Project Sites

This section features information about the three primary sites, Hanford, WA, Los Alamos, NM, and Oak Ridge, TN, along with many of the other sites around the country, from Dayton, OH, where the polonium trigger for the bomb was designed, to Chicago, IL, where the world’s first sustained nuclear reaction took place.

Danish physicist Niels Bohr had observed that building an atomic bomb could never be done without turning the United States into one huge factory. Bohr saw his words borne out as the nationwide project transformed America with facilities coast-to-coast.

Hanford, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge are units of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Eventually, other Manhattan Project sites such as the Trinity Site and Wendover Airfield may become associated areas.

A U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex Map

This map contains the important locations of the offices, control centers, mines, mills, plants, laboratories, and test sites of the U.S. nuclear complex from the early 1940s to the present. It was assembled by Dr. Frank Settle, Professor of …

Several sites in Iowa played an important role during and after the Manhattan Project, including the Ames Laboratory at the Iowa State University, where uranium production methods were developed, and the Burlington Atomic Energy Commission Plant, …

Often overlooked, British physicists were the first to realize the feasibility of an atomic bomb and their urgings were vital to the development and success of the Manhattan Project in the United States. Cavendish Laboratory Cavendish …

California Institute of Technology

Before the war, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) was a leading university in the fields of particle and nuclear physics. It was especially known for its experimental physicists. Many scientists who had important roles on the …

Cambridge is home to two of the world’s most prominent universities, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A number of Manhattan Project scientists were educated at Harvard and MIT, and both …

Often overlooked, Canada played an important role in the Manhattan Project, especially during the early stages of research and development. Canada was also crucial for another reason: its Northwest Territories provided a rich source of raw uranium …

One of the most important branches of the Manhattan Project was the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. Known simply as the “Met Lab,” the laboratory’s primary role was to design a viable method for plutonium production that …

After the activation of the 509th Composite Group in December 1944, some members of the group (including members of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, the unit’s combat squad) went to Cuba for training. At Batista Field in San Antonio de Los …

Dayton, Ohio was another important site of the Manhattan Project’s top-secret work. In 1943, the MED tasked the Monsanto Chemical Company with separating and purifying the radioactive element Polonium (Po-210), which was to be used as the …

The Houdaille-Hershey Plant was a secret Manhattan Project site located in Decatur, Illinois. It was responsible for plating the interior of pipes with a barrier material that could be used for the gaseous diffusion process for enriching uranium at …

A little known Manhattan Project site took place at the Chrysler Corporation in Detroit, Michigan. When the K-25 plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee was established to produce enriched uranium using the gaseous diffusion process, engineers had to …

An Introduction to French Nuclear History France was the premier place for research into radioactivity decades before the development of the bomb. The process started under Henri Becquerel, who first discovered radioactivity in 1896. Marie and …

Grand Junction, CO

From 1943 until 1945, Grand Junction, Colorado was the center of the Manhattan Project’s secret effort to mine and refine uranium ore from surrounding mills in the Colorado Plateau. By 1946, over 2,600,000 pounds of uranium oxide had …

Hanford, Washington, on the beautiful Columbia River, was the site selected for the full-scale plutonium production plant, the B Reactor. Today a popular tourist destination, the Hanford Site proved crucial to the success of the Manhattan …

Throughout its history, the U.S. nuclear laboratory at Idaho Falls (presently known as the Idaho National Laboratory or “INL”) has been home to 52 nuclear reactors, the largest concentration of nuclear reactors in the world. Today, all but …

World War II Japan was one of the Axis powers in World War II. Its attack on Pearl Harbor, HI, on December 7, 1941 brought the US formally into the war. Japan also attacked British, Dutch, and American possessions in the Southwest Pacific around the …

Los Alamos, New Mexico, was the site of Project Y, or the top-secret atomic weapons laboratory directed by J. Robert Oppenheimer. The site was so secret that one mailbox, PO Box 1663, served as the mailing address for the entire town. The mountains …

