36°0′48″N 84°15′45″W / 36.01333°N 84.26250°W / 36.01333; -84.26250 ( Oak Ridge )
229-465: The Clinton Engineer Works ( CEW ) was the production installation of the Manhattan Project that during World War II produced the enriched uranium used in the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima , as well as the first examples of reactor-produced plutonium . It consisted of production facilities arranged at three major sites, various utilities including a power plant , and the town of Oak Ridge . It
458-550: A German atomic bomb project would develop one first, especially among scientists who were refugees from Nazi Germany and other fascist countries. In August 1939, Hungarian-born physicists Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner drafted the Einstein–Szilard letter , which warned of the potential development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type". It urged the United States to acquire stockpiles of uranium ore and accelerate
687-526: A New Deal project being undertaken in the name of the war effort. Instead of reading the proclamation, he tore it up and threw it in a waste paper basket. Marshall went to Nashville to apologize to Cooper, who refused to talk to him. Nichols, who succeeded Marshall as chief engineer of the Manhattan District, met Cooper on 31 July and offered compensation in the form of federal financing for road improvements. Cooper accepted an offer from Nichols to visit
916-634: A mixed-use baseball stadium complex in the Old City neighborhood. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 104.2 square miles (269.8 km ), of which 98.5 square miles (255.2 km ) is land and 5.6 square miles (14.6 km ), or 5.42%, is water. Elevations range from just over 800 feet (240 m) along the riverfront to just over 1,000 feet (300 m) on various hilltops in West Knoxville, with
1145-733: A neutron moderator . The S-1 Committee recommended pursuing all five technologies. This was approved by Bush, Conant, and Brigadier General Wilhelm D. Styer , who had been designated the Army's representative on nuclear matters. Bush and Conant then took the recommendation to the Top Policy Group with a budget proposal for $ 54 million for construction by the United States Army Corps of Engineers , $ 31 million for research and development by OSRD and $ 5 million for contingencies in fiscal year 1943. They sent it on 17 June 1942, to
1374-505: A radiation shield . There were 36 horizontal rows of 35 holes. Behind each was a metal channel into which uranium fuel slugs could be inserted. The cooling system was driven by three large electric fans. Construction work on the reactor had to wait until DuPont had completed the design. Excavation commenced on 27 April 1943, but a large pocket of soft clay was discovered, necessitating additional foundations. Further delays occurred from wartime difficulties in procuring building materials. There
1603-504: A 540-stage side feed unit, which became known as K-27. Kellex transferred the last unit to the operating contractor, Union Carbide and Carbon , on 11 September 1945. The total cost, including the K-27 plant completed after the war, came to $ 480 million (equivalent to $ 6.44 billion in 2023). The production plant commenced operation in February 1945, and as cascade after cascade came online,
1832-607: A AAA rating whenever it was required. Nelson initially balked but quickly caved in when Groves threatened to go to the President. Groves promised not to use the AAA rating unless it was necessary. It soon transpired that for the routine requirements of the project the AAA rating was too high but the AA-3 rating was too low. After a long campaign, Groves finally received AA-1 authority on 1 July 1944. According to Groves, "In Washington you became aware of
2061-408: A Union invasion, Buckner fortified Fort Loudon (in West Knoxville, not to be confused with the colonial fort to the southwest) and began constructing earthworks throughout the city. However, the approach of stronger Union forces under Ambrose Burnside in the summer of 1863 forced Buckner to evacuate Knoxville before the earthworks were completed. Burnside arrived in early September 1863, beginning
2290-454: A daily average temperature of 38.2 °F (3.4 °C), with an average of 5 days where the high remains at or below freezing. The record high for Knoxville is 105 °F (41 °C) on June 30 and July 1, 2012 , while the record low is −24 °F (−31 °C) on January 21, 1985 . Annual precipitation averages just under 52 in (1,320 mm), and normal seasonal snowfall is 4.6 in (12 cm). The one-day record for snowfall
2519-656: A fission bomb was theoretically possible. The properties of pure uranium-235 were relatively unknown, as were those of plutonium, which had only been isolated by Glenn Seaborg and his team in February 1941. The scientists at the July 1942 conference envisioned creating plutonium in nuclear reactors where uranium-238 atoms absorbed neutrons that had been emitted from fissioning uranium-235. At this point no reactor had been built, and only tiny quantities of plutonium were available from cyclotrons . Even by December 1943, only two milligrams had been produced. There were many ways of arranging
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#17328456006792748-672: A hotel, student housing, and 300 multi-family residential units. In June 2020, the Knoxville City Council announced the investment of over $ 5.5 million in federal and local funds towards the development of a business park along the Interstate 275 corridor in North Knoxville . The project was first proposed by a study prepared Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission in 2007. In August 2020, UT President and Tennessee Smokies owner Randy Boyd announced plans of
2977-617: A judge and state senator, before being nominated by the state legislature to replace Andrew Jackson in the U.S. Senate in 1825. In 1836, White ran unsuccessfully for president, representing the Whig Party . Anti-slavery and anti-secession sentiment ran high in East Tennessee in the years leading up to the Civil War. William "Parson" Brownlow , the radical publisher of the Knoxville Whig ,
3206-504: A jury of five citizens appointed by the federal district court to review the compensations offered. They handled five cases in which they proposed higher values than those of the ORD appraisers, but the landowners rejected them as well, so the Army discontinued the use of this method. In response to rising public criticism, O'Brien commissioned a review by the Department of Agriculture . It found that
3435-517: A law school in an attempt to modernize the scope of the university. In 1879, the state changed its name to the University of Tennessee, at the request of the trustees, who hoped to secure more funding from the Tennessee state legislature. The post-war manufacturing boom brought thousands of immigrants to the city. The population of Knoxville grew from around 5,000 in 1860 to 32,637 in 1900. West Knoxville
3664-856: A liaison office in Washington, D.C., but established his temporary headquarters at 270 Broadway in New York, where he could draw on administrative support from the Corps of Engineers' North Atlantic Division . It was close to the Manhattan office of Stone & Webster , the principal project contractor, and to Columbia University. He had permission to draw on his former command, the Syracuse District, for staff, and he started with Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Nichols , who became his deputy. Because most of his task involved construction, Marshall worked in cooperation with
3893-409: A meeting at which they agreed to hire lawyers and appraisers to challenge the federal government. Local newspapers and politicians were sympathetic to their cause. By the end of May 1943, agreements were reached covering 416 tracts totaling 21,742 acres (8,799 ha), but some landowners rejected the government's offers. The ORD Real Estate Branch invoked a procedure under Tennessee law that allowed for
4122-477: A meeting called by Stimson, which established a Military Policy Committee, responsible to the Top Policy Group, consisting of Bush (with Conant as an alternate), Styer and Rear Admiral William R. Purnell . Tolman and Conant were later appointed as Groves' scientific advisers. On 19 September, Groves went to Donald Nelson , the chairman of the War Production Board, and asked for broad authority to issue
4351-462: A metro government failed, while school boards and the planning commissions would merge on July 1, 1987. With further annexation attempts stalling, Knoxville initiated several projects aimed at boosting revenue in its downtown area. The 1982 World's Fair —the most successful of these projects, with eleven million visitors—became one of the most popular expositions in U.S. history. The Rubik's Cube made its debut at this event. The fair's energy theme
4580-452: A mixed gas passes through a temperature gradient, the heavier one tends to concentrate at the cold end and the lighter one at the warm end. Since hot gases tend to rise and cool ones tend to fall, this can be used as a means of isotope separation. This process was first demonstrated by Klaus Clusius and Gerhard Dickel in Germany in 1938. It was developed by US Navy scientists but was not one of
4809-618: A new arts annex and gallery surrounded by many studios and new businesses as well. The Bijou and Tennessee Theatres underwent renovation, providing an initiative for the city and its developers to re-purpose the old downtown. Development has also expanded across the Tennessee River on the South Knoxville waterfront. In 2006, the city adopted the South Waterfront Vision Plan, a long-term improvement project to revitalize
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#17328456006795038-480: A number of specific recommendations concerning the Corps of Engineers' land acquisition process, but neither Congress nor the War Department moved to provide additional compensation for the landowners. In July 1943, Groves prepared to issue Public Proclamation No. 2, declaring the site a military exclusion area. He asked Marshall to present it to Governor of Tennessee Prentice Cooper . Marshall, in turn, delegated
5267-572: A plant, much less four of them for $ 90 million." A single TNT plant that Nichols had recently built in Pennsylvania had cost $ 128 million. Nor were they impressed with estimates to the nearest order of magnitude, which Groves compared with telling a caterer to prepare for between ten and a thousand guests. A survey team from Stone & Webster had already scouted a site for the production plants. The War Production Board recommended sites around Knoxville, Tennessee , an isolated area where
5496-481: A population of 879,773 in 2020. First settled in 1786, Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. The city struggled with geographic isolation throughout the early 19th century; the arrival of the railroad in 1855 led to an economic boom. The city was bitterly divided over the issue of secession during the American Civil War and was occupied alternately by Confederate and Union armies, culminating in
5725-499: A possible source of bombs with a destructiveness vastly greater than anything now known." In February 1940, the U.S. Navy awarded Columbia University $ 6,000, most of which Fermi and Szilard spent on graphite . A team of Columbia professors including Fermi, Szilard, Eugene T. Booth and John Dunning created the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas, verifying the work of Hahn and Strassmann. The same team subsequently built
5954-777: A product enriched to about 23 percent. This was, in turn, fed into Y-12. Peterson's charts also showed that the proposed top stages for K-25 should be abandoned, as should Lawrence's recommendation to add more alpha stages to the Y-12 plant. Groves accepted the proposal to add more base units to the K-27 gaseous-diffusion plant and one more Beta stage track for Y-12. These additions were estimated to cost $ 100 million (equivalent to $ 1.34 billion in 2023), with completion in February 1946. Soon after Japan surrendered in August 1945, Peterson recommended that S-50 be shut down. The Manhattan District ordered this on 4 September. The last uranium hexafluoride
6183-569: A production control committee, headed by Major A.V. (Pete) Peterson . Peterson's staff tried various combinations, using mechanical calculating machines, and decided that the S-50 production should be fed to K-25 rather than Y-12, which was done in April 1945. S-50 became the first stage, enriching from 0.71 percent to 0.89 percent. This material was fed into the gaseous diffusion process in the K-25 plant, which produced
6412-470: A ranch. On 16 November 1942, Oppenheimer, Groves, Dudley and others toured the vicinity of the Los Alamos Ranch School . Oppenheimer expressed a strong preference for the site, citing its natural beauty, which, it was hoped, would inspire those working on the project. The engineers were concerned about the poor access road, and whether the water supply would be adequate, but otherwise felt that it
