easing energy and two or more neutrons. Each of these neutrons has enough energy to split another heavy nucleus, and the process continues to repeat itself. This is the basis of the chain reaction that makes nuclear weapons possible. It proceeds with such speed that the number of neutrons doubles every 10 billionth of a second, and the entire reaction may be completed in just a few billionths of a second. The result is the production of energy millions of times greater than the initial reaction that started the chain. For example, the energy released in the fission of is equal to that of 3,000 tons of burning coal or 9,000 tons of exploding TNT. (http://www.gis.net/~carter/manhattan/)But the most complicated issue was the extraction of the scarce isotope, U-235. An isotope is the same atom but in a different form. The new atom would have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. Joseph Carter was the scientist who worked on the refinement of Uranium. Uranium is used because it has the largest atoms of any other natural element. The larger the atom is, the harder it is to stabilize. The lower the stabilization is, the easier it is for the nucleus to split and release energy. Other natural atoms have stable atoms and can only be split by bombardment by particle accelerators. These accelerators are circular and causes the particles to spin around until the particles strike each other. The ratio of conversion from Uranium ore to Uranium metal is 500:1. Of that conversion, only 0.7% of Uranium is U-235, the other is U-238. To make matters worse, U-235 cannot be separated chemically because U-238 and U-235 are chemically similar. There are two ways of detonating an atomic bomb. The first way is the gun barrel. In 1945, Uranium-235 bomb purity was shipped to Los Alamos, New Mexico where it was transformed into a gun-type weapon. The way that this bomb works is, two pieces of U-235, individually not large enough...
