Theu.s. Army Corps Of Engineers - 1566 Words

During the early 1940s President Franklin D. Roosevelt commissioned â€Å"the Manhattan Engineer District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers† to start the creation of the United States wartime atomic bombs (Findlay Hevly, 2011, p. XI). Dubbed the Manhattan Project, the area of Hanford, Washington became the new plutonium factory after the federal government acquired â€Å"670-square-mile reservation† (Findlay Hevly, 2011, p. XI). This reservation was made up of private land holdings, but became condemned for the government to start its build. Near the mid-1940s the first reactor, Hanford’s B, started producing plutonium, then was shortly followed by three more plutonium reactors (Findlay Hevly, 2011, p. XI). In order to keep the secrecy of the†¦show more content†¦On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb is used in war on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, followed by Nagasaki on August 6, 1945 (Findlay Hevly, 2011, p. XI). Both atomic bombs were fueled by the plutonium from the Manhattan Project. Death counts from Hiroshima ranged from 99,000 to 166,000, and 60,000 to 80,000 for Nagasaki from the debris, blast, heat, and radiation (Listwa, 2012). However, these counts did not factor in the rescue workers who entered the areas breathing in radioactive dust, nor had appropriate clothing and radiation gamma readers like present day to view levels of radiation. Between the United States and the Japanese government research and continued healthcare are conducted by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation. This foundation estimates that after the bombings between the second and sixth year there was an increase in leukemia cases, especially children (Listwa, 2012). Research continues to follow leukemia incidences, cancer in registries, and children of the survivors. Plutonium production continued through the Cold War, with a new reactor built in 1959 (United States Department of Energy, 2016). From the start of creation to postwar there were no governing â€Å"federal or state standards of tolerable radiation exposure levels† that could be enforceable by law (American Public Health Association, 2017). Instead the companies that were placed in