Topic+17+(Trinity)

Trinity Test
Trinity was the name of the test of the world’s first atomic weapon. It was held in Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death), in a remote region of Mexico about 100 miles from Los Alamos. There have been many speculations as to why Oppenheimer chose the name “Trinity”, but a commonly held theory is that it was named after a poem. After Germany’s surrender, it became imperative for Groves to have completed a military nuclear weapon by war’s end. Thus, he scheduled a test of the plutonium implosion device for July 16. A weapon was not yet ready. Nobody was even sure a bomb would work. Groves himself was initially not convinced. Fortunately, the scientists were able to convince Groves that “Jumbo”, a huge metal container, would be able to contain the plutonium should the device fail, and that it could be reused for another device. However, as the test date neared, Jumbo, after being fully constructed, was set aside when the scientists regained confidence in their weapon. (Sullivan 81)

The scientists arrived on July 13, and for the next three days, attempted to assemble the bomb. It was difficult, for nobody had ever tried to make a nuclear device, and they were short of materials and time. Immediately problems cropped up; the plutonium arrived in a liquid nitrate form, and had to be purified on site before it could be packed. The scientists cleared out a spare room for this job. When the plutonium core was finally assembled, it had turned out the desert heat had expanded it, so that it would no longer “click” in place inside the explosive shell. This sent the scientists into a panic; this move had been rehearsed several times, and that it now failed was absurd. After several frantic minutes, the core cooled enough to be put in place. (Sullivan 86) The next days were a blur of activity. The scientists worked nonstop to ensure the device would work. Even the night before the test, scientists would wake from a sudden nightmare of failure, and actually went to check the device, to find they had misplaced a wire or something.

The test was scheduled for 5:00 am, July 16. Scientists had placed bets on the yield of the device; Oppenheimer’s 300 tons of TNT seemed the most realistic at the time. Each individual had expectations and fears. Some feared failure, and some even feared success, for it was thought the weapon might ignite the atmosphere and kill everyone on Earth, or the like. In particular, renowned physicist Edward Teller had managed to scare some scientists to death, by putting on sunscreen to shield himself from radiation 20 miles away. (Sullivan 88) Others were not so optimistic. Groves, lying prone far from the bomb, stated that the first thought he had was what he would do when the bomb failed. Groves had reason to be pessimistic. This device was basically a “garage bomb”, not capable of being used in real combat. There was no way of ensuring it would work as a true weapon. ("Manhattan Project") On 5:00 am, the world entered the atomic age. A scientist there aptly described the scene:

“Suddenly there was an enormous flash of light, the brightest light I have ever seen or that I think anyone has ever seen. It blasted; it pounced; it bored its way right through you. It was a vision which was seen with more than the eye. It was seen to last forever. You wish it would stop; altogether it lasted about two seconds. Finally, it was over, diminishing, and we looked toward the place where the bomb had been; there was an enormous ball of fire which grew and grew and it rolled as it grew; it went up into the air, in yellow flashes and into scarlet and green. It looked menacing.” (Sullivan 90)

The steel tower which it had been loaded onto was completely vaporized, and for 800 yards, the desert sand had been turned to glass. The yield from the blast was later found to be 18 kilotons of TNT, a tremendous amount of energy from the fission of only a few grams of plutonium. (Sullivan 90) .