 In January 1944 , Oliphant had Sir David Rivett , the head of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research , release Burhop to work on the Manhattan Project , the Allied effort to create atomic bombs . In May 1944 , Burhop joined Oliphant 's British Mission at the Ernest Lawrence 's Radiation Laboratory at the University of California in Berkeley . He was one of three Australian physicists working on the Manhattan Project , all at Berkeley , the others being Oliphant and Massey . The Radiation Laboratory 's task was to develop an electromagnetic isotope separation process . Burhop worked with David Bohm in Massey 's Theoretical Group , studying the characteristics of electric discharges in magnetic fields , today known as Bohm diffusion . They also studied the ionisation of uranium compounds used as feed in the electromagnetic uranium enrichment process such as uranium tetrachloride ( <unk> ) and uranium hexafluoride ( UF6 ) . Burhop 's work involved the occasional visit to the Manhattan Project 's Y @-@ 12 electromagnetic faculty at Oak Ridge , Tennessee . 