6641-462: A reaction becomes self-sustaining became known as "going critical". Compton reported the success to Conant in Washington, D.C., by a coded phone call, saying, "The Italian navigator [Fermi] has just landed in the new world." In January 1943, Grafton's successor, Major Arthur V. Peterson , ordered Chicago Pile-1 dismantled and reassembled at the Argonne Forest site, as he regarded the operation of
6870-598: A reactor as too hazardous for a densely populated area. The new site, still operated by the Metallurgical Laboratory, became known as ' Site A '. Chicago Pile-3 , the first heavy water reactor, also went critical at this site, on 15 May 1944. After the war, operations at Site A were moved about 6 miles (9.7 km) to DuPage County , the current location of the Argonne National Laboratory . By December 1942 there were concerns that even Oak Ridge
7099-607: A regional merchandising center. Local agricultural products—especially tobacco, corn, and whiskey—were traded for cotton, which was grown in the Deep South . The population of Knoxville more than doubled in the 1850s with the arrival of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad in 1855. Among the most prominent citizens of Knoxville during the Antebellum years was James White's son, Hugh Lawson White (1773–1840). White first served as
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7328-461: A remote site, it still needed to be near sources of labor and accessible by road and rail transportation. A mild climate that allowed construction to proceed throughout the year was desirable. Terrain separated by ridges would reduce the impact of accidental explosions, but they could not be so steep as to complicate construction. The substratum needed to be firm enough to provide good foundations but not so rocky that it would hinder excavation work. It
7557-445: A reported 26 square miles of " shoestring annexation " under the administration of Mayor Victor Ashe . Ashe's efforts were controversial, largely consisting of annexation of interstate right-of-ways , highway-oriented commercial clusters, and residential subdivisions to increase tax revenue for the city. Residents voiced opposition, citing claims of urban sprawl and government overreach. Knoxville's downtown has been developing, with
7786-501: A section. Similarly, the sections could be operated separately or as part of a single cascade. A survey party began construction by marking out the 500-acre (2.0 km) site in May 1943. Work on the main building began in October, and the six-stage pilot plant was ready for operation on 17 April 1944. In 1945 Groves canceled the upper stages of the plant, directing Kellex to instead design and build
8015-660: A series of prototype nuclear reactors (or "piles" as Fermi called them) in Pupin Hall at Columbia but were not yet able to achieve a chain reaction. The Advisory Committee on Uranium became the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) on Uranium when that organization was formed on 27 June 1940. On 28 June 1941, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8807, which created the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), under director Vannevar Bush . The office
8244-533: A simpler gun-type design called Little Boy was developed that used uranium-235 . Three methods were employed for uranium enrichment : electromagnetic , gaseous , and thermal . In parallel with the work on uranium was an effort to produce plutonium. After the feasibility of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1 , was demonstrated in 1942 at the Metallurgical Laboratory in
8473-575: A special account not subject to the usual auditing and controls was used to hold Trust monies. Between 1944 and his resignation from the Trust in 1947, Groves deposited a total of $ 37.5 million. Groves appreciated the early British atomic research and the British scientists' contributions to the Manhattan Project but stated that the United States would have succeeded without them, although not in time for
8702-526: A state in 1796) until 1817, when the capital was moved to Murfreesboro . Early Knoxville has been described as an "alternately quiet and rowdy river town". Early issues of the Knoxville Gazette —the first newspaper published in Tennessee—are filled with accounts of murder, theft, and hostile Cherokee attacks. Abishai Thomas, a friend of William Blount, visited Knoxville in 1794 and wrote that, while he
8931-529: A swimming pool, a 9,400-volume library, and a newspaper. Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons . It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was directed by Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers . Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer
9160-589: A town. McClung drew up sixty-four 0.5-acre (0.20 ha) lots. The waterfront was set aside for a town common. Two lots were set aside for a church and graveyard (First Presbyterian Church, founded 1792). Four lots were set aside for a school. That school was eventually chartered as Blount College and it served as the starting point for the University of Tennessee , which uses Blount College's founding date of 1794 as its own. In 1790, President George Washington appointed North Carolina surveyor William Blount governor of
9389-620: A true pilot. The facility was known as the Clinton Laboratories and was operated by the University of Chicago as part of the Metallurgical Laboratory project. The X-10 Graphite Reactor was the world's second artificial nuclear reactor after Enrico Fermi 's Chicago Pile-1 and was the first reactor designed and built for continuous operation. It consisted of a block, 24 feet (7.3 m) long on each side, of nuclear graphite cubes, weighing around 1,500 short tons (1,400 t), surrounded by seven feet (2.1 m) of high-density concrete as
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9618-544: Is 17.5 in (44 cm), which occurred on February 13, 1960. Knoxville is the central city in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area, an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) designated metropolitan statistical area (MSA) that covers Knox, Anderson , Blount , Campbell , Grainger , Loudon , Morgan , Roane and Union counties. Researchers have mapped the Knoxville Metropolitan area as one of
9847-496: Is a burial mound constructed during the early Mississippian culture period ( c. 1000–1400 A.D.). The earthwork mound has been preserved, but the campus of the University of Tennessee developed around it. Other prehistoric sites include an Early Woodland habitation area at the confluence of the Tennessee River and Knob Creek (near the Knox – Blount county line), and Dallas phase Mississippian villages at Post Oak Island (also along
10076-578: Is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee , United States, on the Tennessee River . As of the 2020 United States census , Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's third-most-populous city after Nashville and Memphis . It is the principal city of the Knoxville metropolitan area , which had
10305-475: Is likely to be started." In Serber's account, Oppenheimer mentioned the possibility of this scenario to Arthur Compton , who "didn't have enough sense to shut up about it. It somehow got into a document that went to Washington" and was "never laid to rest". The Chief of Engineers , Major General Eugene Reybold , selected Colonel James C. Marshall to head the Army's part of the project in June 1942. Marshall created
10534-416: Is somewhat enriched in the lighter molecules, while the residual gas is somewhat depleted . The idea was that such boxes could be formed into a cascade of pumps and membranes, with each successive stage containing a slightly more enriched mixture. Research into the process was carried out at Columbia University by a group that included Harold Urey , Karl P. Cohen and John R. Dunning . In November 1942
10763-503: The Battle of Campbell's Station (now Farragut ). On November 18, Union General William P. Sanders was mortally wounded while conducting delaying maneuvers west of Knoxville, and Fort Loudon was renamed Fort Sanders in his honor. On November 29, following a two-week siege , the Confederates attacked Fort Sanders but failed after a fierce 20-minute engagement. On December 4, after word of
10992-499: The Battle of Fort Sanders in 1863. Following the war, Knoxville grew rapidly as a major wholesaling and manufacturing center. The city's economy stagnated after the 1920s as the manufacturing sector collapsed , the downtown area declined and city leaders became entrenched in highly partisan political fights. Hosting the 1982 World's Fair helped reinvigorate the city, and revitalization initiatives by city leaders and private developers have had major successes in spurring growth in
11221-737: The Belgian Government in Exile was in London. Britain agreed to give the United States most of the Belgian ore, as it could not use most of the supply without restricted American research. In 1944, the Trust purchased 3,440,000 pounds (1,560,000 kg) of uranium oxide ore from companies operating mines in the Belgian Congo. To avoid briefing US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. ,
11450-561: The Carnegie Institution of Washington and later the Naval Research Laboratory . Murphree also headed an unsuccessful separation project using gas centrifuges . Meanwhile, there were two lines of investigation into nuclear reactor technology : Harold Urey researched heavy water at Columbia, while Arthur Compton organized the Metallurgical Laboratory in early 1942 to study plutonium and reactors using graphite as
11679-526: The Chief of Staff of the Army , General George C. Marshall . Roosevelt chose the Army to run the project rather than the Navy, because the Army had more experience with managing large-scale construction. He agreed to coordinate the effort with the British and on 11 October sent a message to Prime Minister Winston Churchill , suggesting that they correspond on atomic matters. The S-1 Committee meeting on 18 December 1941
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#173284560067911908-584: The Clinch River and Tennessee River (now Kingston ), but when the Cherokee refused to cede this land, Blount chose White's Fort. Blount named the new capital Knoxville after Revolutionary War General and Secretary of War Henry Knox , who at the time was Blount's immediate superior. Problems immediately arose from the Holston Treaty. Blount believed that he had "purchased" much of what is now East Tennessee when
12137-513: The Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) in early 1943. While Stone & Webster concentrated on the production facilities, the architectural and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill developed a residential community for 13,000. The community was located on the slopes of Black Oak Ridge, from which the new town of Oak Ridge got its name. The Army presence at Oak Ridge increased in August 1943 when Nichols replaced Marshall as head of
12366-761: The Confederacy , General Felix Zollicoffer arrived in Knoxville as commander of the District of East Tennessee. While initially lenient toward the city's Union sympathizers, Zollicoffer instituted martial law in November, after pro-Union guerrillas burned seven of the city's bridges . The command of the district passed briefly to George Crittenden and then to Kirby Smith , who launched an unsuccessful invasion of Kentucky in August 1862. In early 1863, General Simon Buckner took command of Confederate forces in Knoxville. Anticipating
12595-718: The French and Indian War and confusion brought about by the American Revolution led to a drastic increase in Euro-American settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains . By the 1780s, white settlers were already established in the Holston and French Broad valleys. The U.S. Congress ordered all illegal settlers out of the valley in 1785 but with little success. As settlers continued to trickle into Cherokee lands, tensions between
12824-447: The H. K. Ferguson Company of Cleveland to build the thermal diffusion plant, which was designated S-50. Groves' advisers, Karl Cohen and W. I. Thompson from Standard Oil , estimated that it would take six months to build; Groves gave Ferguson four months. Plans called for the installation of 2,142 forty-eight-foot-tall (15 m) diffusion columns arranged in 21 racks. Inside each column were three concentric tubes. Steam, obtained from
13053-434: The Knoxville campaign . Like the Confederates, he immediately began fortifying the city. The Union forces rebuilt Fort Loudon and erected 12 other forts and batteries flanked by entrenchments around the city. Burnside moved a pontoon bridge upstream from Loudon , allowing Union forces to cross the river and to build a series of forts along the heights of south Knoxville, including Fort Stanley and Fort Dickerson. As Burnside
13282-447: The National Conservation Exposition in 1913. The latter is sometimes credited with giving rise to the movement to create a national park in the Great Smoky Mountains, some 20 miles (32 km) south of Knoxville. Around this time, several affluent Knoxvillians began purchasing summer cottages in Elkmont and began to pursue the park idea more vigorously. They were led by Knoxville businessman Colonel David C. Chapman , who, as head of
