The war years during the first part of the year was dreadful. German submarines were wreaking havoc with our shipping in the Atlantic; the Japanese were winning in the Pacific, and the Germans were driving across North Africa. In late May, a . . . — — Map (db m112276) HM
The year opened with fierce fighting on battlefronts all over the world – Stalingrad, North Africa, the South Pacific. Here, February saw groundbreaking for Oak Ridge’s Y-12 Plant and the X-10 Graphite Reactor. Starting April 1, armed guards . . . — — Map (db m112277) HM
New arrivals to this fenced in area called the Clinton Engineer Works were amazed at the extensive construction at every turn – more Cemestos “alphabet” homes were going up on Black Oak Ridge, as were more “flattops” in . . . — — Map (db m112278) HM
The new city was crowded – all 90 dorms of singles, housing for families at a premium. In May the population peaked at 75,000. Y-12 had 22,400 workers; K-25, 11,000; X-10, 1,500. People at the plants were urged to work harder than ever at . . . — — Map (db m112548) HM
This was the world’s first fully peacetime year since 1938. Cities everywhere began struggling to change things back to normal; Oak Ridge was different – we had never been normal. Things here were also in a state of flux because the success of . . . — — Map (db m112280) HM
Although many residents still felt Oak Ridge was a wartime town, they were now encouraged to view their city as possibly becoming a permanent community. This transition was kicked off January 1 when the Manhattan Engineering District handed off . . . — — Map (db m112281) HM
Union Carbide agreed to manage X-10 as well as the Y-12 plant with their new defense mission, and the K-25 uranium enrichment plant. Carbide named Nelson Rucker as X-10 executive director who with Alvin Weinberg instilling a sense of stability as . . . — — Map (db m112282) HM
On January 20 “The Oak Ridger” published its first edition. It told the city’s stories for decades, like a favorite talk about colorful, hard-driving General Leslie Groves, Manhattan Engineering District commandant. When he had needed . . . — — Map (db m112283) HM
Starting with farmland in November 1942, 110,000 construction workers in two-and-a-half years built two huge uranium-235 production plants, Y-12 and K-25, at a cost of $759 million; X-10 and S-50, at a cost of $23 million; and the town for those who . . . — — Map (db m112348) HM
In 1940 Columbia University scientists led by John Dunning began their research to beat Germany to the atomic bomb. But it took four years before they learned how to make the key to the gaseous diffusion process – a very porous, strong “barrier” . . . — — Map (db m112350) HM
In 1943, General Leslie R. Groves, commander of the Manhattan Project, delegated to Colonel Kenneth D. Nichols the responsibility for administering what was to become a $2.2 billion effort. The Colonel had his headquarters here in a rambling, . . . — — Map (db m112345) HM
In November 1942, Army Engineers were ordered to build a town for 13,000 people. A year later their target grew to 42,000, and the actual population reached 75,000 in September 1945 – almost three times the city’s 2005 population. Shown on no . . . — — Map (db m112549) HM
In August 1945, citizens of this Secret City learned, most of them for the first time, that their hard work had made possible a weapon that was instrumental in bringing peace to a world anguished by the brutal, six-year war in which 54 million . . . — — Map (db m112346) HM
The medical director responsible for the nationwide Manhattan Project, Colonel Stafford L. Warren, M.D., had his headquarters in Oak ridge. A professor of radiology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, Warren was recruited specifically . . . — — Map (db m112352) HM
The need for good schools here posed special problems. The large transplanted population wanted schools at least as good as those they left behind, and the school population was destined to skyrocket from 830 in October 1943 to 8,223 in October 1945 . . . — — Map (db m112550) HM
In 1946, 14 southern universities formed the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (ORINS) – the first peacetime institution of this Secret City – to help faculty and students benefit from the outstanding research staff and facilities . . . — — Map (db m112344) HM
In December 1942 University of Chicago physicists demonstrated that the newly discovered element plutonium could be made using a “pile” of uranium and graphite blocks. Aware that Germany was seeking to develop a weapon of unprecedented . . . — — Map (db m112351) HM
The top priority of the secret wartime Oak Ridge project was the Y-12 plant. That was the code name given to the process considered the best bet for separating weapon-grade uranium-235 (U-235) from U-238. This isotope separation process was the . . . — — Map (db m112349) HM
