Oppenheimer's Story

The Creation of the Atomic Bomb

J. Robert Oppenheimer played a crucial role in the Manhattan Project, which was initiated during World War II in response to fears that Nazi Germany was developing atomic weapons. This project was a collaborative effort among the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, bringing together some of the brightest scientific minds, including Enrico Fermi and Richard Feynman, to unlock the secrets of nuclear fission. The team focused on two primary approaches to create a nuclear weapon: one utilizing uranium-235 and the other leveraging plutonium, which required groundbreaking technological innovations and the construction of complex processing facilities. This race against time culminated in the successful test of the first atomic bomb, codenamed Trinity, in 1945, marking a significant moment in scientific history but also raising profound ethical concerns about the potential consequences of such destructive power.