Discover Nuclear Secrets: Top 10 Fun Facts About the Manhattan Project!

1. FBI's Background Checks & Security Badges

When J. Edgar Hoover's G-Men moonlighted as employment background check experts: Even before LinkedIn or online job portals existed, the Manhattan Project's employees had detailed and thorough background checks conducted by none other than the FBI! These investigations involved reaching out to close relatives and previous employers to verify their backgrounds and clear up any suspicious information. And then came the cherry on top: each employee had a security badge with their photo, job position, and level of clearance. This top-notch security ensured the project remained hush-hush until the devastating bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the Smyth Report finally spilled the beans.
Source => ahf.nuclearmuseum.org

2. Massive Workforce & Budget Allocation

Who needs bombshells when you've got factories galore and a workforce that outnumbers a small country? The Manhattan Project was more about financing firecrackers, and that's no joke: During the project, over 130,000 people were employed across 30+ sites in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, with a staggering 90% of the budget dedicated to building factories and producing fissile material - leaving less than 10% for actually developing and producing the atomic bombs, costing roughly $200 million today.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

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=> Fun Facts about Joseph-Priestley

3. Hanford Site: Radioactive Waste & Contamination

Where the WILD Plutonium Roams: Tucked away in the wilderness of Washington state, the Hanford Engineering Works, a clandestine cog in the massive Manhattan Project machine, gave birth to the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor. Like an atomic age dumping ground, this desolate locale, home to a staggering 51,000 workers, was deemed secluded enough for the government to discharge its radioactive remnants straight into the unsuspecting Columbia River, bequeathing a long-lasting legacy of contamination and health woes upon its unfortunate neighbors.
Source => nationalww2museum.org

4. Oppenheimer's Famous Martinis

When life gives you lemons, make a martini: J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, was famed for his delectable martinis, which mixed four ounces of gin, a dash of vermouth, and a honey and lime juice-dipped rim at his Los Alamos parties attended by fellow physicists and their spouses.
Source => discover.lanl.gov

5. Oak Ridge Facilities: Enriched Uranium from Water

Whoever said money can't buy happiness clearly never heard of the Manhattan Project's Oak Ridge facilities, which single-handedly turned water into enriched uranium with a splash of H2O-h-la-la! Seriously though: during operation, the facilities consumed water equivalent to Knoxville's entire supply, relying on two separate rivers, 19 cooling towers, and miles of pipelines to cool the uranium-enrichment equipment while ensuring minimal ecological impact.
Source => u-s-history.com

6. Big Brother's Love Letter Interception

Who knew that Big Brother was such an overprotective sibling during the Manhattan Project, intercepting love letters that might be a little too atomic: There were no reported instances of packages going missing or mail mix-ups, thanks to the FBI's rigorous background checks, mail censorship, and elaborate surveillance programs designed to maintain the project's astonishing level of secrecy.
Source => ahf.nuclearmuseum.org

7. Feynman's Encrypted Messages & Confused Military

While Cupid played matchmaker for young physicist Richard Feynman and his lovely wife Arline, the military had other plans, intercepting their love letters that were encrypted, not for secrecy, but simply for the couple's own amusement: Within the confines of WWII's top-secret Manhattan Project, Feynman and ailing Arline defied the rigidity of war by writing each other code-filled messages brimming with merriness, resulting in a hilariously confounded Intelligence Office desperately trying to crack their harmless letters, right up until Arline's unfortunate passing in 1945.
Source => themarginalian.org

8. Einstein Barred From Project Involvement

Who needs an Einstein when you've got world-class physicists, right? Well, in a rare moment, Uncle Sam decided to pass on a physics superman: Despite not working directly on the Manhattan Project, Albert Einstein was barred from consulting on the project due to concerns about his political activism, including his anti-war stance and affiliation with socialist organizations.
Source => amnh.org

9. Trinity Test: Assembling a Bomb in A Ranch House

Assembling a bomb in a ranch house, thought the scientists, would be the bomb-diggity, and if all went kaboom, the neighborhood might go boom too: During the Trinity Test, scientists, concerned about the radioactivity emitted by the plutonium core, transported it in an army sedan, debated evacuating the surrounding areas, and assembled the device at a humble abode; the bomb, releasing energy equivalent to 21,000 tons of TNT, blew steel container "Jumbo" (weighing over 200 tons and standing half a mile from ground zero) off its hinges.
Source => osti.gov

10. Laundrywomen Secretly Testing Radiation Levels

If keeping secrets were an Olympic sport, the folks working on the Manhattan Project would have taken home the gold, no questions asked: The security measures in place were so extreme that workers were kept in the dark about the project's true purpose, with even the laundrywomen unknowingly testing radiation levels on uniforms using Geiger counters without being told why they were doing so.
Source => reddit.com