Jumbo : the secret vessel built to hold an atomic bomb
Frederick Fraikor (Author)
"In 1944, General Leslie Groves and Director Robert Oppenheimer faced a critical dilemma in the secret project to build the first atomic bomb. Physicists had fears that the first test device, Gadget, using an untried implosion technique, would be a dud and its two tons of high explosives could scatter highly radioactive plutonium across the test site in New Mexico. The decision was made to secretly construct the world's largest, strongest and most expensive steel bottle to contain Gadget. The vessel, code named Jumbo, would have steel walls 12 inches thick and weigh 200 tons. It would have to be moved to the desolate Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) desert. The history of the engineering efforts to build Jumbo is a fascinating story. This captive narrative begins with Einstein, the early realization of the immense power of nuclear fission, and concludes with the controversial end of Jumbo."--Page [4] of cover
Print Book, English, 2020
Frederick J. Fraikor, [United States], 2020