |first=Frank |last=Swain |title=The forgotten mine that built the atomic bomb |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200803-the-forgotten-mine-that-built-the-atomic-bomb |access-date=19 February 2025 |archive-date=30 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250130075136/https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200803-the-forgotten-mine-that-built-the-atomic-bomb |url-status=live }}</ref> Black oxide was mainly used by ceramics industry, which consumed about {{convert|150|ST|t|order=flip}} annually as a colouringcoloring agent, and in 1941 sold for USD{{convert|2.05|$/lb|2|order=flip}} (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|{{convert|2.05|/lb|order=flip|disp=number}}|1941}}/kg in {{Inflation/year|US}}). [[Uranium nitrate]] ({{chem2|UO2(NO3)2}}) was used by the photographic industry, and sold for USD{{convert|2.36|$/lb|2|order=flip}} (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|{{convert|2.36|/lb|order=flip|disp=number}}|1941}}/kg in {{Inflation/year|US}}).{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947a|pp=5.1–5.2}} The market for uranium was quite small, and by 1937, Union Minière had thirty years' supply on hand, so the mining and refining operations at Shinkolobwe were terminated.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947a|pp=S4–S5}}

The [[discovery of nuclear fission]] by chemists [[Otto Hahn]] and [[Fritz Strassmann]] in December 1938, and its subsequent explanation, verification and naming by physicists [[Lise Meitner]] and [[Otto Frisch]], opened up the possibility of uranium becoming an important new source of energy.{{sfn|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|pp=10–11}} In nature, uranium has three [[isotope]]s: [[uranium-238]], which accounts for 99.28 per cent; [[uranium-235]], which accounts for 0.71 per cent; and [[uranium-234]], which accounts for less than 0.001 per cent.{{sfn|Jones|1985|pp=8–9}} In Britain, in June 1939, Frisch and [[Rudolf Peierls]] investigated the [[critical mass]] of uranium-235,{{sfn|Rhodes|1986|pp=322–325}} and found that it was small enough to be carried by contemporary bombers, making an [[atomic bomb]] possible. Their March 1940 [[Frisch–Peierls memorandum]] initiated [[Tube Alloys]], the British atomic bomb project.{{sfn|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|pp=39–42}}

In June 1942, [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] [[James C. Marshall]] was selected to head the Army's part of the American atomic bomb project. He established his headquarters at [[Tower 270|270 Broadway]] in [[New York City]], with; [[Lieutenant Colonel (United States)|Lieutenant Colonel]] [[Kenneth Nichols]] became his deputy.{{sfn|Jones|1985|pp=41–44}} Since engineer districts normally carried the name of the city where they were located, Marshall's command was called the Manhattan District. Unlike other engineer districts, though, it had no geographic boundaries, and Marshall had the authority of a division engineer. Over time the entire project became known as "Manhattan".{{sfn|Jones|1985|pp=41–44}} [[Brigadier General (United States)|Brigadier General]] [[Leslie R. Groves]] assumed command of the [[Manhattan Project]] in September 1942.{{sfn|Jones|1985|pp=74–77}}

One of Groves's first concerns upon taking charge was securing the supply of raw materials, particularly uranium ore.{{sfn|Groves|1962|p=33}} At the time, there was insufficient uranium even for experimental purposes, and no idea how much would ultimately be required.{{sfn|Nichols|1987|p=45}}

==Organization==

[[File:Feed Material Network.png|thumb|right|Feed Material Network - organization chart]]

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The hydride or "hydramet" process was developed by Peter P. Alexander, at Metal Hydrides, which used [[calcium hydride]] ({{chem2|CaH2}}) as the [[reducing agent]].{{sfn|Alexander|1943|p=3}}{{sfn|Wilhelm|1960|p=59}} By this means the Metal Hydrides plant in Beverly, Massachusetts, managed to produce a few pounds of uranium metal. Unfortunately, the calcium hydride used contained unacceptable amounts of [[boron]], a neutron poison, making the metal unsuitable for use in a reactor. Some months would pass before Clement J. Rodden from the National Bureau of Standards and Union Carbide found a means to produce sufficiently pure calcium hydride.{{sfn|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|pp=65–66}}{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947e|pp=12.9–12.10}} Meal Hydrides managed to produce {{convert|41|ST|t|order=flip}} of metal by the time operations were suspended on 31 August 1943. It then started reprocessing scrap uranium metal, and produced {{convert|1,090|ST|t|order=flip}} at a cost of $0.33 per pound.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947a|pp=10.7–10.7}}

