Oak Ridge and the Manhattan Project | The aftermath
In Part Three of a three-part series, WVLT News looks at the City of Oak Ridge’s involvement in the Manhattan Project, and how the project changed East Tennessee.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WVLT) - East Tennessee is in the national spotlight this weekend as the much-anticipated movie “Oppenheimer” is in theaters now.
It’s the war drama about the making of the atomic bomb. Robert Oppenheimer developed the first nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project.
The atomic bombs left unbelievable devastation in Japan, killing an estimated 200,000 people, and forced Japan to surrender.
World War II was over. But, there were mixed feelings in Oak Ridge.
“There was a gratefulness that brothers, boyfriends, husbands, and fathers were coming home,” David Keim said, Communications Director for Oak Ridge National Laboratory.”But, there was great sadness about the devastation that had been unleashed.”
Keim said most people in Oak Ridge did not know what they were working on, since it was classified information, leading to the shock of the bombs being dropped.
Keim said the conversation in the science community quickly changed.
“What do we do with this nuclear knowledge? How do we benefit from this ability to harness the atom for peaceful uses?” he said.
The Manhattan Project was the dawn of the atomic age, as scientists quickly learned many ways to make the world a better place using the same technology, like medical isotopes.
“If you’ve had a scan, like a PET scan, radio isotopes are used for diagnostics,” Keim said. “They can show what’s happening inside your body without harming you.”
Keim said radio isotopes can also be used for cancer treatments.
He said nuclear energy for everyday use was another key discovery.
“About 20% of the electricity in the country today is nuclear energy. A lot of those first nuclear reactors and that first engineering research happened here at Oak Ridge National Laboratory,” Keim said.
The list goes on, but it all stems from the work done in Oak Ridge for the Manhattan Project.
“Your life has been affected in some way by what’s happened in Oak Ridge. Whether we always know it or not,” Keim said.
In the years following the war, K-25 and S-50 were shut down.
Y-12 remains one of the nation’s leaders in uranium production, and provides fuel to the nuclear navy.
Oak Ridge National Lab is set to celebrate its 80th birthday later this year. Through the decades and scientific innovation, the original graphite reactor has been retired, but it’s still standing, acting as a monument for the scientific discoveries.
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