13511-428: The Tennessee Valley , two in the Chicago area, one near the Shasta Dam in California, and some in Washington state , where the Hanford Site was eventually established. An OSRD team had selected the Knoxville area in April 1942, and in May Arthur Compton , the director of the Metallurgical Laboratory , had met with Gordon R. Clapp, the general manager of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The Chief Engineer of
13740-526: The Tennessee Valley Authority could supply ample electric power and the rivers could provide cooling water for the reactors. After examining several sites, the survey team selected one near Elza, Tennessee . Conant advised that it be acquired at once and Styer agreed but Marshall temporized, awaiting the results of Conant's reactor experiments. Of the prospective processes, only Lawrence's electromagnetic separation appeared sufficiently advanced for construction to commence. Marshall and Nichols began assembling
13969-477: The Underground Railroad . Business interests, however, guided largely by Knoxville's trade connections with cotton-growing centers to the south, contributed to the development of a strong pro-secession movement within the city. The city's pro-secessionists included among their ranks J. G. M. Ramsey , a prominent historian whose father had built the Ramsey House in 1797. Thus, while East Tennessee and greater Knox County voted decisively against secession in 1861,
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#173284560067914198-426: The University of Birmingham had made a breakthrough investigating the critical mass of uranium-235 in June 1939. Their calculations indicated that it was within an order of magnitude of 10 kilograms (22 lb), small enough to be carried by contemporary bombers. Their March 1940 Frisch–Peierls memorandum initiated the British atomic bomb project and its MAUD Committee , which unanimously recommended pursuing
14427-625: The University of Chicago , the project designed the X-10 Graphite Reactor and the production reactors at the Hanford Site , in which uranium was irradiated and transmuted into plutonium. The Fat Man plutonium implosion-type weapon was developed in a concerted design and development effort by the Los Alamos Laboratory. The project was also charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear weapon project . Through Operation Alsos , Manhattan Project personnel served in Europe, sometimes behind enemy lines, where they gathered nuclear materials and documents, and rounded up German scientists. Despite
14656-593: The Welsh Tract in Pennsylvania to work in a rolling mill. These Welsh families settled in an area now known as Mechanicsville . The Richards brothers also co-founded the Knoxville Iron Works beside the L&N Railroad , also employing Welsh workers. Later, the site was used as the grounds for the 1982 World's Fair . Other companies that sprang up during this period were Knoxville Woolen Mills, Dixie Cement, and Woodruff's Furniture. Between 1880 and 1887, 97 factories were established in Knoxville, most of them specializing in textiles, food products, and iron products. By
14885-563: The $ 2.8 million monthly cost of running the town facilities. Roane-Anderson did not take over everything at once, and a phased takeover started with Laundry No. 1 on 17 October 1943; transportation and garbage collection soon followed. It assumed responsibility for water and sewage in November and electricity in January 1944. The number of Roane-Anderson workers peaked at around 10,500 in February 1945, including concessionaires and subcontractors. Thereafter, numbers declined to 2,905 direct employees and 3,663 concessionaires and subcontractors when
15114-515: The 18 major cities in the Piedmont Atlantic megaregion . The Knoxville Metropolitan area includes unincorporated communities such as Halls Crossroads , Powell , Karns , Corryton , Concord , and Mascot , which are located in Knox County outside of Knoxville's city limits. Along with Knoxville, municipalities in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area include Alcoa , Blaine , Maryville , Lenoir City , Loudon , Farragut , Oak Ridge , Rutledge , Clinton , Bean Station , and Maynardville . As of 2012,
15343-439: The 1890s, Knoxville was home to more than 50 wholesaling houses, making it the third largest wholesaling center by volume in the South. The Candoro Marble Works , established in the community of Vestal in 1914, became the nation's foremost producer of pink marble and one of the nation's largest marble importers. In 1896, Knoxville celebrated its achievements by creating its own flag. The Flag of Knoxville, Tennessee represents
15572-403: The 1950s and 1960s, and after the establishment of the Interstate Highway System in the 1960s, the railroad—which had been largely responsible for Knoxville's industrial growth—began to decline. The rise of suburban shopping malls in the 1970s drew retail revenues away from Knoxville's downtown area. While government jobs and economic diversification prevented widespread unemployment in Knoxville,
15801-426: The 1970s, were among Knoxville's first modern high-rise buildings. In 1947, John Gunther dubbed Knoxville the "ugliest city" in America in his best-selling book Inside U.S.A. Gunther's description jolted the city into enacting a series of beautification measures that helped improve the appearance of the downtown area. Knoxville's textile and manufacturing industries largely fell victim to foreign competition in
16030-402: The 25 June meeting was Ernest O. Lawrence , who wanted the electromagnetic separation plant located much nearer to his Radiation Laboratory in California. The Shasta Dam area remained under consideration for the electromagnetic plant until September, by which time Lawrence had dropped his objection. On 1 July, Marshall and his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Nichols , surveyed sites in
16259-431: The 750-acre waterfront fronting three miles of shoreline on the Tennessee River. The project's primary focus is the commercial and residential development over a 20-year timeline. Knoxville Baptist Hospital, located on the waterfront, was demolished in 2016 to make room for a mixed-use project called One Riverwalk. The development consisted of three office buildings, including a headquarters for Regal Entertainment Group ,
16488-655: The Army allowed the crops to be harvested, but this was not always possible. The land acquisition process dragged on and was not completed before the end of the Manhattan Project in December 1946. The dispute did not delay work. Although progress on the reactor design at Metallurgical Laboratory and DuPont was not sufficiently advanced to accurately predict the scope of the project, a start was made in April 1943 on facilities for an estimated 25,000 workers, half of whom were expected to live on-site. By July 1944, some 1,200 buildings had been erected and nearly 51,000 people were living in
16717-610: The Army's component the Manhattan District; Reybold officially created this district on 13 August. Informally, it was known as the Manhattan Engineer District, or MED. Unlike other districts, it had no geographic boundaries, and Marshall had the authority of a division engineer. Development of Substitute Materials remained as the official codename of the project as a whole but was supplanted over time by "Manhattan". Marshall later conceded that, "I had never heard of atomic fission but I did know that you could not build much of
16946-555: The August 1945 bombing of Hiroshima. The British wartime participation was crucial to the success of the United Kingdom's independent nuclear weapons program after the war when the McMahon Act of 1946 temporarily ended American nuclear cooperation. The day after he took over the project, Groves went to Tennessee with Colonel Marshall to inspect the proposed site there, and Groves was impressed. On 29 September 1942, United States Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson authorized
17175-781: The Australian physicist Mark Oliphant , flew to the US in late August 1941 and discovered that data provided by the MAUD Committee had not reached key American physicists. Oliphant set out to find out why the committee's findings were apparently being ignored. He met with the Uranium Committee and visited Berkeley, California , where he spoke persuasively to Ernest O. Lawrence . Lawrence was sufficiently impressed to commence his own research into uranium. He in turn spoke to James B. Conant , Arthur H. Compton and George B. Pegram . Oliphant's mission
17404-569: The CEW, which he did on 3 November. Nichols and Cooper came to an agreement about the Solway Bridge. Although it was in Knox County , Anderson County had contributed $ 27,000 towards its construction. Knox County was still paying off the bonds, but the bridge was no longer accessible to the county and was usable only by CEW workers. Nichols negotiated a deal in which Knox County was paid $ 25,000 annually for
17633-556: The CSA but not the Knoxville MSA, include Morristown, Rutledge, Dandridge , Jefferson City , Sevierville, Gatlinburg , Pigeon Forge , LaFollette, Jacksboro , Harriman, Kingston , Rockwood , and Newport. The combined population of the CSA as of the 2000 Census was 935,659. Its estimated 2008 population was 1,041,955. Knoxville is roughly divided into the Downtown area and sections based on
17862-517: The Clinton Engineer Works was given its own electrical substations at K-25 and K-27. By 1945, power sources were capable of supplying Oak Ridge with up to 310,000 KW, of which 200,000 KW was earmarked for Y-12, 80,000 KW for K-25, 23,000 KW for the township, 6,000 KW for S-50 and 1,000 KW for X-10. Peak demand occurred in August 1945, when all the facilities were running. The peak load was 298,800 KW on 1 September. The 235,000 KW steam plant
18091-520: The Clinton Laboratories, and the first permanent operating staff arrived at X-10 from the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago in April 1944, by which time DuPont began transferring its technicians to the site. They were augmented by one hundred technicians in uniform from the Army's Special Engineer Detachment. By March 1944, there were 1,500 people working at X-10. A radioisotope building, a steam plant, and other structures were added in April 1946 to support
18320-485: The Confederate defeat at Chattanooga reached Longstreet, he broke his siege of Knoxville. The Union victories in the Knoxville campaign and at Chattanooga put much of East Tennessee under Union control for the rest of the war. After the war, northern investors such as brothers Joseph and David Richards helped Knoxville recover relatively quickly. The Richards brothers convinced 104 Welsh immigrant families to migrate from
18549-609: The Corps of Engineers to acquire 56,000 acres (23,000 ha) of land by eminent domain at a cost of $ 3.5 million. An additional 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) was subsequently acquired. About 1,000 families were affected by the order, which came into effect on 7 October. Protests, legal appeals, and a 1943 Congressional inquiry were to no avail. By mid-November U.S. Marshals were posting notices to vacate on farmhouse doors, and construction contractors were moving in. Some families were given two weeks' notice to vacate farms that had been their homes for generations. The ultimate cost of
18778-597: The East Town. It included some 3,000 family dwellings, an administrative center, three shopping centers, three grade schools for 500 children each and a high school for 500, recreation buildings, men's and women's dormitories, cafeterias, a medical services building and a 50-bed hospital. The emphasis was on speed of construction and getting around wartime shortages of materials. Where possible, fiberboard and gypsum board were used instead of wood, and foundations were made from concrete blocks rather than poured concrete. The work
19007-634: The Great Smoky Mountains Park Commission, was largely responsible for raising the funds for the purchase of the property that became the core of the park. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park opened in 1933. Knoxville's reliance on a manufacturing economy left it particularly vulnerable to the effects of the Great Depression . The Tennessee Valley also suffered from frequent flooding, and millions of acres of farmland had been ruined by soil erosion. To control flooding and improve
19236-625: The James White Parkway and includes the neighborhoods of Parkridge, Burlington, Morningside, and Five Points. This area, concentrated along Magnolia Avenue, is home to Chilhowee Park and Zoo Knoxville . North Knoxville consists of the areas north of Sharp's Ridge, namely the Fountain City and Inskip-Norwood areas. This area's major commercial corridor is located along Broadway. As of the 2020 United States census , there were 190,740 people, 83,492 households, and 40,405 families residing in
