Title: Plutonium | Atomic Heritage Foundation
Headings: Plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium
Element 94
Plutonium Production
The Biological Consequences of Plutonium
Human Plutonium Injection Experiments

Content: The implosion design would use a series of explosive lenses to compress a solid sphere of plutonium-239 into a high-density core, initiating a nuclear chain reaction. Before physicists at Los Alamos could test the implosion design, they needed more plutonium for experiments. In October 1943, construction began on a revolutionary plutonium production reactor in Hanford, WA. The B Reactor, as it came to known, was completed in March 1945 and began producing plutonium for the implosion-type atomic bomb. The technology conceived during Fermi’s pile experiment continued to develop, yet it was not guaranteed to be a success. As late as 1945, scientists doubted the plutonium-based implosion bomb design would work, and there were immense challenges to successful construction. Therefore, to save the plutonium if a test failed, they created the Concrete Bowl. This 200-foot diameter bowl was tested with depleted uranium, and would recover plutonium should the experiment go awry. The Biological Consequences of Plutonium
Plutonium was a new material during the Manhattan Project, and scientists did not know much about the radioactive substance. Therefore, biochemists began working on understanding the harmful effects of radiation on the human body and what level of exposure would constitute a “tolerable” dose.