Atomic weapons were developed by the U.S. War Department Manhattan Project, a top secret effort started in 1942. Material for bombs was manufactured at Oak Ridge, TN (uranium) and Hanford, WA (plutonium). Use against Japan was planned, but first a test was required to ensure the bomb would actually work. From a list of eight sites in California, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, Trinity Site was chosen for the test, an area already controlled by the U.S. government as part of the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range established in 1942. The secluded Jornada del Muerto Valley was perfect as it provided isolation for secrecy and safety, but was still reasonably close to the Los Alamos Laboratory, the engineering and scientific base of the Manhattan Project, about 230 miles to the north.
On 20 December 1944 military police set up security checkpoints around the area and started using jeeps and trucks to patrol the site perimiter. Utilities such as generators, wells, pumps and power lines were installed. A fire station was set up and supplies were arranged from nearly Socorro, NM.
The bomb design to be used at Trinity Site actually involved two explosions. First a conventional explosion involving 5,300 pounds of TNT would compress the 15 pound plutonium core into a critical mass, then, a tiny fraction of a second later, a nuclear explosion would occur from a chain reaction in the plutonium. The scientists were sure the TNT would explode, but the plutonium explosion was just a theory. If the chain reaction failed to occur, the TNT would blow the very rare and dangerous plutonium all over the countryside.
Jumbo was a container 25 feet long, 10 feet in diameter weighing 214 tons, built by Eichleay Corporation of Pittsburgh to contain an aborted nuclear explosion. Project scientists planned to put the atomic bomb in this huge steel jug because it could contain the TNT explosion if the chain reaction failed to materialize. This would prevent the plutonium from being lost. If the nuclear explosion occurred as theorized, Jumbo would be vaporized. Jumbo was brought to Pope, NM, by rail and unloaded. A specially built trailer with 64 wheels was used to move Jumbo the 25 miles to Trinity Site (photo, right).
As confidence in the plutonium bomb design grew, along with concern about adding tons of radioactive steel vapor to the results of a successful test, it was decided not to use Jumbo. Instead, Jumbo was placed in a steel tower about 800 yards from ground zero. The test blast destroyed the tower, but Jumbo survived intact and can be seen today at the Trinity site.
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