A surprising number of New York City offices, laboratories, and warehouses were involved in the top-secret Manhattan Project. While these New York City sites remain largely unmarked and unknown, they were a small but crucial part of the project. The …

Marshall Islands

The Marshall Islands consist of two chains of 29 coral atolls, and are located north of the equator, between Hawaii and Australia. On each atoll there are a number of islands. The Marshall Islands have been occupied by humans since the Micronesians …

Although the plutonium production plants at Hanford would eventually use graphite as a “moderator” to slow and control the fission process, Manhattan Project officials also pursued heavy water as an alternative option. A feasibility …

Nevada Test Site

The Nevada Test Site (NTS), 65 miles north of Las Vegas, was one of the most significant nuclear weapons test sites in the United States. Nuclear testing, both atmospheric and underground, occurred here between 1951 and 1992. After World War II, the …

Although the plutonium production plants at Hanford would eventually use graphite as a “moderator” to slow and control the fission process, Manhattan Project officials also pursued heavy water as an alternative option. A feasibility …

Oak Ridge was the home of the uranium enrichment plants (K-25 and Y-12), the liquid thermal diffusion plant (S-50), and the pilot plutonium production reactor (X-10 Graphite Reactor). Site Selection In 1942, General Leslie Groves approved Oak …

Philadelphia, PA

Philip Abelson conducted research on the liquid thermal diffusion method of isotope separation at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. This process was utilized for the S-50 Plant at Oak Ridge. In September 1944, two workers were killed while trying to fix a …

While not a major site of production like Los Alamos or Oak Ridge, the scientists and knowledge coming out of Princeton University were instrumental for the success of the Manhattan Project. Princeton, like the University of Chicago and the …

Purdue University

The Purdue University Physics Department operated a cyclotron during the early part of the war, conducting important nuclear research. Many of the scientists working on the project were transferred to Los Alamos to continue work on the Manhattan …

Russian Nuclear Complex Map

This map contains the important locations of the offices, control centers, mines, mills, plants, laboratories, and test sites of the Russian nuclear complex. It was assembled by Dr. Frank Settle, Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus at Washington …

Although the plutonium production plants at Hanford would eventually use graphite as a “moderator” to slow and control the fission process, Manhattan Project officials also pursued heavy water as an alternative option. A feasibility …

Tinian Island was the launching point for the atomic bomb attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. One of three islands in the Northern Marianas, Tinian is less than forty square miles in size and located approximately 1,500 miles south of …

Between 1942 and 1946, the Linde Air Products Division of the Union Carbide Corporation operated two facilities in upstate New York for the Manhattan Engineer District (MED). The two sites—Chandler Street, located in Buffalo, and a former ceramics …

J. Robert Oppenheimer gave the code name “Trinity” to a remote patch of the Jornada del Muerto Desert as a tribute to a line from a poem by John Donne. Soon after, teams of scientists and soldiers descended on the area, setting up a base …

University of California, Berkeley

The Rad Lab, short for “Radiation Laboratory,” was the site of Manhattan Project research at the University of California, Berkeley. Ernest Lawrence formed the lab in 1931, three years after his arrival at the university. During his early …

University of Rochester

Small experiments studying the effects of radioactive isotopes, including plutonium, uranium, and polonium, on humans were conducted in the Manhattan Annex of the Strong Memorial Hospital located at the University of Rochester. The purpose of these …

Washington, DC, became important in nuclear history even before the start of the Manhattan Project. Nuclear fission was first announced in DC at George Washington University. During the Fifth Washington Conference on Theoretical Physics, Niels …

Wendover Airfield in Utah was selected as the training and test center for the atomic bomb delivery group as part of Project Alberta. Nicknamed “Kingman,” the site was the initial training ground for the 509th Composite Group and …

Wilmington, Delaware is the headquarters of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, an American chemical production company that played a significant role in the Manhattan Project and the making of the atomic bomb. History of the DuPont …