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THE CONSEQUENCES OF ATOMIC POWER
The readings from this week all have one thing in common. What to do with atomic energy? While it is obvious that we decided to invest and research in atomic energy, there were a few key, behind-the-scenes players. In Einstein’s letter to President Roosevelt, he informs the President of the possibility of harnessing the energy given off by a nuclear chain reaction. He also informs the president of the possibility that, “This new phenomenon [could] also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable—though much less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of this type may thus be constructed.” I was surprised upon reading this, because Einstein was supposed to be a pacifist. But instead of preaching peace, he was informing the President of a recipe for destruction. He does go on and make a very good point, on which the President actually takes his advice. This advice was to, “…entrust the task [of having permanent contact maintained between the Administration and the group of Physicists working on chain reactions in America] with a person who has your confidence and who could perhaps serve in an unofficial capacity.” And he even goes on to list the duties of this person. Another surprise that I found in the readings was the involvement of Bohr and the absence of Einstein. While Einstein was in fact the author of the letter to President Roosevelt, he wasn’t mentioned as ever working on any of the projects. Seemingly he was more influential on the projects but, with his letter to the President, Einstein had played the popularity and fame cards. The third point of the Roosevelt-Churchill “Tube Alloys” Deal directly mentions the activities of Bohr. “Enquiries should be made regarding the activities of Professor Bohr and steps taken to ensure that he is responsible for no leakage of information particularly to the Russians.” Perhaps this is where Einstein’s pacifism steps into play because he is nowhere to be found within the document, a surprising little detail. Regarding the third article, I found it interesting that scientists knew so much about nuclear fission, and especially that they were very aware of the lethal consequences that the decaying radioactive material would have. They knew what type of uranium they needed, they knew the processes they needed to use to obtain said uranium, they knew how to construct the bomb so that the fission reaction would take place, and they even knew about how much energy would be given off. To me, this is impressive because it had never happened before. It was all theoretical. With all of this information, they also could figure out the destruction that it would cause, including the radiation and the dangers it entailed. Knowing how dangerous, and the destruction it would cause, why did we need to drop //two// of them when the Japanese were already so close to surrendering?