19465-744: The Knoxville area kuwanda'talun'yi , which means "mulberry place". Most Cherokee habitation in the area was concentrated in what the American colonists called the Overhill settlements along the Little Tennessee River , southwest of Knoxville. The first white traders and explorers were recorded as arriving in the Tennessee Valley in the late 17th century. There is significant evidence that Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto visited Bussell Island in 1540. The first major recorded Euro-American presence in
19694-651: The Knoxville area was the Timberlake Expedition , which passed through the confluence of the Holston and French Broad into the Tennessee River in December 1761. Henry Timberlake , an Anglo-American emissary from the Thirteen Colonies to the Overhill settlements, recalled being pleased by the deep waters of the Tennessee after his party had struggled down the relatively shallow Holston for several weeks. The end of
19923-559: The Knoxville area with representatives of the TVA and Stone & Webster , the designated construction contractor. No perfectly suitable site was found, and Marshall even ordered another survey of the Spokane, Washington area. At the time, the proposed nuclear reactor , gas centrifuge and gaseous diffusion technologies were still in the research stage, and the design of the plant was a long way off. The schedules—which called for construction work on
20152-528: The MED allowed residents to stay beyond this date. For some it was the third time that they had been evicted by the government, having previously been evicted for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the 1920s and the TVA's Norris Dam in the 1930s. Many expected that, like the TVA, the Army would provide assistance to help them relocate; but unlike the TVA, the Army had no mission to improve
20381-579: The MED. On 9 July, Andrew J. May , the chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs , appointed an investigating subcommittee chaired by Tennessee Representative Clifford Davis , who selected Dewey Short of Missouri and John Sparkman of Alabama as its other members. Public hearings were held in Clinton on 11 August and in Kingston the following day. The committee report, presented in December 1943, made
20610-409: The Manhattan District (MED), Colonel James C. Marshall , asked Colonel Leslie R. Groves Jr. to undertake a study within the Army's Office of the Chief of Engineers . After receiving assurances that the TVA could supply the required quantity of electric power if given priority for procuring some needed equipment, Groves also concluded that the Knoxville area was suitable. The only voice of dissent at
20839-596: The Manhattan Engineer District. One of his first tasks was to move the district headquarters to Oak Ridge, although the name of the district did not change. In September 1943 the administration of community facilities was outsourced to Turner Construction Company through a subsidiary, the Roane-Anderson Company. Chemical engineers were part of "frantic efforts" to make 10% to 12% enriched uranium 235, with tight security and fast approvals for supplies and materials. The population of Oak Ridge soon expanded well beyond
21068-408: The Manhattan Engineer District. One of his first tasks was to move the district headquarters to Oak Ridge, although the name of the district did not change. In September 1943 the administration of community facilities was outsourced to Turner Construction Company through a subsidiary, the Roane-Anderson Company. The company was paid a fee of $ 25,000 per month on a cost-plus contract, about 1 percent of
21297-801: The Manhattan Project conducted weapons testing at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation Crossroads , developed new weapons, promoted the development of the network of national laboratories , supported medical research into radiology and laid the foundations for the nuclear navy . It maintained control over American atomic weapons research and production until the formation of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in January 1947. The discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1938, and its theoretical explanation by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch , made an atomic bomb theoretically possible. There were fears that
21526-421: The Manhattan Project ended on 31 December 1946. By mid-1943, it had become clear that the initial estimates of the size of the town had been too low, and a second phase of construction was required. Plans now called for a town of 42,000 people. Work began in the fall of 1943, and continued into the late summer of 1944. Only 4,793 of a planned total of 6,000 family houses were built, mostly on the East Town area and
21755-513: The Manhattan Project's emphasis on security, Soviet atomic spies penetrated the program. The first nuclear device ever detonated was an implosion-type bomb during the Trinity test , conducted at White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico on 16 July 1945. Little Boy and Fat Man bombs were used a month later in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , respectively. In the immediate postwar years,
21984-408: The Metallurgical Laboratory developed a new welding technique; the new equipment was installed in the production line at Alcoa in October 1943. Supervised by Compton, Martin D. Whitaker and Fermi, the reactor went critical on 4 November with about 30 short tons (27 t) of uranium. A week later the load was increased to 36 short tons (33 t), raising its power generation to 500 kW, and by
22213-403: The Metallurgical Laboratory, was assigned to assist Oppenheimer by coordinating experimental physics groups scattered across the country. Oppenheimer and Robert Serber of the University of Illinois examined the problems of neutron diffusion—how neutrons moved in a nuclear chain reaction—and hydrodynamics —how the explosion produced by a chain reaction might behave. To review this work and
22442-680: The Military Policy Committee approved the construction of a 600-stage gaseous diffusion plant. On 14 December, M. W. Kellogg accepted an offer to construct the plant, which was codenamed K-25. A cost-plus fixed fee contract was negotiated, eventually totaling $ 2.5 million (equivalent to $ 36.9 million in 2023). A separate corporate entity called Kellex was created for the project, headed by Percival C. Keith, one of Kellogg's vice presidents. The process faced formidable technical difficulties. The highly corrosive gas uranium hexafluoride had to be used, as no substitute could be found, and
22671-559: The Navy's experiments on thermal diffusion. Oppenheimer wrote to Groves suggesting that the output of a thermal diffusion plant could be fed into Y-12. Groves set up a committee consisting of Warren K. Lewis , Eger Murphree and Richard Tolman to investigate the idea, and they estimated that a thermal diffusion plant costing $ 3.5 million (equivalent to $ 48.1 million in 2023) could enrich 110 pounds (50 kg) of uranium per week to nearly 0.9 percent uranium-235. Groves approved its construction on 24 June 1944. Groves contracted with
22900-770: The ORD Real Estate Branch opened a project office in Harriman with a staff of 54 surveyors, appraisers, lawyers and office workers. The ORD Real Estate Branch was quite busy at this time, as it was also acquiring land for the Dale Hollow Reservoir , so some staff were borrowed from the Federal Land Bank and the TVA. The next day, Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson authorized the acquisition of 56,000 acres (23,000 ha) at an estimated cost of $ 3.5 million (equivalent to $ 51.6 million in 2023). At
23129-411: The President, who approved it by writing "OK FDR" on the document. Compton asked theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer of the University of California to take over research into fast neutron calculations —key to calculations of critical mass and weapon detonation—from Gregory Breit , who had quit on 18 May 1942 because of concerns over lax operational security. John H. Manley , a physicist at
23358-713: The Quebec Agreement, the Americans' progress and expenditures amazed the British. Chadwick pressed for British involvement in the Manhattan Project to the fullest extent and abandoned hopes of an independent British project during the war. With Churchill's backing, he attempted to ensure that every request from Groves for assistance was honored. The British Mission that arrived in the United States in December 1943 included Niels Bohr , Otto Frisch, Klaus Fuchs , Rudolf Peierls, and Ernest Titterton . More scientists arrived in early 1944. While those assigned to gaseous diffusion left by
23587-591: The Tennessee in Knoxville include First Creek and Second Creek, which flow through the downtown area, Third Creek, which flows west of U.T., and Sinking Creek, Ten Mile Creek, and Turkey Creek, which drain West Knoxville. Knoxville falls in the humid subtropical climate ( Köppen : Cfa ) zone. Summers are hot and humid, with the daily average temperature in July at 78.4 °F (25.8 °C), and an average of 36 days per year with temperatures reaching 90 °F (32 °C). Winters are generally much cooler and less stable, with occasional small amounts of snow. January has
23816-475: The academic scientists working on the project. Groves' orders placed him directly under Somervell rather than Reybold, with Colonel Marshall now answerable to Groves. Groves established his headquarters in Washington, D.C., in the New War Department Building , where Colonel Marshall had his liaison office. He assumed command of the Manhattan Project on 23 September 1942. Later that day, he attended
24045-428: The air-cooled graphite - moderated X-10 Graphite Reactor. There was also a chemical separation plant, research laboratories, waste storage area, training facility for Hanford staff, and administrative and support facilities that included a laundry, cafeteria, first aid center and fire station. Because of the subsequent decision to construct water-cooled reactors at Hanford, only the chemical separation plant operated as
24274-489: The appraisals had been fair and just, and that farmers had overestimated the size and productivity of their land. The landowners turned to their local Congressman , John Jennings, Jr. On 1 February 1943, Jennings introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for a committee to investigate the values offered to the landowners. He also complained to Patterson that buildings and facilities were being demolished by
24503-461: The area or the lot of the local people, and thus no funds had been allocated for the purpose. Tires were in short supply in wartime America, and moving vehicles were difficult to find. Some residents had to leave behind possessions that they were unable to take with them. A delegation of landowners presented the ORD Real Estate Branch with a petition protesting the acquisition of their property on 23 November 1942, and that night over 200 landowners held
24732-401: The areas west of U.T. and includes the suburban neighborhoods of Sequoyah Hills , West Hills , Bearden , Cumberland Estates , Westmoreland, Suburban Hills, Cedar Bluff , Rocky Hill , and Ebenezer. This area, concentrated largely around Kingston Pike, is home to thriving retail centers such as West Town Mall and Turkey Creek . East Knoxville consists of the areas east of First Creek and
24961-458: The average of 4.3 inches (110 mm). 700 short tons (640 t) of graphite blocks were purchased from National Carbon , and the construction crews began stacking it in September 1943. Cast uranium billets came from Metal Hydrides, Mallinckrodt and other suppliers. These were extruded into cylindrical slugs and canned by Alcoa , which started production on 14 June 1943. General Electric and
25190-670: The bomb design team at Los Alamos needed them, despite the risk of revealing weapon design secrets. In August 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt negotiated the Quebec Agreement , which established the Combined Policy Committee to coordinate the efforts of the US and UK; Canada was not a signatory, but the Agreement provided for a Canadian representative on the Combined Policy Committee in view of Canada's contribution to
25419-683: The branch office in Santa Fe, where she met new arrivals and issue them with passes. An Army-OSRD council on 25 June 1942 decided to build a pilot plant for plutonium production in the Argonne Forest preserve , southwest of Chicago. In July, Nichols arranged for a lease of 1,025 acres (415 ha) from the Cook County Forest Preserve District , and Captain James F. Grafton was appointed Chicago area engineer. It soon became apparent that
25648-528: The bridge, of which $ 6,000 was to be used to maintain the access road. County Judge Thomas L. Seeber then threatened to close the Edgemoor Bridge unless Anderson County was similarly compensated. An agreement was reached under which Anderson County received $ 10,000 for the bridge and $ 200 per month. Knox County did not keep its side of the bargain to maintain the road, which was damaged by heavy traffic and became impassable after torrential rains in 1944. The Army
