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The Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association, Inc. "Preserving, Exhibiting, Interpreting and Teaching the History of the Manhattan Project" |
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Manhattan Project History
Early Government Support
Isotope Separation - Electromagnetic
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Alfred O. Nier - University of Minnesota |
The electromagnetic method, pioneered by Alfred O. Nier of the University of Minnesota, used a mass spectrometer, or spectrograph, to send a stream of charged particles through a strong magnetic field. Atoms of the lighter isotope (U235) would be deflected more by the magnetic field than those of the heavier isotope (U238), resulting in two streams that could then be collected by different receivers. The electromagnetic method as it existed in 1940, however, would have taken too long to separate quantities sufficient to be used in the current war. In fact, 27,000 years would have been required for a single spectrometer to separate 1 gram of uranium 235. Ernest Lawrence of the Radiation Lab at Berkeley favored this method and converted their giant cyclotron to accomplish this form of separation more efficiently. This model led to the eventual design and construction of the huge Y-12 complex at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. |
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