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m →Los Alamos: I checked the Manhattan District History (which AHF says was source) and it gives value of $414,971 (Book 8, Vol 1, Part 1, on page S3 and again on 3.6) — I suspect the AHF value is a typo... |
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Patterson approved the acquisition of the site on 25 November 1942, authorizing $440,000 for the purchase of pre-calculated {{convert|54000|acre|ha}}, all but {{convert|8900|acre|ha}} of which were already owned by the Federal Government.<ref name="Jones, pp. 328-331">{{harvnb|Jones|1985|pp=328–331}}.</ref> [[Secretary of Agriculture]] [[Claude R. Wickard]] granted about {{convert|45000|acre|ha}} of [[United States Forest Service]] land to the [[United States Department of War|War Department]] "for so long as the military necessity continues".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lanl.gov/history/road/pdf/4-8-43.pdf |publisher=Los Alamos National Laboratory |title=Secretary of Agriculture granting use of land for Demolition Range |date=8 April 1943 |access-date=6 April 2011}}</ref> Wartime land purchases eventually came to {{convert|49383|acre|ha}}, but only $414,971 was spent.<ref name=AHF>{{cite web |url=https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/history/civilian-displacement-los-alamos-nm/ |title=Civilian Displacement: Los Alamos, NM |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2017-07-26 |publisher=Atomic Heritage Foundation |access-date=2024-08-01}}</ref> Work commenced in December 1942. Groves initially allocated $300,000 for construction, three times Oppenheimer's estimate, but by the time Sundt finished on 30 November 1943, over $7 million had been spent.<ref>{{harvnb|Hunner|2004|pp=31–32}}.</ref>
During the war, Los Alamos was referred to as "Site Y" or "the Hill".<ref>{{harvnb|Hunner|2004|p=29}}.</ref> Initially it was to have been a military laboratory with Oppenheimer and other researchers commissioned into the Army, but [[Robert Bacher]] and [[Isidor Rabi]] balked at the idea and convinced Oppenheimer that other scientists would object. Conant, Groves, and Oppenheimer then devised a compromise whereby the laboratory was operated by the University of California under contract to the War Department.<ref>{{harvnb|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|pp=230–232}}.</ref> [[Dorothy McKibbin]] ran the branch office in Santa Fe, where she met new arrivals and
=== Chicago ===
{{Main|Metallurgical Laboratory}}
[[File:ChicagoPileTeam.png|thumb|Some of the [[University of Chicago]] team that worked on the [[Chicago Pile-1]], the first nuclear reactor, including [[Enrico Fermi]] and [[Walter Zinn]] in the front row and [[Harold Agnew]], [[Leona Woods]] and [[Leó Szilárd]] in the second.]]
Delays in establishing the plant at Argonne led [[Arthur Compton]] to authorize the Metallurgical Laboratory to construct the first nuclear reactor beneath the [[bleacher]]s of [[Stagg Field]] at the University of Chicago. The reactor required an enormous amount of highly purified [[graphite]] blocks and uranium in both metallic and powdered oxide forms. At the time, there was a limited source of pure [[uranium]] metal; [[Frank Spedding]] of [[Iowa State University]] was able to produce only two [[short ton]]s. Three short tons was supplied by [[Westinghouse Lamp Plant]], produced in a rush with makeshift process. A large square balloon was constructed by [[Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company|Goodyear Tire]] to encase the reactor.<ref>{{Cite web|title=FRONTIERS Research Highlights 1946–1996|publisher=Office of Public Affairs, Argonne National Laboratory|page=11|osti=770687|doi=10.2172/770687|year=1996|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc725589/m2/1/high_res_d/770687.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Walsh|first=John|title=A Manhattan Project Postscript|journal=Science|date=19 June 1981|volume=212|pages=1369–1371|url=http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML0533/ML053340429.pdf|access-date=23 March 2013|issn=0036-8075|doi=10.1126/science.212.4501.1369|pmid=17746246|issue=4501|bibcode= 1981Sci...212.1369W}}</ref>
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