Timeline of Nuclear EnergyNuclear weapons are weapons deriving destructive energy from the release of atomic energy, for example, the atomic bomb.
1898 - Radioactive elements discovered by Marie Curie
1905 - Albert Einstein develops the theory about the relationship of mass and energy
1925 - First cloud-chamber photographs show nuclear reactions1934 - Leo Szilard patents the plans for a nuclear explosion
1939 - Einstein warns of potential for a bomb
1942 - The Manhattan Project formed
1945 - Trinity test conducted
|
|
1945 - WWII ends
Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, two months before the successfully Trinity test; however, Japan refused to surrender despite threats from President Truman that terror would fall from the sky. After six years of war involving most of the globe, 61 million people killed, hundreds of thousands of displaced, homeless Jews, the last thing the U.S. wanted was a ground war with Japan.
On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb named “Little Boy” (named for its relatively small size of ten feet in length and less than 10,000 pounds) was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Thousands of Japanese were killed, burned, and/or suffered radiation sickness. On August 9, 1945, when Japan still refused to surrender, a second bomb, named “Fat Man” (due to its rotund shape), was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945, thus ending WWII. |
1952 - Edward Teller and his team build the hydrogen bomb
In 1951, while still at Los Alamos, Teller came up with the idea for a thermonuclear weapon. Teller was more determined than ever to push for its development after the Soviet Union exploded an atomic bomb in 1949. More than 500 times more powerful than the Nagasaki bomb, the U.S. detonates the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
|
1954 - The first nuclear submarine U.S.S. Nautilus is launched
Nuclear power enables submarines to become true "submersibles" - able to operate underwater for an indefinite period of time.
|
1954 - U.S. conducts massive "Bravo" test
The US detonates a 17-megaton hydrogen bomb, “Bravo”, at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, contaminating a Japanese fishing boat, Lucky Dragon, and residents of Rongelap and Utirik.
|
1986 - Nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine
The Chernobyl Nuclear disaster is widely considered to have been the worst power plant accident in history and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
|
Chernobyl
|
|