Manhattan Project feed materials program: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:30, 16 August 2025

Revision as of 04:36, 16 August 2025

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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]]. The [[highly enrichmentenriched uranium]] product of the enrichment plants and the [[plutonium]] from the reactors was used to make [[atomic bomb]]s.

The original goal of the feed materials program in 1942 was to acquire approximately {{convert|1,700|ST|t|order=flip}} of [[triuranium octoxide]] ({{chem2|U3O8}}) (black oxide). By the time of the dissolution of the Manhattan District on 1 January 1947, it had acquired about {{convert|10,000|ST|order=flip}}, {{Percentage|6983|10220|1}} of which came from the [[Belgian Congo]], {{Percentage|1349|10220|1}} from the [[Colorado Plateau]], and {{Percentage|1137|10220|1}} from Canada. An additional {{Percentage|481+270|10220|1}} came from "miscellaneous sources", which included quantities recovered from Europe by the Manhattan Project's [[Alsos Mission]].