25877-411: The city from the south, but lacking the necessary pontoon bridges he was forced to cross the river further downstream at Loudon on November 14 and march against the city's heavily fortified western section. On November 15, General Joseph Wheeler unsuccessfully attempted to dislodge Union forces in the heights of south Knoxville, and the following day Longstreet failed to cut off retreating Union forces at
26106-596: The city of Knoxville favored secession by a 2–1 margin. In late May 1861, just before the secession vote, delegates of the East Tennessee Convention met at Temperance Hall in Knoxville in hopes of keeping Tennessee in the Union . After Tennessee voted to secede in June, the convention met in Greeneville and attempted to create a separate Union-aligned state in East Tennessee. In July 1861, after Tennessee had joined
26335-579: The city sought to recover the massive loss of revenue by attempting to annex neighboring communities. Knoxville annexed the communities of Bearden and Fountain City , which were Knoxville's largest suburbs , in 1962. Knoxville officials attempted the annexation of the neighboring Farragut - Concord community in western Knox County, but the city failed following the incorporation of Farragut in 1980. These annexation attempts often turned combative, and several attempts to consolidate Knoxville and Knox County into
26564-502: The city's central business district and municipal offices, the Old City and Gay Street are mixed residential and commercial areas. South Knoxville consists of the parts of the city located south of the river and includes the neighborhoods of Vestal, Lindbergh Forest, Island Home Park , Colonial Hills, and Old Sevier. This area contains major commercial corridors along Chapman Highway and Alcoa Highway . West Knoxville generally consists of
26793-424: The city's progressive growth due to agriculture and industry. In 1869, Thomas Humes, a Union sympathizer and president of East Tennessee University, secured federal post-war damage reimbursement and state-designated Morrill Act funding to expand the college, which had been occupied by both armies during the war. Charles Dabney , who became president of the university in 1887, overhauled the faculty and established
27022-727: The city, and parts of McAnnally Ridge in the northeastern part of the city. The Tennessee River , which passes through the downtown area, is formed in southeastern Knoxville at the confluence of the Holston River , which flows southwest from Virginia, and the French Broad River , which flows west from North Carolina. The section of the Tennessee River that passes through Knoxville is part of Fort Loudoun Lake, an artificial reservoir created by TVA's Fort Loudoun Dam about 30 miles (48 km) downstream in Lenoir City . Notable tributaries of
27251-629: The city, especially the downtown area. Knoxville is the home of the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee , whose sports teams, the Tennessee Volunteers , are popular in the surrounding area. Knoxville is also home to the headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority , the Tennessee Supreme Court 's courthouse for East Tennessee, and the corporate headquarters of several national and regional companies. As one of
27480-516: The city. As of the census of 2010, the population of Knoxville was 178,874, a 2.9% increase from 2000. The median age was 32.7, with 19.1% of the population under the age of 18, and 12.6% over the age of 65. The population was 48% male and 52% female. The population density was 1,815 persons per square mile. The racial and ethnic composition of the city was 76.1% white , 17.1% black , 0.4% Native American , 1.6% Asian , and 0.2% Pacific Islander . Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.6% of
27709-402: The construction camp. As area engineer, Matthias exercised overall control of the site. At its peak, the construction camp was the third most populous town in Washington state. Hanford operated a fleet of over 900 buses, more than the city of Chicago. Like Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, Richland was a gated community with restricted access, but it looked more like a typical wartime American boomtown:
27938-543: The construction camps declined as the construction effort tapered off, but they continued to be occupied in 1946. The main shopping area was Jackson Square, with about 20 shops. The Army attempted to keep prices down by encouraging competition, but this met with limited success due to the captive nature of the population, and the requirements of security, which meant that firms and goods could not freely move in and out. The Army could give prospective concessionaires only vague information about how many people were in or would be in
28167-427: The control room by thick concrete walls. The equipment was operated remotely from the control room. Construction work was completed on 26 November, but the plant could not operate until the reactor started producing irradiated uranium slugs. The first batch was received on 20 December, allowing the first plutonium to be produced in early 1944. By February, the reactor was irradiating a ton of uranium every three days. Over
28396-506: The design and construction of the electromagnetic separation plant, which came to be called Y-12 , was assigned to Stone & Webster by the S-1 Committee in June 1942. The design called for five first-stage processing units, known as Alpha racetracks, and two units for final processing, known as Beta racetracks. In September, Groves authorized construction of four more racetracks, known as Alpha II. Construction began in February 1943. When
28625-471: The deuterium concentration in the water from 2.3% to 99.8%. For this process, Hugh Taylor of Princeton developed a platinum-on-carbon catalyst for the first three stages while Urey developed a nickel- chromia one for the fourth stage tower. The final cost was $ 2.8 million. The Canadian Government did not officially learn of the project until August 1942. Trail's heavy water production started in January 1944 and continued until 1956. Heavy water from Trail
28854-489: The development of an atomic bomb. In July 1940, Britain had offered to give the United States access to its research, and the Tizard Mission 's John Cockcroft briefed American scientists on British developments. He discovered that the American project was smaller than the British, and not as advanced. As part of the scientific exchange, the MAUD Committee's findings were conveyed to the United States. One of its members,
29083-547: The dials". Y-12 initially enriched the uranium-235 content to between 13 and 15 percent and shipped the first few hundred grams of this to the Manhattan Project's weapons design laboratory, the Los Alamos Laboratory , in March 1944. Only 1 part in 5,825 of the uranium feed emerged as final product; much of the rest was splattered over equipment in the process. Strenuous recovery efforts helped raise production to 10 percent of
29312-409: The director of the Manhattan Project on 23 September, with the rank of brigadier general. That afternoon, he took a train to Knoxville, where he met with Marshall. After touring the site, Groves concluded that the site "was an even better choice than I had anticipated". He called Colonel John J. O'Brien of the Corps of Engineers' Real Estate Branch and told him to proceed with acquiring the land. The site
29541-711: The downtown area setting at just over 900 feet (270 m). High points include Sharp's Ridge in North Knoxville at 1,391 feet (424 m) and Brown Mountain in South Knoxville at 1,260 feet (380 m). Knoxville is situated in the Great Appalachian Valley (known locally as the Tennessee Valley), about halfway between the Great Smoky Mountains to the east and the Cumberland Plateau to
29770-594: The economy in the Tennessee Valley, the federal government created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933. Beginning with Norris Dam , TVA constructed a series of hydroelectric dams and other power plants throughout the valley over the next few decades, bringing flood control, jobs, and electricity to the region. The Federal Works Projects Administration , which also arrived in the 1930s, helped build McGhee Tyson Airport and expand Neyland Stadium . TVA's headquarters, which consists of twin high rises built in
29999-482: The efficiency of the bomb as it exploded. As the idea of the fission bomb was theoretically settled—at least until more experimental data was available—Edward Teller pushed for discussion of a more powerful bomb: the "super", now usually referred to as a " hydrogen bomb ", which would use the force of a detonating fission bomb to ignite a nuclear fusion reaction in deuterium and tritium . Teller proposed scheme after scheme, but Bethe refused each one. The fusion idea
30228-544: The effort. An agreement between Roosevelt and Churchill known as the Hyde Park Aide-Mémoire , signed in late September 1944, extended the Quebec Agreement to the postwar period and suggested that "when a 'bomb' is finally available, it might perhaps, after mature consideration, be used against the Japanese, who should be warned that this bombardment will be repeated until they surrender". When cooperation resumed after
30457-419: The end of the month the first 500 mg of plutonium was created. Modifications over time raised the power to 4,000 kW in July 1944. Construction commenced on the pilot separation plant before a chemical process for separating plutonium from uranium had been selected. In May 1943, DuPont managers decided to use the bismuth phosphate process . The plant consisted of six cells, separated from each other and
30686-610: The enrichment technologies initially selected for use in the Manhattan Project. This was primarily due to doubts about its technical feasibility, but the inter-service rivalry between the Army and Navy also played a part. The Naval Research Laboratory continued the research under Philip Abelson 's direction, but there was little contact with the Manhattan Project until April 1944, when Captain William S. Parsons (the naval officer in charge of ordnance development at Los Alamos) brought director Robert Oppenheimer news of encouraging progress in
30915-418: The fall of 1944, the thirty-five working under Oliphant with Lawrence at Berkeley were assigned to existing laboratory groups and most stayed until the end of the war. The nineteen sent to Los Alamos also joined existing groups, primarily related to implosion and bomb assembly, but not the plutonium-related ones. The Quebec Agreement specified that nuclear weapons would not be used against another country without
31144-415: The first atomic bombs . This would require production facilities, and by June 1942 the project had reached the stage where their construction could be contemplated. On 25 June, the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) S-1 Executive Committee deliberated on where they should be located. Brigadier General Wilhelm D. Styer recommended that the different manufacturing facilities be built at
31373-406: The first Canadian reactor, and the first to be completed outside the United States, when it went critical in September 1945; ZEEP remained in use by researchers until 1970. A larger 10 MW NRX reactor, which was designed during the war, was completed and went critical in July 1947. The Eldorado Mine at Port Radium was a source of uranium ore. Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville
31602-422: The fissile material into a critical mass. The simplest was shooting a "cylindrical plug" into a sphere of "active material" with a "tamper"—dense material to focus neutrons inward and keep the reacting mass together to increase its efficiency. They also explored designs involving spheroids , a primitive form of " implosion " suggested by Richard C. Tolman , and the possibility of autocatalytic methods to increase
31831-500: The four cardinal directions: North Knoxville , South Knoxville , East Knoxville , and West Knoxville . Downtown Knoxville traditionally consists of the area bounded by the river on the south, First Creek on the east, Second Creek on the west, and the railroad tracks on the north, though the definition has expanded to include the U.T. campus and Fort Sanders neighborhood, and several neighborhoods along or just off Broadway south of Sharp's Ridge ("Downtown North"). While primarily home to
32060-499: The gaseous plants could fully enrich the uranium by themselves without accidentally creating a critical mass . After a trial showed this was the case, Groves ordered all but one Beta track at Y-12 shut down in December 1946. Y-12 remained in use for nuclear weapons processing and materials storage. A production facility for the hydrogen bomb used in Operation Castle in 1954 was hastily installed in 1952. The most promising but also
32289-515: The general theory of fission reactions, Oppenheimer and Fermi convened meetings at the University of Chicago in June and at the University of California in July 1942 with theoretical physicists Hans Bethe , John Van Vleck , Edward Teller, Emil Konopinski , Robert Serber, Stan Frankel , and Eldred C. (Carlyle) Nelson, and experimental physicists Emilio Segrè , Felix Bloch , Franco Rasetti , Manley, and Edwin McMillan . They tentatively confirmed that
