Observers included Vannevar Bush, James Chadwick, James Conant, Thomas Farrell, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, Leslie Groves, Robert Oppenheimer, Geoffrey Taylor, Richard Tolman, Edward Teller, and John von Neumann. The Gadget's detonation released the explosive energy of about 25 kilotons of TNT (100 TJ). A rehearsal was held on May 7, 1945, in which 108 short tons (96 long tons 98 t) of high explosive spiked with radioactive isotopes were detonated. The test was planned and directed by Kenneth Bainbridge.įears of a fizzle did lead to the construction of a steel containment vessel called Jumbo that could contain the plutonium, allowing it to be recovered, although ultimately this was not used in the test. The complexity of the design required a major effort from the Los Alamos Laboratory, and concerns about whether it would work led to a decision to conduct the first nuclear test. The test was of an implosion-design plutonium device, informally nicknamed 'The Gadget', of the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, inspired by the poetry of John Donne. The code name 'Trinity' was assigned by J. A base camp was constructed, and there were 425 people present on the weekend of the test. The only structures originally in the vicinity were the McDonald Ranch House and its ancillary buildings, which scientists used as a laboratory for testing bomb components. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what was then the USAAF Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, now part of White Sands Missile Range. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. It was conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon.

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