explosion.

Los Alamos was established in northern New Mexico to design and build
the bomb. At Los Alamos many of the greatest scientific minds of the
day labored over the theory and actual construction of the device.
The group was led by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer who is credited with
being the driving force behind building a workable bomb by the end of
the war.



The Theory


Los Alamos scientists devised two designs for an atomic bomb--one
using the uranium and another using the plutonium. The uranium bomb
was a simple design and scientists were confident it would work
without testing. The plutonium bomb worked by compressing the
plutonium into a critical mass which sustains a chain reaction. The
compression of the plutonium ball was to be accomplished by
surrounding it with lens-shaped charges of conventional explosives.
They were designed to all explode at the same instant. The force is
directed inward, thus smashing the plutonium from all sides.

In an atomic explosion, a chain reaction picks up speed as atoms
split, releasing neutrons plus great amounts of energy. The escaping
neutrons strike and split more atoms, thus releasing still more
neutrons and energy. In a nuclear explosion this all occurs in a
millionth of a second with billions of atoms being split.