32518-685: The hamlets of Elza , Robertsville , and Scarboro. The first that most heard about the acquisition was when a representative from the ORD visited to inform them that their land was being acquired. Some returned home from work one day to find an eviction notice nailed to their door or to a tree in the yard. Most were given six weeks to leave, but some were given just two. The government took possession of 13 tracts for immediate construction work on 20 November 1942. By May 1943, 742 declarations had been filed covering 53,334 acres (21,584 ha). Most residents were told to prepare to leave between 1 December and 15 January. In cases where this would cause undue hardship,
32747-401: The head of the Corps of Engineers Construction Division, Major General Thomas M. Robbins , and his deputy, Colonel Leslie Groves . Reybold, Somervell, and Styer decided to call the project "Development of Substitute Materials", but Groves felt that this would draw attention. Since engineer districts normally carried the name of the city where they were located, Marshall and Groves agreed to name
32976-411: The highest rating he could assign was AA-3, although he was willing to provide a AAA rating on request for critical materials if the need arose. Nichols and Marshall were disappointed; AA-3 was the same priority as Nichols' TNT plant in Pennsylvania. Vannevar Bush became dissatisfied with Colonel Marshall's failure to get the project moving forward expeditiously and felt that more aggressive leadership
33205-528: The importance of top priority. Most everything proposed in the Roosevelt administration would have top priority. That would last for about a week or two and then something else would get top priority". One of Groves' early problems was to find a director for Project Y , the group that would design and build the bomb. The obvious choice was one of the three laboratory heads, Urey, Lawrence, or Compton, but they could not be spared. Compton recommended Oppenheimer, who
33434-492: The industrial manufacturing area of Ontario and Quebec, and proximity to a rail head adjacent to a large military base, Camp Petawawa . Located on the Ottawa River, it had access to abundant water. The first director of the new laboratory was Hans von Halban . He was replaced by John Cockcroft in May 1944, who was succeeded by Bennett Lewis in September 1946. A pilot reactor known as ZEEP (zero-energy experimental pile) became
33663-425: The initial plans, and peaked at 75,000 in May 1945, by which time 82,000 people were employed at the Clinton Engineer Works, and 10,000 by Roane-Anderson. The idea of locating Project Y at Oak Ridge was considered, but it was decided that it should be in a remote location. On Oppenheimer's recommendation, the search for a suitable site was narrowed to the vicinity of Albuquerque, New Mexico , where Oppenheimer owned
33892-491: The issues involved in setting up a laboratory in a remote area and should be appointed as its director. Groves personally waived the security requirements and issued Oppenheimer's clearance on 20 July 1943. The British and Americans exchanged nuclear information but did not initially combine their efforts; during 1940-41 the British project ( Tube Alloys ) was larger and more advanced. Britain rebuffed attempts by Bush and Conant in August 1941 to strengthen cooperation because it
34121-454: The kind of workers they needed would be willing to live with their family in substandard accommodation. The houses at CEW were basic but of a higher standard (as specified by Marshall and Nichols) than the houses at Los Alamos (as specified by Groves; and the quality of housing there suffered). The first plan, submitted by Stone & Webster on 26 October 1942, was for a residential community of 13,000 people. As Stone & Webster began work on
34350-402: The laboratory's peacetime educational and research missions. All work was completed by December, adding another $ 1,009,000 (equivalent to $ 12 million in 2023) to the cost of construction at X-10 and bringing the total cost to $ 13,041,000 (equivalent to $ 155 million in 2023). Operational costs added $ 22,250,000 (equivalent to $ 265 million in 2023). Electromagnetic isotope separation
34579-511: The land acquired was around $ 2.6 million (equivalent to $ 34.9 million in 2023), about $ 47 per acre. On 2 February 1943, DuPont began construction of the plutonium semiworks on an isolated 112-acre (0.5 km) site in Bethel Valley about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Oak Ridge. Intended as a pilot plant for the larger production facilities at the Hanford Site , it included
34808-519: The land acquisition, which was not completed until March 1945, was only about $ 2.6 million—around $ 47 an acre. When presented with a proclamation declaring Oak Ridge a total exclusion area that no one could enter without military permission, the Governor of Tennessee , Prentice Cooper , angrily tore it up. Initially known as the Kingston Demolition Range, the site was officially renamed
35037-539: The largest cities in the Appalachian region, Knoxville has positioned itself in recent years as a repository of Appalachian culture and is one of the gateways to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park . The first people to form substantial settlements in what is now Knoxville were indigenous people who arrived during the Woodland period ( c. 1000 B.C. to 1000 A.D.). One of the oldest artificial structures in Knoxville
35266-410: The magnets sent back to the factory to be cleaned. A pickling plant was established on-site to clean the pipes and fittings. The second Alpha I became operational near the end of January 1944; the first Beta and first and third Alpha I's came online in March, and the fourth Alpha I became operational in April. The four Alpha II racetracks were completed between July and October 1944. Tennessee Eastman
35495-484: The military necessity continues". Wartime land purchases eventually came to 49,383 acres (19,985 ha), but only $ 414,971 was spent. Work commenced in December 1942. Groves initially allocated $ 300,000 for construction, three times Oppenheimer's estimate, but by the time Sundt finished on 30 November 1943, over $ 7 million had been spent. During the war, Los Alamos was referred to as "Site Y" or "the Hill". Initially it
35724-551: The military profile was lower, and physical security elements like high fences and guard dogs were less evident. Canada provided research, extraction and production of uranium and plutonium, and Canadian scientists worked at Los Alamos. Cominco had produced electrolytic hydrogen at Trail, British Columbia , since 1930. Urey suggested in 1941 that it could produce heavy water. To the existing $ 10 million plant consisting of 3,215 cells consuming 75 MW of hydroelectric power, secondary electrolysis cells were added to increase
35953-404: The most challenging method of isotope separation was gaseous diffusion . Graham's law states that the rate of effusion of a gas is inversely proportional to the square root of its molecular mass , so in a box containing a semi-permeable membrane and a mixture of two gases, the lighter molecules will pass out of the container more rapidly than the heavier molecules. The gas leaving the container
36182-405: The motors and pumps would have to be vacuum tight and enclosed in inert gas. The biggest problem was the design of the barrier, which would have to be strong, porous and resistant to corrosion by uranium hexafluoride. The best choice for this seemed to be nickel , and Edward Adler and Edward Norris created a mesh barrier from electroplated nickel. A six-stage pilot plant was built at Columbia to test
36411-505: The mutual consent of the US and UK. In June 1945, Wilson agreed that the nuclear bombing of Japan would be recorded as a decision of the Combined Policy Committee. The Combined Policy Committee created the Combined Development Trust in June 1944, with Groves as its chairman, to procure uranium and thorium ores on international markets. The Belgian Congo and Canada held much of the world's uranium outside Eastern Europe, and
36640-487: The nearby K-25 powerhouse at a pressure of 100 pounds per square inch (690 kPa) and temperature of 545 °F (285 °C), flowed downward through the innermost 1.25-inch (32 mm) nickel pipe, while water at 155 °F (68 °C) flowed upward through the outermost iron pipe. Isotope separation occurred in the uranium hexafluoride gas between the nickel and copper pipes. Work commenced on 9 July 1944, and S-50 began partial operation in September. Ferguson operated
36869-403: The necessary resources. The first step was to obtain a high priority rating for the project. The top ratings were AA-1 through AA-4 in descending order, although there was a special AAA rating reserved for emergencies. Ratings AA-1 and AA-2 were for essential weapons and equipment, so Colonel Lucius D. Clay , the deputy chief of staff at Services and Supply for requirements and resources, felt that
37098-421: The needs of the entire workforce, by late 1944 expansion of both the electromagnetic and gaseous diffusion plants led to forecasts of a population of 62,000. This prompted another round of construction that saw an additional 1,300 family units and 20 dormitories built. More shopping and recreational facilities were added, the schools were expanded to accommodate 9,000 students. Police and fire services were expanded,
37327-454: The new town of Oak Ridge got its name, were selected as a suitable location. Brigadier General Lucius D. Clay , the deputy chief of staff of the Army Services of Supply , reminded Marshall of a wartime limit of $ 7,500 per capita for individual quarters. Groves argued for "economy" with small and simple houses; but Marshall, who had argued for an exemption from the limit, saw no prospect that
37556-500: The newly created Territory South of the River Ohio . One of Blount's first tasks was to meet with the Cherokee and establish territorial boundaries and resolve the issue of illegal settlers. This he accomplished almost immediately with the Treaty of Holston , which was negotiated and signed at White's Fort in 1791. Blount originally wanted to place the territorial capital at the confluence of
37785-450: The next five months, the efficiency of the separation process was improved, with the percentage of plutonium recovered increasing from 40 to 90 percent. X-10 operated as a plutonium production plant until January 1945, when it was turned over to research activities. By this time, 299 batches of irradiated slugs had been processed. In September 1942, Compton asked Whitaker to form a skeleton operating staff for X-10. Whitaker became director of
38014-457: The nuclear reactor to commence by 1 October 1942, the electromagnetic plant by 1 November, the centrifugal plant by 1 January 1943, and the gaseous diffusion plant by 1 March—were unrealistic. While work could not commence on the plants, a start could be made on the housing and administrative buildings. Stone & Webster therefore drew up a detailed report on the most promising site west of Knoxville. Stephane Groueff later wrote: This portion of
38243-596: The opening of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Knoxville Convention Center , the redevelopment of Market Square , a new visitors center, a regional history museum , a Regal Cinemas theater, several restaurants and bars, and many new and redeveloped condominiums. Since 2000, Knoxville has successfully brought business back to the downtown area. The arts in particular have begun to flourish; there are multiple venues for outdoor concerts, and Gay Street hosts
38472-410: The plant through a subsidiary known as Fercleve. The plant produced 10.5 pounds (4.8 kg) of 0.852 percent uranium-235 in October. Leaks limited production and forced shutdowns over the next few months, but in June 1945 it produced 12,730 pounds (5,770 kg). By March 1945, all 21 production racks were operating. Initially the output of S-50 was fed into Y-12. In early September Nichols appointed
38701-402: The plant was started up for testing on schedule in November, the 14-ton vacuum tanks crept out of alignment because of the power of the magnets and had to be fastened more securely. A more serious problem arose when the magnetic coils started shorting out. In December, Groves ordered a magnet broken open, and handfuls of rust were found inside. Groves then ordered the racetracks to be torn down and
38930-509: The population of the Knoxville Metropolitan Area was 837,571. The Knoxville MSA is the chief component of the larger OMB-designated Knoxville- Sevierville - La Follette Combined Statistical Area (CSA). The CSA also includes the Morristown Metropolitan Statistical Area ( Hamblen , Grainger , and Jefferson counties) and the Sevierville ( Sevier County ), La Follette (Campbell County), Harriman (Roane County), and Newport ( Cocke County ) micropolitan statistical areas . Municipalities in
39159-545: The process, but the Norris-Adler prototype proved to be too brittle. A rival barrier was developed from powdered nickel by Kellex, the Bell Telephone Laboratories and the Bakelite Corporation. In January 1944, Groves ordered the Kellex barrier into production. Kellex's design for K-25 called for a four-story U-shaped structure 0.5 miles (0.80 km) long containing 54 contiguous buildings. These were divided into nine sections. Within these were cells of six stages. The cells could be operated independently or consecutively within
