On July 16 , 1945 , von Neumann and numerous other Manhattan Project personnel were eyewitnesses to the first test of an atomic bomb detonation , which was code-named Trinity . The event was conducted as a test of the implosion method device , at the bombing range near Alamogordo Army Airfield , southeast of Socorro , New Mexico . Based on his observation alone , von Neumann estimated the test had resulted in a blast equivalent to but Enrico Fermi produced a more accurate estimate of 10 kilotons by dropping scraps of torn-up paper as the shock wave passed his location and watching how far they scattered . The actual power of the explosion had been between 20 and 22 kilotons . It was in von Neumann 's 1944 papers that the expression " kilotons " appeared for the first time . After the war , Robert Oppenheimer remarked that the physicists involved in the Manhattan project had " known sin " . Von Neumann 's response was that " sometimes someone confesses a sin in order to take credit for it . " Von Neumann continued unperturbed in his work and became , along with Edward Teller , one of those who sustained the hydrogen bomb project . He collaborated with Klaus Fuchs on further development of the bomb , and in 1946 the two filed a secret patent on " Improvement in Methods and Means for Utilizing Nuclear Energy " , which outlined a scheme for using a fission bomb to compress fusion fuel to initiate nuclear fusion . The Fuchs – von Neumann patent used radiation implosion , but not in the same way as is used in what became the final hydrogen bomb design , the Teller – Ulam design . Their work was , however , incorporated into the " George " shot of Operation Greenhouse , which was instructive in testing out concepts that went into the final design . The Fuchs – von Neumann work was passed on to the Soviet Union by Fuchs as part of his nuclear espionage , but it was not used in the Soviets ' own , independent development of the Teller – Ulam design . The historian Jeremy Bernstein has pointed out that ironically , " John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs , produced a brilliant invention in 1946 that could have changed the whole course of the development of the hydrogen bomb , but was not fully understood until after the bomb had been successfully made . " For his wartime services , von Neumann was awarded the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award in July 1946 , and the Medal for Merit in October 1946
Trinity
Trinity (nuclear test)
John von Neumann