At the [[Ames Project]] at [[Iowa State College]], Frank Spedding and [[Harley Wilhelm]] began looking for ways to create the uranium metal. At the time, it was produced in the form of a powder, and was highly [[pyrophoric]]. It could be pressed and [[sintered]] and stored in cans, but to be useful, it needed to be melted and cast. Casting presented difficulty because uranium corroded [[crucible]]s of beryllium, magnesia and graphite. To produce uranium metal, they tried reducing uranium oxide with hydrogen, but this did not work. While most of the neighboring elements on the [[periodic table]] can be reduced to form pure metal and [[slag]], uranium did not behave this way.{{sfn|Payne|1992|pp=66–67}} (At the time it was mistakenly believed that uranium belonged under [[chromium]], [[molybdenum]] and [[tungsten]] in the periodic table.{{sfn|Wilhelm|1960|p=60}}) In June 1942 they tried reducing the uranium with carbon in a hydrogen atmosphere, with only moderate success. They then tried aluminumaluminium, magnesium and calcium, all of which were unsuccessful. The following month the Ames team found that molten uranium could be cast in a graphite container.{{sfn|Payne|1992|pp=66–67}} Although graphite was known to react with uranium, this could be managed because the carbide formed only where the two touched.{{sfn|Corbett|2001|pp=15–16}}

{{Gallery

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[[Polonium]] was chosen for use as a strong [[alpha particle]] emitter for the [[modulated neutron initiator]]s developed for the first atomic bombs. Production was carried out by the [[Dayton Project]] in [[Dayton, Ohio]].{{sfn|Jones|1985|p=592}}{{sfn|Hoddeson|Henriksen|Meade|Westfall|1993|pp=119–125}}<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.atomicheritage.org/index.php/component/content/83.html?task=view|title=The Dayton Project|first=Jim|last=DeBrosse|newspaper=[[Dayton Daily News]]|date=25 December 2004|page=A1|access-date=25 May 2013|archive-date=14 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130814002324/http://www.atomicheritage.org/index.php/component/content/83.html?task=view|url-status=dead}}</ref> Polonium occurs naturally in various ores, and the [[lead dioxide]] residues from the refinery in Port Hope, left over after the removal of [[uranium]] and radium, were estimated to contain {{convert|0.2|to|0.3|mg|lk=on|sp=us}} of polonium per metric ton.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947g|pp=5.1–5.2}}{{sfn|Moyer|1956|p=2}} (A [[Curie (unit)|curie]] of polonium weighs about {{convert|0.2|mg|sp=us}}.{{sfn|Moyer|1956|p=3}}) About {{convert|35|ST|t|order=flip|sp=us}} of lead dioxide was treated with nitric acid, and about {{convert|40|Ci|TBq}} (8 mg) of polonium was produced.{{sfn|Moyer|1956|pp=5–6}} The lead dioxide was not purchased by the Manhattan Project, as it had been acquired by the Canadian government. In June 1945, the lead was precipitated as a [[lead carbonate]] slurry, and shipped to the Madison Square area to be dried and returned to Canada.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947g|p=5.6}}

Polonium could also be produced by neutron irradiation of [[bismuth]] in a nuclear reactor.{{sfn|Moyer|1956|pp=5–6}} Bismuth was purchased from the [[American Smelting and Refining Company]] of the highest purity it could produce. It was sent to the Hanford Engineer Works, where it was canned, and placed inside a reactor for 100 days. The irradiated slugs were shipped to Dayton, where they were bathed in hydrochloric acid to dissolve the aluminumaluminium canning. This formed an aluminumaluminium chloride solution that was disposed of, as it was highly radioactive due to the iron impurities in the aluminumaluminium. The bismuth slugs were then repeatedly dissolved in [[aqua regia]] to achieve a 1000–1 concentration, and the polonium was electroplated on [[platinum]] foils. The main problem with the process was that it required glass-lined containers due to the aqua regia, and mechanisms for safe handling of the radioactive material. By the end of 1946, Hanford was shipping material that contained up to {{convert|13,200|Ci|TBq}} (2.6 g) of polonium per metric ton of bismuth.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947g|p=5.7–5.11}}

=== Thorium ===