39388-430: The production facilities, it became clear that building the township as well would be beyond its capacity. The Army therefore engaged the architectural and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to design and build the township. The John B. Pierce Foundation were brought in as a consultant. In turn, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill brought in numerous subcontractors. This first phase of construction became known as
39617-442: The prototypes for a new generation of plants. Uranium was enriched by the K-25 gaseous diffusion process until 1985; the plants were then decommissioned and decontaminated . A 235 MW coal-fired power station was included for reliability and to provide variable frequency, although most electric power came from the TVA. The thermal diffusion process was based on Sydney Chapman and David Enskog 's theory , which explained that when
39846-433: The quality of the product increased. By April, K-25 had attained a 1.1 percent enrichment and the output of the S-50 thermal diffusion plant began being used as feed. Some product produced the next month reached nearly 7 percent enrichment. In August, the last of the 2,892 stages commenced operation. K-25 and K-27 achieved their full potential in the early postwar period, when they eclipsed the other production plants and became
40075-463: The quiet rural area was called Black Oak Ridge and was the northernmost of five principal oak- and pine-covered ridges around the meandering Clinch River . It was a verdant, beautiful countryside with rolling hills covered with dogwood and full of partridge and deer. To the east were the Great Smoky Mountains , to the west the peaks of the Cumberland Mountains . The site was located in Roane County and Anderson County and lay roughly halfway between
40304-418: The request of the ORD Real Estate Branch attorneys, the District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee issued an order of possession on 6 October, effective the next day. Recognizing the hardship that it would cause to the landowners, it restricted immediate exclusive possession to properties "essential to full and complete development of the project". Over 1,000 families lived on the site on farms or in
40533-436: The research of Enrico Fermi and others into nuclear chain reactions . They had it signed by Albert Einstein and delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Roosevelt called on Lyman Briggs of the National Bureau of Standards to head an Advisory Committee on Uranium ; Briggs met with Szilard, Wigner and Edward Teller in October 1939. The committee reported back to Roosevelt in November that uranium "would provide
40762-433: The river near the Knox–Blount line), and at Bussell Island (at the mouth of the Little Tennessee River near Lenoir City ). By the 18th century, the Cherokee , an Iroquoian language people, had become the dominant tribe in the East Tennessee region; they are believed to have migrated centuries before from the Great Lakes region . They were frequently at war with the Creek and Shawnee . The Cherokee people called
40991-421: The same site in order to simplify security and construction. Such a site would require a substantial tract of land to accommodate both the facilities and housing for the thousands of workers. The plutonium processing plant needed to be two to four miles (3.2 to 6.4 km) from the site boundary and any other installation, in case radioactive fission products escaped. While security and safety concerns suggested
41220-517: The scale of operations was too great for the area, and it was decided to build the pilot plant at Oak Ridge and keep a research and testing facility in Chicago. Delays in establishing the plant at Argonne led Arthur Compton to authorize the Metallurgical Laboratory to construct the first nuclear reactor beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. The reactor required an enormous amount of highly purified graphite blocks and uranium in both metallic and powdered oxide forms. At
41449-419: The settlers and the Cherokee rose steadily. In 1786, James White , a Revolutionary War officer, and his friend James Connor built White's Fort near the mouth of First Creek, on land White had purchased three years earlier. In 1790, White's son-in-law, Charles McClung —who had arrived from Pennsylvania the previous year—surveyed White's holdings between First Creek and Second Creek for the establishment of
41678-421: The site be located far from the existing uranium production facility at Oak Ridge. In December 1942, Groves dispatched Colonel Franklin Matthias and DuPont engineers to scout potential sites. Matthias reported that Hanford Site near Richland, Washington , was "ideal in virtually all respects". It was isolated and near the Columbia River , which could supply sufficient water to cool the reactors. Groves visited
41907-484: The site in January and established the Hanford Engineer Works (HEW), codenamed "Site W". Under Secretary Patterson gave his approval on 9 February, allocating $ 5 million for the acquisition of 430,000 acres (170,000 ha). The federal government relocated some 1,500 residents of nearby settlements, as well as the Wanapum and other tribes using the area. A dispute arose with farmers over compensation for crops, which had already been planted. Where schedules allowed,
42136-447: The site's postal address, but the site was not officially renamed Oak Ridge until 1947. Although War Department policy maintained that land should be acquired by direct purchase, time was short and thus it was decided to proceed immediately with condemnation . This allowed access to the site for construction crews, provided faster compensation to the owners, and expedited the handling of property with defective titles. On 28 September 1942,
42365-415: The supervision of administrators appointed by the Army. Teachers enjoyed salaries that were considerably higher than those of Anderson County. The population of Oak Ridge peaked at 75,000 in May 1945, by which time 82,000 people were employed at the Clinton Engineer Works, and 10,000 by Roane-Anderson. In addition to the township, there were a number of temporary camps established for construction workers. It
42594-407: The task to the area engineer, Major Thomas T. Crenshaw, who sent a junior officer, Captain George B. Leonard. Cooper was unimpressed; he told Leonard that he had not been informed about the purpose of the CEW and that the Army had kicked the farmers off their land and had not compensated the counties for the roads and bridges which would be closed. In his opinion it was "an experiment in socialism",
42823-405: The telephone system was upgraded, and a 50-bed annex was added to the hospital. The number of school children reached 8,223 in 1945. Few issues resonated more with the scientists and highly skilled workers than the quality of the education system. Although school staff were nominally employees of the Anderson County Education Board, the school system was run autonomously, with federal funding under
43052-528: The time, there was a limited source of pure uranium metal; Frank Spedding of Iowa State University was able to produce only two short tons . Three short tons was supplied by Westinghouse Lamp Plant , produced in a rush with makeshift process. A large square balloon was constructed by Goodyear Tire to encase the reactor. On 2 December 1942, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiated the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in an experimental reactor known as Chicago Pile-1 . The point at which
43281-401: The town, and concessions were only for the duration of the war. Concessions were therefore charged a percentage of their profits in rental rather than a fixed fee. The Army avoided imposing draconian price controls, but limited prices to those of similar goods in Knoxville. By 1945, community amenities included 6 recreation halls, 36 bowling alleys, 23 tennis courts, 18 ball parks, 12 playgrounds,
43510-427: The treaty was signed in 1791. However, the terms of the treaty came under dispute, culminating in ongoing violence on both sides. When the government invited Cherokee chief Hanging Maw for negotiations in 1793, Knoxville settlers attacked the Cherokee against orders, killing the chief's wife. Peace was renegotiated in 1794. Knoxville served as capital of the Southwest Territory and as capital of Tennessee (admitted as
43739-431: The two county seats of Kingston and Clinton . Its greatest drawback was that a major road, Tennessee State Route 61 , ran through it. Stone & Webster considered the possibility of re-routing the road. The Ohio River Division of the Corps of Engineers estimated that it would cost $ 4.25 million (equivalent to $ 62.7 million in 2023) to purchase the entire 83,000-acre (34,000 ha) site. Groves became
43968-438: The two countries were reversed, and in January 1943 Conant notified the British that they would no longer receive atomic information except in certain areas. The British investigated the possibility of an independent nuclear program but determined that it could not be ready in time to impact the war in Europe . By March 1943 Conant decided that James Chadwick and one or two other British scientists were important enough that
44197-448: The undeveloped stretch along State Route 61. They were supplemented by 55 new dormitories, 2,089 trailers, 391 hutments, a cantonment area of 84 hutments and 42 barracks. Some 2,823 of the family units were prefabricated off-site. The high school was expanded to cater for 1,000 students. Two additional primary schools were built, and existing ones were expanded so that they could accommodate 7,000 students. Although expected to accommodate
44426-620: The uranium-235 feed by January 1945. In February the Alpha racetracks began receiving slightly enriched (1.4 percent) feed from the S-50 thermal diffusion plant, and the next month it received enhanced (5 percent) feed from the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant. By August K-25 was producing uranium sufficiently enriched to feed directly into the Beta tracks. The Alpha tracks began to suspend operations on 4 September 1945 and ceased operation completely on 22 September. The last two Beta tracks went into full operation in November and December, processing feed from K-25 and K-27. By May 1946, studies suggested that
44655-405: The war, CEW's advanced research was managed for the government by the University of Chicago . Construction workers were housed in a community known as Happy Valley . Built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1943, this temporary community housed 15,000 people. The township of Oak Ridge was established to house the production staff. The operating force peaked at 50,000 workers just after the end of
44884-403: The war. The construction labor force peaked at 75,000, and the combined employment peak was 80,000. The town was developed by the federal government as a segregated community ; Black Americans lived only in an area known as Gamble Valley, in government-built "hutments" (one-room shacks) on the south side of what is now Tuskegee Drive. In 1942, the Manhattan Project was attempting to construct
45113-404: The west. The Great Valley is part of a sub-range of the Appalachian Mountains known as the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , which is characterized by long narrow ridges flanked by broad valleys. Prominent Ridge-and-Valley structures in the Knoxville area include Sharp's Ridge and Beaver Ridge in the northern part of the city, Brown Mountain in South Knoxville, parts of Bays Mountain just south of
45342-408: The young "hillbilly" girl operators, known as Calutron Girls , were outperforming his doctorate-level scientists. They agreed to a production race and Lawrence lost, a morale boost for the Tennessee Eastman workers and supervisors. The girls were "trained like soldiers not to reason why", while "the scientists could not refrain from time-consuming investigation of the cause of even minor fluctuations of
45571-514: Was "pervaded by an atmosphere of enthusiasm and urgency" in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States declaration of war on Japan and on Germany . Work was proceeding on three techniques for isotope separation : Lawrence and his team at the University of California investigated electromagnetic separation , Eger Murphree and Jesse Wakefield Beams 's team looked into gaseous diffusion at Columbia University , and Philip Abelson directed research into thermal diffusion at
45800-573: Was already intimately familiar with the bomb design concepts. However, Oppenheimer had little administrative experience, and, unlike Urey, Lawrence, and Compton, had not won a Nobel Prize, which many scientists felt that the head of such an important laboratory should have. There were also concerns about Oppenheimer's security status, as many of his associates were communists , including his wife, Kitty ; his girlfriend, Jean Tatlock ; and his brother, Frank . A long conversation in October 1942 convinced Groves and Nichols that Oppenheimer thoroughly understood
