We didn't know we had a real need to build more of them until the Russians set one off!
Notice that to build one nuke it costs an immense amount of money. To build two of them it costs quite a bit of money, but not much more than just to build one. And so forth. On the other hand, to build dozens, hundreds, and then thousands of them you have to mine the heck out of sources of uranium.
You might try to find out how many tons of processed yellow-cake we had on hand at the end of August 1945.
"Notice that to build one nuke it costs an immense amount of money. To build two of them it costs quite a bit of money, but not much more than just to build one. And so forth. On the other hand, to build dozens, hundreds, and then thousands of them you have to mine the heck out of sources of uranium."
"You might try to find out how many tons of processed yellow-cake we had on hand at the end of August 1945."
Yes, the marginal cost to build successive *anyhings* is always lower, that's basic ECON 101. This United States is blessed with plenty of uranium, thank you. The amount of 'yellow-cake' on hand was irrelevant, since the plutonium production for the "FAT MAN" model Mark III was in full swing because the pipeline was full.
"Regarding the nukes, I don't think we invested $5 billion just to build a handful of nukes ~ of course that's something we only know in hindsight!"
"We didn't know we had a real need to build more of them until the Russians set one off!"
The United States did feel the need to build more nuclear weapons in the immediate aftermath of WWII, since the demobilization of the 12.34 million Armed Forces of WWII had made the post-war US nuclear monopoly the first-line of defense for the United States and its interests. No "hindsight" was necessary, since the expense of the $2 Billion Manhattan Project was amortized over the following production of US nuclear weapons from 1945 onwards.
There was no need for the US to wait to build more atomic weapons until the USSR detonated their first atomic bomb in August of 1949, as by 1949 the United States had around 235 atomic weapons in its nuclear arsenal. Winston Churchill gave his famous "Iron Curtain" speach at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946 - the official 'start' of the Cold War, three years before the USSR tested its first atomic bomb. Note the ramp-up in production in 1946...
Source: Power Point Presentation USC Berkeley - History - 105, Dr. McCray "Early Nuclear Strategy" Slide #9.
Source: Complete List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons The NuclearWeaponsArchive.org
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