<P> At Los Alamos , physicist Robert Serber proposed that instead of relying on spontaneous fission , the chain reaction inside the atomic bomb should be triggered by a neutron initiator . The best - known neutron sources were radium - beryllium and polonium - beryllium . The latter was chosen , as polonium has a 138 - day half - life , which made it intense enough to be useful but not long - lived enough to be stockpiled . Thomas took charge of the development of techniques to industrially refine polonium for use with beryllium in the `` urchin '' internal neutron initiators . This effort became the Dayton Project . </P>
<P> At Los Alamos , physicist Robert Serber proposed that instead of relying on spontaneous fission , the chain reaction inside the atomic bomb should be triggered by a neutron initiator . The best - known neutron sources were radium - beryllium and polonium - beryllium . The latter was chosen , as polonium has a 138 - day half - life , which made it intense enough to be useful but not long - lived enough to be stockpiled . Thomas took charge of the development of techniques to industrially refine polonium for use with beryllium in the `` urchin '' internal neutron initiators . This effort became the Dayton Project . </P>
who invented the trigger for the atomic bomb
who invented the trigger for the atomic bomb
Robert Serber
Robert Serber