46029-551: Was also an acute shortage of common and skilled labor: the contractor had only three-quarters of the required workforce, and less after high turnover and absenteeism, mainly the result of poor accommodations and difficulties in commuting. The township of Oak Ridge was still under construction, and barracks were built to house workers. Special arrangements with individual workers increased their morale and reduced turnover. Further delays were caused by unusually heavy rainfall, with 9.3 inches (240 mm) falling in July 1943, more than twice
46258-418: Was annexed in 1897, and over 5,000 new homes were built between 1895 and 1904. In 1901, train robber Kid Curry (whose real name was Harvey Logan), a member of Butch Cassidy 's Wild Bunch was captured after shooting two deputies on Knoxville's Central Avenue. He escaped from the Knoxville jail and rode away on a horse stolen from the sheriff. Knoxville hosted the Appalachian Exposition in 1910 and 1911 and
46487-439: Was available from the first turbine generator. The plant was the largest single block of steam power built at one time, and with completion in January 1945 in record time. Planning for a "government village" to house the workers at the Clinton Engineer Works began in June 1942. Because the site was remote, it was believed more convenient and secure for the workers to live on the site. The gentle slopes of Black Oak Ridge, from which
46716-609: Was completed in early 1944. In addition to the East Town, a self-contained community known as the East Village, with 50 family units, its own church, dormitories and a cafeteria, was built near the Elza gate. This was intended as a segregated community for Black Americans , but by the time it was completed, it was required by white people. Black people were instead housed in "hutments" (one-room shacks) in segregated areas, some in "family hutments" created by joining two regular hutments together. The Army presence at Oak Ridge increased in August 1943 when Nichols replaced Marshall as head of
46945-411: Was developed by Lawrence at the University of California Radiation Laboratory. This method employed devices known as calutrons , a hybrid of the standard laboratory mass spectrometer and cyclotron . The name was derived from the words "California", "university" and "cyclotron". In the electromagnetic separation process, a magnetic field deflects charged uranium particles according to mass. The process
47174-461: Was empowered to engage in research and large engineering projects. The NDRC Committee on Uranium became the S-1 Section of the OSRD; the word "uranium" was dropped for security reasons. In July 1941, Briggs proposed spending $ 167,000 on researching uranium, particularly the uranium-235 isotope, and plutonium , which had been isolated for the first time at the University of California in February 1941. In Britain, Frisch and Rudolf Peierls at
47403-430: Was estimated that the proposed plants would need access to 150,000 kW of electrical power and 370,000 US gallons (1,400,000 L) of water per minute. A War Department policy held that, as a rule, munitions facilities should not be located west of the Sierra or Cascade Ranges , east of the Appalachian Mountains , or within 200 miles (320 km) of the Canadian or Mexican borders. Several sites were considered in
47632-440: Was for building and operating the plants that produced the fissile material . Research and production took place at more than 30 sites across the US, the UK, and Canada. The project resulted in two types of atomic bombs, developed concurrently during the war: a relatively simple gun-type fission weapon and a more complex implosion-type nuclear weapon . The Thin Man gun-type design proved impractical to use with plutonium , so
47861-429: Was forced to spend $ 5,000 per month on road works in Knox County. Additional parcels of land were acquired during 1943 and 1944 for access roads, a railway spur, and for security purposes, bringing the total to about 58,900 acres (23,800 ha). The Harriman office closed on 10 June 1944 but reopened on 1 September to deal with the additional parcels. The final acquisition was completed on 1 March 1945. The final cost of
48090-401: Was fortifying Knoxville, a Confederate army under Braxton Bragg defeated Union forces under William Rosecrans at the Battle of Chickamauga (near the Tennessee-Georgia line) and laid siege to Chattanooga . On November 3, 1863, the Confederates sent General James Longstreet to attack Burnside at Knoxville and prevent him from reinforcing the Union at Chattanooga. Longstreet wanted to attack
48319-489: Was hired to manage Y-12 on the usual cost-plus fixed fee basis, with a fee of $ 22,500 per month plus $ 7,500 per racetrack for the first seven racetracks and $ 4,000 per additional racetrack. The calutrons were initially operated by scientists from Berkeley to remove bugs and achieve a reasonable operating rate. They were then turned over to trained Tennessee Eastman operators who had only a high school education. Nichols compared unit production data and pointed out to Lawrence that
48548-430: Was ideal. Patterson approved the acquisition of the site on 25 November 1942, authorizing $ 440,000 for the purchase of pre-calculated 54,000 acres (22,000 ha), all but 8,900 acres (3,600 ha) of which were already owned by the Federal Government. Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard granted about 45,000 acres (18,000 ha) of United States Forest Service land to the War Department "for so long as
48777-404: Was impressed by the town's modern frame buildings, the town had "seven taverns" and no church. Knoxville initially thrived as a way station for travelers and migrants heading west. Its location at the confluence of three major rivers in the Tennessee Valley brought flatboat and later steamboat traffic to its waterfront in the first half of the 19th century, and Knoxville quickly developed into
49006-419: Was in East Tennessee , about 18 miles (29 km) west of Knoxville , and was named after the town of Clinton , eight miles (13 km) to the north. The production facilities were mainly in Roane County , and the northern part of the site was in Anderson County . The Manhattan District Engineer, Kenneth Nichols , moved the Manhattan District headquarters from Manhattan to Oak Ridge in August 1943. During
49235-470: Was initially intended that the construction workers should live off-site, but the poor condition of the roads and a shortage of accommodations in the area made commuting long and difficult, and in turn made it difficult to find and retain workers. Construction workers therefore came to be housed in large hutment and trailer camps. The largest, the trailer camp at Gamble Valley, had four thousand units. Another, at Happy Valley, held 15,000 people. The population of
49464-405: Was initially known as the Kingston Demolition Range ; it officially became the Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) in January 1943 and was given the codename Site X . After the township was established in mid-1943, the name Oak Ridge was chosen from employee suggestions. The site met the Manhattan District's approval because "its rural connotation held outside curiosity to a minimum". Oak Ridge then became
49693-447: Was neither scientifically elegant nor industrially efficient. Compared with a gaseous diffusion plant or a nuclear reactor, an electromagnetic separation plant would consume more scarce materials, require more manpower to operate, and cost more to build. The process was approved because it was based on proven technology and therefore represented less risk. It could be built in stages and rapidly reach industrial capacity. Responsibility for
49922-403: Was one of the region's leading anti-secessionists (although he strongly defended the practice of slavery). Blount County, just south of Knoxville, had developed into a center of abolitionist activity, due in part to its relatively large Quaker faction and the anti-slavery president of Maryville College , Isaac Anderson. The Greater Warner Tabernacle AME Zion Church was reportedly a station on
50151-443: Was put aside to concentrate on producing fission bombs. Teller raised the speculative possibility that an atomic bomb might "ignite" the atmosphere because of a hypothetical fusion reaction of nitrogen nuclei. Bethe calculated that it was "extremely unlikely". A postwar report co-authored by Teller concluded that "whatever the temperature to which a section of the atmosphere may be heated, no self-propagating chain of nuclear reactions
50380-408: Was reluctant to share its technological lead and help the United States develop its own atomic bomb. But the British, who had made significant advances in research early in the war, did not have the resources to carry through such a research program into development while a large portion of their economy was engaged in fighting the war; Tube Alloys soon fell behind its American counterpart. The roles of
50609-457: Was required for reliability; in 1953-55 a rat shorting out a transformer at CEW resulted in a complete loss of load and of several weeks of production. The plant could supply up to five different frequencies, although it was found that variable frequency was not necessary. J.A. Jones Construction built the plant and the gaseous diffusion plant. The site was cleared in June 1943, steam was available from one boiler in March 1944 and in April 15,000 KW
50838-421: Was required. He spoke to Harvey Bundy and Generals Marshall, Somervell, and Styer about his concerns, advocating that the project be placed under a senior policy committee, with a prestigious officer, preferably Styer, as director. Somervell and Styer selected Groves for the post; General Marshall ordered that he be promoted to brigadier general, as it was felt that the title "general" would hold more sway with
51067-467: Was selected because Knoxville was home to TVA's headquarters and for its proximity to Oak Ridge National Laboratory . The Sunsphere , a 266-foot (81 m) steel truss structure topped with a gold-colored glass sphere, was built for the fair and remains one of Knoxville's most prominent structures, along with the adjacent Tennessee Amphitheater . During the 1980s and into the 1990s, the city would see one of its largest expansions of its city limits, with
51296-435: Was sent to K-25, and the plant had ceased operation by 9 September. S-50 was completely demolished in 1946. Despite protests from TVA that it was unnecessary, the Manhattan District built a coal-fired power plant at K-25 with eight 25,000 KW generators. Steam generated from the K-25 power plant was subsequently used by S-50. Additional power lines were laid from the TVA hydroelectric plants at Norris Dam and Watts Bar Dam , and
51525-636: Was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the bombs. The Army program was designated the Manhattan District , as its first headquarters were in Manhattan ; the name gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute Materials , for the entire project. The project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys , and subsumed the program from the American civilian Office of Scientific Research and Development . The Manhattan Project employed nearly 130,000 people at its peak and cost nearly US$ 2 billion (equivalent to about $ 27 billion in 2023), over 80 percent of which
51754-417: Was therefore a success; key American physicists were now aware of the potential power of an atomic bomb. On 9 October 1941, President Roosevelt approved the atomic program after he convened a meeting with Vannevar Bush and Vice President Henry A. Wallace . He created a Top Policy Group consisting of himself—although he never attended a meeting—Wallace, Bush, Conant, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson , and
51983-412: Was to have been a military laboratory with Oppenheimer and other researchers commissioned into the Army, but Robert Bacher and Isidor Rabi balked at the idea and convinced Oppenheimer that other scientists would object. Conant, Groves, and Oppenheimer then devised a compromise whereby the laboratory was operated by the University of California under contract to the War Department. Dorothy McKibbin ran
52212-410: Was too close to a major population center (Knoxville) in the unlikely event of a major nuclear accident. Groves recruited DuPont in November 1942 to be the prime contractor for the construction of the plutonium production complex. The President of the company, Walter S. Carpenter Jr. , wanted no profit of any kind; for legal reasons a nominal fee of one dollar was agreed upon. DuPont recommended that
52441-410: Was used for Chicago Pile 3 , the first reactor using heavy water and natural uranium, which went critical on 15 May 1944. The Chalk River, Ontario , site was established to rehouse the Allied effort at the Montreal Laboratory away from an urban area. A new community was built at Deep River, Ontario , to provide residences and facilities for the team members. The site was chosen for its proximity to
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